An Isolated Tribe Emerges from the Rain Forest

August 2, 2016 1:54 PM

Jon Lee Anderson on an Amazonian tribe and their increasingly frequent contact with outsiders. (SLNewYorker)
posted by kevinbelt (6 comments total)

The team members agreed that the Mashco were not really “uncontacted.” Shepard maintained that they had been contacted a century ago, when Fitzcarrald invaded their territory, and that the survivors had isolated themselves by choice. Now they appeared to be seeking contact again, and perhaps it was unfair to stop them.

It's quite long. I ended skimming large sections and it is hard to find a good handle to start a comment. I was impressed by the sophisticated approach being brought to the issue which considers the various social, psychological and health ramifications of contact.

Granted, they have the advantage of history to learn from so as to not repeat it. Still, that doesn't by itself cause people to be considerate and ethical. Plenty of people use a knowledge advantage to simply take advantage.
posted by Michele in California at 3:45 PM on August 2, 2016

Peter Matthiessen's "At Play in the Fields of the Lord" was written in 1965, and covers some of this same ground. His excellent descriptions are both beautiful and rich, and then disturbing and sad. I am glad to see some forest people still persist, in spite of...all of the above.
posted by Oyéah at 3:52 PM on August 2, 2016 [2 favorites]

"it is hard to find a good handle to start a comment."

Which is why I posted it as the link only. ;) There's a lot going on. But it's Jon Lee Anderson; he's great.
posted by kevinbelt at 4:44 PM on August 2, 2016

These initial contacts had been so nightmarish as to inspire a cautionary tale that still endured: some of the Spaniards, frustrated that their muskets and cannons rusted so quickly in the jungle humidity, were said to have killed Indians and boiled their bodies in iron pots, then used their fat to grease the metal.

It was nearly impossible to read the rest of the article after that.

A first contact that occurred that was so horrific that it was kept alive by oral tradition since the 15th century, and it's surprising that they shouldn't attempt to kill strangers on sight?
posted by BlueHorse at 8:13 PM on August 2, 2016 [3 favorites]

I worked in the rain forest in that part of Peru for about 5 months a few years ago; the conservation concession bordered land set aside for uncontacted people. Shortly after I left, a peccary washed up that had clearly been killed by them, and there were more specifically threatening messages left on the peripheral trails, and I believe the ecoguards were shot at from across the river. So they stopped going to that area of the concession.

My layman's feelings are that these people should be left alone unless they initiate contact - but given the reach and extent of illegal gold mining, I don't know that there's any way to make that a long term strategy. As this National Geographic article on Manu National Park points out, "It’s easy to imagine we’re watching people untainted by civilization, living in primeval bliss. I have to remind myself that they’re more like refugees from genocide."
posted by ChuraChura at 4:34 AM on August 3, 2016 [4 favorites]

A first contact that occurred that was so horrific that it was kept alive by oral tradition since the 15th century, and it's surprising that they shouldn't attempt to kill strangers on sight?

Well, one thing that struck me is that, on a cultural level, most of the victims of banditry, and one of the two murder victims, were cousins rather than strangers - they were also indigenous, often close enough they were speaking the same language. One imagines that if more "strangers" were getting victimized there'd be a more serious response than "you guys should cower while bandits steal all your food, and later on we'll tell them that was mean."
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 5:37 AM on August 3, 2016