Previously Uncontacted Tribe Photographed for First Time Near Brazil-Peru Border
Just like in Peter Matthiessen’s classic book At Play in the Fields of the Lord, the gut reaction of several tribal members living in a remote area of the Amazon Rainforest was to shoot arrows at what was most likely the first plane they had ever seen passing by. You can see this yourself in one of the amazing photographs taken recently by the Brazilian government’s office of Indian Affairs.
They made the flight and took the photographs to convince non-believers that this tribe, and others, still do exist in remote areas of South America and other parts of the world. This tribe’s way of life is threatened by logging in Peru as well as by the general encroachment of us upon their world. Why should you care? For starters, all peoples and cultures have inherent value and also have the right to exist in the manner they choose, as long as they do others no harm. In addition to the tribe’s well-being and continued ability to exist (in perhaps self-desired isolation), it is unquestionable that they possess an incalculable amount of knowledge about the plants and animals in the rainforest, and that there culture might hold lessons for all of us as to how to live more in harmony with nature.
According to Survival International, an organization that advocates for the protection of tribes worldwide, “there are more than one hundred uncontacted tribes worldwide, with more than half living in either Brazil or Peru. All are in grave danger of being forced off their land, killed and decimated by new diseases.” For more information on how to support the protection of tribes around the world, click the link above.
Other Sources for this Article:
“Incredible pictures of one of Earth’s last contacted tribes firing bows and arrows”
Photo Credit:
Chany14 on Flickr under a Creative Commons license (Note: photo is not of uncontacted tribe)
i think they will eventually be living our way of life.
look at them. somehow the new generations that will be born into the tribe will have a sense of modernity and technology.
wonder if they’ll invent handphones.
maybe our scientist could ‘keep’ them in a compound area and tell them not to cross ‘the red line’ or the monster will eat them up, and see how they’ll progress over the years. haahaa.
It would have been a nice story, but…
THE NOT-SO-LOST TRIBE
by Mike Krumboltz - June 23, 2008
A few months ago, mainstream news outlets reported that a photographer had found a lost tribe of warriors near the Brazilian-Peruvian border. Photos of the tribe backed up his claim. As it turns out, the story is only half true. The men in the photo are members of a tribe, but it certainly ain’t “lost.” In fact, as the photographer, José Carlos Meirelles, recently explained, authorities have known about this particular tribe since 1910.
The photographer and the agency that released the pictures wanted to make it seem like they were members of a lost tribe in order to call attention to the dangers the logging industry may have on the group. The photographer recently came clean, and news outlets, perhaps embarrassed at having been taken for a ride, have been slow to pick up the story.
Source: http://buzz.yahoo.com/buzzlog/91536
[...] journalism cookie jar a second time, and for all of the wrong reasons. About a month ago, an exciting story broke about how photographs of an uncontacted tribe living near the Brazil-Peru border had been taken for [...]
Why is nobody helping these poor people?? This is a typical example of the western world ignoring the problems abroad. They have identified the issue, have the facilities to fix it, i.e. television, mobiles, topshop, fake tan… but are not prepared to ‘waste’ resources on the ‘foreigners’.
SOMEBODY HELP THESE PEOPLE OUT!
Hi,
I read an article about it on the news. I found it unbelievable that there are uncontacted tribes in this planet, specially in my country Peru.
Good article.