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Previously Uncontacted Amazon Tribe Photographed

ManicMechanic and other readers sent in news of a tribe of aboriginal people from the border of Peru and Brazil that has been photographed by helicopter for the first time. The images show huts in a village and people in red body paint shooting arrows at the helicopter. The outfit that released the photos, Survival International, works to end illegal logging in the rainforest in order to protect the uncontacted tribes living there. They estimate that 100 uncontacted groups exist worldwide, about half of them in the Amazon basin.

38 of 556 comments (clear)

  1. xo by spandex_panda · · Score: 5, Funny

    quick, drop some XO's for them, THEY NEEDS THE INTERNETS

    --
    like phosphorescent desert buttons singing one familiar song
    1. Re:xo by Vectronic · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Indeed, its an interesting thought though... I mean, everytime a chopper flies over, you could be redefining their entire religion or something.

      "Thats the Whirly, God of birds!"

    2. Re:xo by TyrainDreams · · Score: 5, Funny

      Should we wait until they have warp capability to introduce them to our united federation of planets?

    3. Re:xo by CFBMoo1 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Indeed, its an interesting thought though... I mean, everytime a chopper flies over, you could be redefining their entire religion or something.

      God help them if one chopper of geeks drop's XO's with EMACS and another chopper of geeks drops XO's on the neighboring tribe with VI.

      --
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    4. Re:xo by mnmn · · Score: 5, Funny

      That will not happen

      Microsoft and Intel will drop classmate PCs to get them hooked onto Vista Basic before the XO reaches them. They'll have to sell a lot of pelts and furs to raise money for antivirus updates.

      --
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  2. Re:Prioritize, people! by 2.7182 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well said !!
    I am going to stop loggin into Amazon too. Why let them have my cc# on file ? Each time I am going to type it in!! Be green!!

  3. Re:We know who wins this one by self+assembled+struc · · Score: 5, Funny

    i see you've played civilization and sent a gunship in against an entrenched spearmen unit that's been there since 3800 B.C.

  4. Re:Prioritize, people! by SputnikPanic · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Greasy inbred savages"? Columbus, is that you?

  5. To be a fly on a hut wall by SputnikPanic · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I for one would have loved to have been able to hear and understand the conversation that took place among that tribe after the helicopter passed over.

    1. Re:To be a fly on a hut wall by Tebriel · · Score: 5, Funny

      "there goes the neighborhood"

      --
      The Blaster Master Fighting for Truth, Justice, and Evil Pie since 1979
    2. Re:To be a fly on a hut wall by scipiodog · · Score: 5, Interesting

      They are probably using the term uncontacted very loosely. These people are being driven from Peru closer to the Brazil border by loggers. You don't get driven anywhere without contact of some kind unless just the noise of whatever they're using to cut down the trees is making them move. Maybe they just like to sleep in.

      Not necessarily. Actually, if you RTFA, you'll see that this particular tribe is actually growing in numbers, but that other tribes in the area are being driven away by loggers. They don't make a claim that the other tribes are "uncontacted."

      --
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    3. Re:To be a fly on a hut wall by Detritus · · Score: 5, Funny

      Missionaries make mighty fine barbeque.

      --
      Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
    4. Re:To be a fly on a hut wall by Number+Twenty+Four · · Score: 5, Funny

      Sadly, by the time the plane came around for a third pass the damage had been done and the modern world had begun to affect the tribe.

    5. Re:To be a fly on a hut wall by bugnuts · · Score: 5, Funny

      "should we eat it, fuck it, or kill it?" "Yes, chief, but not in that order"
  6. Cameras by Kohath · · Score: 5, Funny

    Those cameras are watching everyone now!

    Someone setup a jungle expedition. Those tribesmen need tinfoil hats!

  7. The unknown... by IronMagnus · · Score: 5, Funny

    That helicopter is probably some sort of god or devil beast to that tribe now... Thats how religion works you know. You see something you don't understand, (try to) kill it, worship it.

