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Isolated Tribes Die Shortly After We Meet Them

Posted by Soulskill on from the keep-your-culture-to-yourself dept.

Daniel_Stuckey writes: "It's a story we all know — Christopher Columbus discovers America, his European buddies follow him, they meet the indigenous people living there, they indigenous people die from smallpox and guns and other unknown diseases, and the Europeans get gold, land, and so on. It's still happening today in Brazil, where 238 indigenous tribes have been contacted in the last several decades, and where between 23 and 70 uncontacted tribes are still living. A just-published report that takes a look at what happens after the modern world comes into contact with indigenous peoples isn't pretty: Of those contacted, three quarters went extinct. Those that survived saw mortality rates up over 80 percent. This is grim stuff."

3 of 351 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Prophylactic immunization by BlackPignouf · · Score: 4, Informative

    +1
    In French Guiana, isolated tribes saw white men coming at them, and basically telling them :
    "Congrats, you're now officialy unemployed French citizens. You don't know what money is, but you'll receive XXX Francs per month from the government. You can go visit the next town, and discover what rum and hookers are. Not much else to do though. kthxbye!"

  2. Re:"smallpox OR guns OR other unknown diseases" by Pfhorrest · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's not a shortened form of "neither", but that makes your use of "and nor" nonsensical. "Either" goes with "or" and "neither" goes with "nor", though neither "or" nor "nor" need either "either" nor "neither" (respectively) in all cases, and neither do either "nor" nor "or" ever pair directly with "and" as you had them, though either "and either" or "and neither" can introduce an "or" or "nor" clause (respectively) into a larger "and" clause just fine.

    TL;DR: Say "and neither should it be" or "nor should it be", but not "and nor should it be".

    --
    -Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
    "I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
  3. Re:So? by O('_')O_Bush · · Score: 4, Informative

    That last statement is utterly false.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncontacted_peoples

    Most of their populations are in the hundreds, which is long term sustainable.

    One example, off the top of my head, is the North Sentinelese, who have lived, mostly uncontacted (certainly so by white people), for a long, long time (some estimates have been in the 60,000 year range).

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sentinel_Island

    They also survived the 2004 Tsunami, apparently unaffected.

    If the Indian government continues to protect the island from outsiders, I certainly expect them to outlast western civilization.

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