Pros And Cons Of Uncontacted Tribes

In this global civilization, it can be difficult to imagine anyone living different than we are. This is simply evidence of our ignorance, of our arrogance, and our unwillingness to believe that there are more than one right ways to live. However, according to Uncontacted Tribes, it is estimated that more than 100 indigenous tribes around the world live in near total isolation, that is, they do not have contact with the outside world. Their culture has not been contaminated by us, they don’t know who we are, they don't need us, and they don't want us. Everyone knows what happened to the Native Americans following the arrival of the white man, over 90% of the native population died out. Contact with indigenous peoples almost always results

This simply is not the case, Bob Holmes, a contributor at New Scientist states that, while nobody really knows how many are left for sure, the general consensus is around 100. Stephanie Pappas, Livescience Contributor, published an article called Existence of Uncontacted Amazon Tribe Confirmed in 2011 that “Brazilian officials have confirmed the existence of approximately 200 Indians who live in the western Amazon with no contact with the outside world.” She goes on to write about how Survival International, an indigenous peoples rights group, claims that there are over 2,000 indigenous people living in the Javari Valley of Peru and Brazil, where the tribe was filmed. This is significant news, because for years the Brazilian and Peruvian governments lied, and denied the existence of these tribes to protect the interests of loggers, farmers, and oil companies. All of which are great threats to the uncontacted tribes. The Brazilian government even took it into their own hands, and in 2007 took photos of an uncontacted tribe to help prove their existence. An article from the BBC, written in 2008 details that “The Brazilian government says it took the images to prove the tribe exists and help protect its land.” When the general location of an uncontacted tribe is known, the government can set up guard stations to ensure the safety of the tribe from loggers or drug smugglers. Unfortunately,

While there is still so much to do, many things have already been done to ensure the rights of indigenous people everywhere. Hillary Ojeda for Peru this Week wrote an article called UN Indigenous Day promotes rights of indigenous people. In the article she writes that, “On Sunday, August 9, the world celebrated U.N. Day of the World’s Indigenous People.” This is amazing news, as indigenous people, contacted and uncontacted alike are finally getting exposure in the media, something that is long overdue. It is time that we wake up in our culture and respect the choice of these people to live differently. We must respect that they prefer their way of life over ours, and that is a wonderful thing. If there is one thing that this world needs, it is diversity. Evolution works because of diversity. If one fault in a species doesn’t work, a species can continue because there are others in that species doing something different. We often forget that we are animals, and perhaps we are the fault in humanity right now. Daniel Quinn said it perfectly in The Story of B, “How do we know that modern tribal peoples live the way ancient tribal peoples lived? B’s answer is this: The tribal lifestyle survived to the present moment because it works.” He then continues to explain that bears hibernate, because it work. Butterflies migrate, because it works. Perhaps the uncontacted