  8. Expert Loses Job by Ladred · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Members of one of the worlds last uncontacted tribes have been spotted and photographed from the air near the Brazil-Peru border." ... "said uncontacted tribes expert Jose Carlos dos Reis Meirelles Junior." Grats Jose, you just worked yourself out of a job. Some expert you are!

  9. I wonder what they could teach us? by east+coast · · Score: 5, Funny

    A small Peruvian tribe has taught you: Ceremonial Burial.

    Or maybe

    A small Chilean tribe has given you: Skilled Warrior.

    Wow!

    --
    Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
  10. Re:Prioritize, people! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Enough! Americans are not all greasy inbred savages!!!!

    Wait... What?

  11. Prime Directive by Ecuador · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hey, isn't flying over with a helicopter, a blatant violation of the Prime Directive?

    --
    Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
  12. This is what every Anthropologist dreams about! by Cathoderoytube · · Score: 5, Funny

    You can only imagine a discovery like this is the sort of thing every Anthropologist dreams of. Finding some primitive culture, previously untouched by the outside world. Making contact with the people for the first time. Then showing them the power of the machine gun and overthrowing their chief, then ruling the tribe with an iron fist.

    --
    I have nothing compelling to say
  13. I wonder if by swamp+boy · · Score: 5, Funny

    they dropped a Coke bottle from the helicopter and it happened to land within the tribe area. ("The Gods Must Be Crazy")

  14. First Alien Contact Lessons by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 5, Interesting

    These tribespeople are giving the rest of our species a valuable lesson in how to greet the aliens when they land.

    None of this kumbaiyaa stuff that lets sinister aliens into our arms before we know they'll enslave us. Throw some spears at them to see how serious they are about making contact. If they aren't sophisticated enough to anticipate our violent reaction to their sudden appearance, they won't have anything worth learning that we can't get from just capturing some of their spacecraft. If they're really that superior, they'll take it in stride and calm us down.

    And if they're really evil, we'll at least have a chance to fight them off, rather than falling for some kind of "To Serve Man" conjob.

    That's exactly how this Amazon contact will play out. Why shouldn't we expect at least as much from our even more distant cousins when they arrive at our little backwater planet?

    --

    --
    make install -not war

  15. Re:Those pics look fake to me. Shenanigans? by mckorr · · Score: 5, Funny

    Nope, that's a picture of my backyard during the "Conquistador Fetish Ball".

  16. It does work like that sometimes, though by Moraelin · · Score: 5, Interesting

    if this is the depth of your outlook on people you don't know than you're utterly disgusting.


    Actually, it does work like that sometimes.

    E.g., "cargo cults." In the whole island-hopping in the Pacific, ground troops in the jungle were sometimes resupplied by airplanes paradropping crates of food and equipment. Well, some airplanes dropped their cargo wrong (remember, it was before GPS), some ran into the enemy and had to eject their cargo to escape, etc. At any rate, some of that cargo fell near some local tribes.

    And the funny thing is, some of those actually started worshipping the big birds who dropped all that good stuff. And prayed that they'd return and bring them more gifts. And when that failed to happen, they built wooden airplanes and sometimes (those who were close enough to an airstrip to notice that those winged gods landed there and unloaded stuff) built whole wooden mock-ups of airstrips including the barracks and buildings around them. Some went to such effort as to even build mock-ups of the other stuff they saw there, such as "radios" with "headphones" made out of coconuts. Some stood guard or conducted drills with sticks instead of weapons, because they assumed it was some ritual to make the big winged gods come land there.

    It wasn't the first time. The first well documented cargo cult, and undisputedly a cargo cult, was from 1919 from Papua. Those guys believed in the coming of a great ghost steamer to bring them tinned goods, tools, and stuff like that. That was their "messiah", so to speak. Furthermore, that they can communicate with the ghostly ancestors by raising and lowering a flag, on the flagpole a mocked-up office. Essentially they had looked at the stuff the Europeans did in ports, and how they communicated with their ships, and built a whole cult and ceremony around it.

