Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Incredible pictures of one of Earth's last uncontacted tribes firing bows and arrows

Skin painted bright red, heads partially shaved, arrows drawn back in the longbows and aimed square at the aircraft buzzing overhead. The gesture is unmistakable: Stay Away.


For a culture weaned on cinematic images of spear-wielding "savages," these photos might seem less shocking than inevitable.

Lest there's any confusion on the matter: if an alien spaceship buzzes a major Western city, you can bet our reaction would be much the same.

6 comments:

Nate Vogel said...

I imagine what it would be like to be a member of a tribe that had been successfully protected who one day discovers the immense outside world that has been shielding me from knowledge of its existence.

Frankly, I think I'd be a little irritated that another culture took it upon itself to shelter me. Its like another kind of cultural hubris. But the reasons for not making contact are excellent too. Tis a quandry.

Anonymous said...

It brings up a lot of interesting questions. The parallels between this and alien visitation are not lost on me at all.

We now have this sort of reverence and respect for the innocence of the last tribes which prevents our direct contact. Isn't that PROFOUNDLY interesting in the context of "visitation"? Expand this thinking with an even larger technological and sociological gap. Are we in fact answering our own questions about the enigma?

They don't contact us because doing so might do more harm than good? They can only look from afar, take samples here and there.

Absolutely fascinating. Still, that doesn't account for a chunk of our society desperately seeking contact. I think for some of us we would accept the good with the bad in the hopes that it would be transformative and positive in the end. But then again, we're just ignorant animals ;)

Denny

Anonymous said...

It's only a matter of time before these natives will have a spear in one hand, a cell phone in the other.

Ken

Mac said...

Ken--

Indeed!

Anonymous said...

Ordering out for pizza!

Michael

Anonymous said...

Quick! They need Bibles!