Comments on: Isolated S. American Tribes

By: thoughts from gut bacteria » Blog Archive » Disease among Brazil’s “Forest People”

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 17:26:41 +0000

[...] week or so ago, I posted and commented some pictures released by the BBC on the isolated tribes living in the forests of [...]

By: ecoli

ecoli — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 23:23:41 +0000

thanks. Those are some important thoughts.

By: CDarwin

CDarwin — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 21:22:15 +0000

John Hawk’s Anthropology blog had some salient comments on the photos:

http://johnhawks.net/weblog/reviews/tv/indiana-jones-lost-indigenous-people-2008.html

By: blike

blike — Fri, 30 May 2008 16:25:12 +0000

Nice post, both of you!

By: CDarwin

CDarwin — Fri, 30 May 2008 03:19:34 +0000

I doubt that there is much of anywhere in the Amazon basin at least that hasn’t already been impacted by Western civilization. Even if they’ve never seen outsiders, they’ve been in contact with other groups who form a chain back to the big trading cities on the river. So diseases aren’t much of a risk.

If anything, the precarious nature of those cultures in the face of encroaching Westernization is all the more reason to study them responsibly and sympathetically. They’ve produced wonderful, unique cultures that deserve to be remembered before they are destroyed.

Not contacting them just because we fear we might ‘poison’ their pristine culture is a little patronizing. They can handle new experiences and new ideas without giving up everything they are. What destroys indigenous cultures is economic and political domination by Western culture.

At least that’s my little anthropologist’s take on the subject.