    But we have documented instances of such stuff from the 19'th century too. E.g., the Tuka Movement in the Fiji islands. On the whole it was openly hostile to the Europeans, and preaching the extinction or enslavement of Europeans by the natives, and using such visual metaphors as fattening a white pig representing the Europeans to slaughter it when the ancients return. But funnily enough, it also incorporated a lot of stuff which was mocking what the Europeans did. E.g., military parades, blessing water for their religious ceremonies, etc.

    So, well, I don't care whether you find that outlook disgusting or not, but we have plenty of documented cases where it worked literally like the GP post said. If historical perspective offends you, so be it.
    --
    A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
  17. Re:Those pics look fake to me. Shenanigans? by snowraver1 · · Score: 5, Funny

    You gotta admit, they have balls for trying to attack a helicopter, something presumably they have never seen before. Imaging seeing a helicoper, when the most advanced thing you have ever seen is a bow and arrow.

    It would be fun to show them the real world. Either that or let them shoot some arrows, then fire back a couple hellfire missles, just to let them know who's boss.

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  18. Re:Indians? by Hatta · · Score: 5, Funny

    There's already over a brazilian people in India.

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  19. Re:Arrogance. by jonhainer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Uncontacted tribes" is a poor choice of phrasing. "Self-isolated tribes" may be better. These people are not stupid, and they know that other people exist. If anyone in that tribe wanted to contact the outside world, they'd just walk over to a logging camp or a park headquarters.

    You say that these people should have a choice, and they do. They have specifically decided not to come to meet us, and in fact, they go out of their way to avoid us. We should respect that choice and leave them be.

  20. Re:Another link to pictures by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 5, Funny

    Interesting how the woman in the photo is painted entirely in black, while some of the men have their faces or entire bodies painted in red. Obviously it would be nice to know why they have those customs, but I'm not sure how to find out without disturbing them.

    The colors differentiate the class of warrior. When they go out on dangerous missions, the ones painted red get killed, the ones painted blue return unharmed, and the ones painted gold get laid.

  21. Re:Those pics look fake to me. Shenanigans? by DanielHC · · Score: 5, Informative

    As far as i know, there will be no contact between them and... the rest of the world. Our government (yes, I'm from Brazil) said that making contact would be a violation of their rights (?). So, the idea is to demarcate their land, and let them enjoy stone age.

    PS. by "our government" I mean FUNAI, the government agency that takes care of the indians.

    --
    Pick it Up!!
  22. Re:Those pics look fake to me. Shenanigans? by jcgf · · Score: 5, Funny

    Either that or let them shoot some arrows, then fire back a couple hellfire missles, just to let them know who's boss.

    That would be cool. It would also be funny if you just hovered there and let their arrows bounce off until they got tired of shooting them. Then just start flashing a bunch of colored lights in geometric patterns. Once you have done that, leave the immediate area for a bit.

    Then come back at night, abduct one of their tribesmen and put him in a bright room. Once he is in the room, we come in with dark sunglasses with big lenses and snazzy white coveralls to go with the shades. We should ignore him/her if they try to speak to us (we likely won't understand their language anyways). At this point we should shove probes up their asses and then take blood and other bodily fluid samples. If the abductee is female, she should be impregnated (artificial insemination is best, but if you are desperate just find a human with similar skin color and don't have him where the coveralls and glasses combo).

    In the event that you do get a female and impregnate her, come back in 3 or 4 months (time isn't important, just be sure to get there before the end of the second trimester so that the baby has very little chance of surviving outside of the womb). When you come back, put the coveralls and glasses back on and abduct the woman again. Once you have her, remove the fetus and have your dark skinned pal make some hand gestures to indicate that the baby would live "up there" (point up to the sky etc). Then place a tiny piece of a meteorite under her skin (I recommend administering a good narcotic dose here, not enough to put her to sleep but enough to make her groggy and unaware). You can either keep the fetus or throw it away at this point, you won't need it again for our purposes (though I recommend keeping it as you can sell it to stem cell researchers or you can dissect it yourself if you like embryology and you just never no when an aborted fetus might come in handy - it's best to store them in a deep freeze or similar device).

