from Hacker News

Rare footage of largest uncontacted tribe in the world [video]

by quantisan on 7/19/24, 9:45 PM with 59 comments

• by walrus01 on 7/19/24, 11:42 PM

  People keep coming up with footage of supposedly "uncontacted" amazon tribes and it almost inevitably turns out that at least some of them have occasional trading contact with nearby towns/villages, and then somebody taking a close look at the photos spots someone wearing a knock-off adidas hat or shoes or similar.

• by FireBeyond on 7/19/24, 10:50 PM

  My understanding was that the North Sentinelese were the largest uncontacted tribe.

• by southernplaces7 on 7/20/24, 12:40 AM

  At least the people of East Sentinel Island remain resolutely free of imposed contact, well, except for the few people who've attempted it and been killed for their efforts.

• by jncfhnb on 7/19/24, 10:44 PM

  It says they killed a guy with a six foot long arrow. How does that work?

• by slibhb on 7/19/24, 11:43 PM

  It's interesting to think about why many people believe tribes like this should remain "uncontacted". For better or worse, it's revealing of modern values.

  Also, what is the long term fate of such tribes? Without genes flowing in, it's probably not good.

  I wonder about a protocol that a high technology civilization could use to contact them. Priorities would be to avoid violence, disease, misunderstandings and so on but at the same time, to allow them enter into the modern world over some generations. Kind of like sci-fi where an alien species contacts humanity (e.g. Childhood's End).

• by lupusreal on 7/19/24, 11:47 PM

  Leave them alone, jerks.

• by BurningFrog on 7/20/24, 1:17 AM

  The problem with "they don't want to be contacted" is that it's not really an "informed dissent".

  If they knew about our 0.4% child mortality, 80 year life span etc, each individual could make an informed decision.