Respectful Discovery?: Thoughts on Sighting an Unknown Amazonian Tribe

On Friday, May 30^th, 2008 something rather incredible happened: a helicopter flying over the Amazon spotted a tribe of indigenous people who, until that moment, had no contact with modern man. The helicopter circled over the thatched roofs of the communal huts and took photographs while several members of the tribe, adorned in bright red and ebony paint, bravely shot arrows at the strange, flying monster. The helicopter came back to modern civilization and one can only imagine that the natives were left confused, scared, and unsure what had happened.

This whole situation is just amazing on every level, from every angle. It is incredible that there are people on this earth who have been able to escape the turbulence of modern advancement, it is shocking that we are unaware of their presence, and in some ways it feels unfathomable that we - modern man - don't know everything about our own planet.

We have submarines, airplanes, iPods, complex credit systems, awareness of history, archaeology, psychology, physiology, and advanced medicine. We have been to the moon - several times. And yet there are still life forms, not only on our own planet but of our own species, that we are so unaware of. How is that possible?

Though it shocks me I don't know if it is a good thing or a bad thing. Why should we know everything? Why should we be able to get our hooks into every form of life, every style of living? I keep thinking about that native community - how has seeing the helicopter impacted, changed, or threatened their centuries old means of life? Assuming they have a belief system similar to other central/southern American tribes, would they see the helicopter as an agent of a diety? Would they consider it a good or bad omen? There is no way we can know without compromising their isolation even more.

Yet I want to know more. I need to know more. There are an estimated 500 people in the community that was photographed, and it is said over the years they have continued to develop and expand their habitats. What are their traditions, how are their families assembled, who is their god(s)?

This situation raises, or unearths, a question about what it means to be human in this new global community. As we slowly strive more and more to change our species focus from a state-centric to a global-centric one we will need to ask ourselves more frequently how to respect individualized/isolated communities while still bringing them into the worldwide fold. How can you balance respect for isolation and questions for knowledge?

During the turbulent and bloody years of the age of discovery western, or "modern," man did not respect the new populations he came across. There was no system of consideration put in place so that ideas could be shared across peoples without compromising their cultural choices. In many ways the age of discovery has persisted into the last few decades as the iron curtain fell and new eastern European peoples became accessible to "modern" man. But still we treated them with a certain amount arrogance and disrespect. We gave them McDonald's, Mtv, Coke without stopping to ask if they wanted it or questioning whether it should be thrust in.

We thought we had all the places on the map filled in accurately and finally. However, situations like photographing an unknown tribe from a helicopter show us that there are still places in the world that haven't heart of Jesus, Nike, or capitalism. The question is, with seven hundred years of experience of what not to do, how will we handle this and future discoveries?

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