    Finally, every few years, come back and abduct her again. Each time you do it come back with the same weird looking kid (note that he must be both wierd looking in some fashion and of similar skin color and body type to the abductee). Have her play with the kid and give her food and drink that would appear strange to her (you could just bring something from burger king just make sure to present it in an odd fashion). If she seems upset to leave the kid behind, have the kid indicate that he can't survive outside in the air (he could just take deep breaths and then pretend to gag while pointing outside).

    This is a wonderful hobby, but be warned that it's easy to get carried away with it.

  23. Re:Those pics look fake to me. Shenanigans? by datapharmer · · Score: 5, Informative

    Well if you read the article here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1022822/Incredible-pictures-Earths-uncontacted-tribes-firing-bows-arrows.html you would know that they painted themselves after the helicopter made its first pass and is likely a sign of aggression. As an Anthropologist I can tell you that elaborate body painting is not uncommon in this region. This is real, but the information is rather poor quality and biased (and the latter article is very ethnocentric - you will NEVER find a culture that hasn't changed in 10,000 year's contact or not!)

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  24. Re:Those pics look fake to me. Shenanigans? by ProppaT · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It would be fun to show them the real world. I find that statement ironic, seeing that they live in nature and you're surrounded by concrete.
    --
    Wise men say, "Forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza."
  25. Re:Those pics look fake to me. Shenanigans? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Looks like two oompa loompas and a sasquatch

  26. Re:Those pics look fake to me. Shenanigans? by mikael · · Score: 5, Interesting

    During World War II, aviators experienced the effects of cargo cult beliefs

    The most widely known period of cargo cult activity, however, was in the years during and after World War II. First the Japanese arrived with a great deal of unknown equipment and later Allied forces also used the islands in the same way. The vast amounts of war matériel that were airdropped onto these islands during the Pacific campaign against the Empire of Japan necessarily meant drastic changes to the lifestyle of the islanders, many of whom had never seen Westerners or Japanese before. Manufactured clothing, medicine, canned food, tents, weapons, and other useful goods arrived in vast quantities to equip soldiers. Some of it was shared with the islanders who were their guides and hosts. With the end of the war the airbases were abandoned, and "cargo" was no longer being dropped.

    In attempts to get cargo to fall by parachute or land in planes or ships again, islanders imitated the same practices they had seen the soldiers, sailors, and airmen use. They carved headphones from wood and wore them while sitting in fabricated control towers. They waved the landing signals while standing on the runways. They lit signal fires and torches to light up runways and lighthouses. The cult members thought that the foreigners had some special connection to the deities and ancestors of the natives, who were the only beings powerful enough to produce such riches.

    In a form of sympathetic magic, many built life-size replicas of airplanes out of straw and created new military-style landing strips, hoping to attract more airplanes. Ultimately, although these practices did not bring about the return of the airplanes that brought such marvelous cargo during the war, they did have the effect of eradicating most of the religious practices that had existed prior to the war.

    Over the last seventy-five years most cargo cults have disappeared. Yet, the John Frum cult is still active on the island of Tanna, Vanuatu.

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  27. Re:Those pics look fake to me. Shenanigans? by Torvaun · · Score: 5, Funny
    --
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  28. Re:Those pics look fake to me. Shenanigans? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Bows? Aggression? I'm confused. I thought that without the corrupting distortions of 'Western Civilization' the natural state of humans was peaceful vegetarianism.

    I presume they don't have to chase down and shoot their plants, so what use are the projectile weapons? Either they engage in combat with someone or they hunt, or both.

    Messing up my whole world view...

    Clearly they have been contacted and therefore corrupted by some damn capitalist pig. If we do contact them we should try to repair that damage; get them back to nuts and fruit.

  29. Re:Those pics look fake to me. Shenanigans? by raftpeople · · Score: 5, Funny

    He just finds it hard to believe that people will waste that much time painting themselves for no practical benefit
    Have you ever been to a Kiss concert?