Amazon Indians from one of the world’s last uncontacted tribes have been photographed from the air, with images released showing them painted bright red and brandishing bows and arrows.
The photographs, taken by Survival International near the border between Brazil and Peru, are rare evidence that such groups exist. [via Reuters]
Survival International is a group that works toward the protection of tribal people worldwide. They estimate that there are more than 100 uncontacted tribes remaining in the world today (with about half living in Brazil and Peru), but their numbers and safety are constantly under threat from illegal logging in their ancestral lands.
There are numerous islands in New Guinea that have yet to be explored and experts estimate there could be as many as 44 tribes living there. In 1984 a group of Pintupi people who were living a traditional hunter-gatherer desert-dwelling life were tracked down in the Gibson Desert in Western Australia and made contact for the first time with European-Australian society.
The term ‘uncontacted’ is used loosely as few peoples have remained totally uncontacted by modern civilization, but a number have chosen to make contact either exceedingly difficult or dangerous (wikipedia). It’s still an amazing thought to know there are pockets of humanity living with little or no knowledge of our modern world; with all our planes, and cars, and computers, and plumbing, and grocery stores, and any number of gadgets most of us cling to for ‘survival’. Survival International has some interesting articles and video coated in a healthy layer of guilt and alarmist statements.
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