It took me a minute to figure out where I’d seen this “uncontacted tribe” before, and then it hit me.
The doodlebops.
Please, Uncontacted Tribe, come collect your missing brethren. They’re scaring the children.
ElectricRocket's Journal
ElectricRocket Rocks It Electric
WHY are children’s tv characters so freaking scary??
Presumably the tv producers are uncontacted as well.
What does “uncontacted” mean? Have they really, truly, had no contact with any post-Columbians? No Spanish speakers? No Neolithic technology?
It’s hard to believe, in this day and age. It’s like something out of a Tarzan novel.
According to the article linked above, they’ve had no contact with anyone. And there is apparently a group the monitors these no-contact tribes, and there are many of them.
How do you feel about leaving such people uncontacted?
Pretty good. They’ll never have to experience the disappointment of the latest Indiana Jones flick.
I think it’s amazing, and cool, that such tribes exist (see above re: Tarzan novels). The world is still a big place after all.
On the other hand, why shouldn’t they reap the benefits of modern medicine and technology, just like any other Peruvian or Brazilian citizens?
How many of them have choked to death in the last half-century, to name one example, because anthropologists thought that keeping them “pristine” was more important than sending in a social worker to teach them the Heimlich maneuver?
It seems arrogant to me, and is morally questionable.
You’re presuming, of course, they they don’t have the Heimlich maneuver, or whatever they might call it. It’s entirely possible they invented it on their own. We just don’t know.
They might be living a very idyllic existence, untouched by the germs and other issues that come with contact with the unwashed civilized masses.
I was just reading in Guns, Germs and Steel about how the hunter/gatherer mode made for only a 4-5 hour workday. And they don’t even have to go to the gym in their off-hours.
The Heimlich was just a random example. They for sure don’t have defibrillators, sterile vaccinations, hot and cold running water, and all the other benefits of technology and modern medicine.
You can say they’re happier without them, but why is that your call to make? Or anyone’s, other than the tribespeople themselves?
I say they might be happier without our germs and televisions. I have no way of knowing.
If it is up to the tribespeople, shouldn’t we let them come find us if they’re interested? If we go to meet them, aren’t we choosing to bring our civilization to them?
They are aware of us, by virtue of pointing arrows at the aircraft that took the pictures. If they have desire to know of a civilization other than ours and the possibilities that that entails, can they not go in search of it?
They’re aware of giant metal flying objects. For all they know they’re exotic birds.
I don’t have the answer, if anyone does, but I do think the questions should be asked.
They’re aware of giant metal flying objects. For all they know they’re exotic birds.
And who knows what possibilities those exotic birds hold? If such a thing does not arouse their curiosity, perhaps they just don’t wish to be involved with the Strange and Unusual.
I don’t have the answer, if anyone does, but I do think the questions should be asked.
Captain Kirk asked it again and again over the years. I expect non-fictional people have as well. Otherwise, the National Indian Foundation wouldn’t have need to “protect them from encroachment.”