Disease among Brazil’s “Forest People”

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

This is an interesting article from the New York Times that gives an interesting and more complete perspective on the matter than the BBC report did.

I think this is a poignant quote:

If they are removed and survive the exposure to diseases they have never encountered, it is likely that the unique knowledge and beliefs that define them, the spirit of their life, will probably slip away.

It’s pretty much a lose/lose situation.  Rapid growth of western culture will eventually and inevitably bring these groups into contact with western diseases.  Therefore, they will have to accept western medicine if they hope to survive.  It is likely therefore, that they will lose their culture from this, even if it isn’t necessarily in a single generation.

So, assuming that they want to keep their culture in the first place, they are going to have to make some difficult decisions in the near future.

via Gene expression 

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