![]() ![]() According to Jiruhisú, a Zo’é man, ‘Before, when there was no white man, the Zo’é did not have sickness’. The New Tribes Mission (NTM), for example, secretly contacted the Zo’é in Brazil in 1987. Some fundamentalist missionaries also target them. Some take opportunities to acquire tools and goods through sporadic contact with neighbouring tribes.Īll will certainly be watching and monitoring what is happening on and around their land, as historical accounts of violent encounters with outsiders are etched in their collective memory. Sometimes they react aggressively, as a way of defending their territory, or leave signs in the forest warning outsiders away. With the expansion of mega-development and construction projects (oil and gas extraction, mining, hydro-electric dams, highways), logging and agro-industries (cattle, soya and ethanol) many uncontacted peoples face a stark choice: avoid contact at all costs, or risk death from disease and violence at the hands of hired guns, settlers or construction workers.Įverything we know about these peoples makes it clear they seek to maintain their isolation. In this sense the term ‘voluntary isolation’, often used in Peru, can be misleading since it implies they have the ‘luxury’ of choice. Whatever their history, most been forced to make big changes in their livelihoods and way of life in order to survive. Some may once have been part of larger tribal groups such as the Yanomami and Ayoreo in South America, and then split off to maintain their isolation. Some may have been in touch with colonist or frontier society in the past, even centuries ago, and then retreated from the violence, disease and sometimes enslavement which that brought. They rely purely on hunting animals and gathering wild foods, although they may have had vegetable gardens in the past. Some are on the run, forced into nomadism to survive the invasion of their lands by encroaching society. The broad definition of uncontacted tribes is those who have no peaceful contact with anyone in the mainstream or dominant society. The fact that there are any at all is testimony to their resilience, ingenuity, self-sufficiency and adaptability.įew in number and living in remote regions, rich in natural resources which are increasingly coveted by outsiders, they are the most vulnerable peoples on our planet. ![]() It is remarkable that in the second decade of the 21st century much of the available evidence points to the existence of about 100 uncontacted tribes living on our planet. The World Bank and Other Financial Institutions.Latin American Network Against Tree Plantations. ![]()
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