Brazil’s government agreed to release stunning photos of Amazon Indians firing arrows at an airplane so that the world can better understand the threats facing one of the few tribes still living in near-total isolation from civilization, officials said Friday.
Anthropologists have known about the group for some 20 years but released the images now to call attention to fast-encroaching development near the Indians’ home in the dense jungles near Peru.
“We put the photos out because if things continue the way they are going, these people are going to disappear,” said Jose Carlos Meirelles, who coordinates government efforts to protect four “uncontacted” tribes for Brazil’s National Indian Foundation.
Shot in late April and early May, the foundation’s photos show about a dozen Indians, mostly naked and painted red, wielding bows and arrows outside six grass-thatched huts.
– ABC News
While we slipped out for a date night (that ended up being dinner at Applebee’s and a trip to the grocery store WITHOUT DREW!), Daniel and I discussed this amazing story about this uncontacted tribe.
I can’t possibly imagine what it must be like for these people to see airplanes flying overhead. Little do they know that there is a whole world out there whose civilizations have progressed thousands of years ahead of them.
Brazilian officials used to try to contact tribes like these but now they actively try their best to protect and isolate them. The idea being that if they are left alone, their population will be kept alive and in the best scenario, they will thrive and grow.
My first reaction to this is why shouldn’t we contact them? And then my next response is well, they should have to reach plateaus as their own civilization progresses. Is that just the Prime Directive seeping into my mindset? Or is that really the way it should be?