Entertain the concept of functioning societies in the year 2017 that are completely isolated from all forms of contact with the modern world, living in the wild just as our ancestors did centuries ago without the usage of technology. Now pull yourself out of your imaginative thoughts and bring yourself back to reality because that’s what this concept is, a gripping and compelling reality. To this present-day in 2017, unconnected tribes reside in forested areas of the world living just as their native ancestors did without a trace of an iPhone nor any form of modern technology for that matter within miles of their outdoor homes. These are the living, breathing time machines that lead humanity to our past ways of life.
“We live in an age when men have been to the moon. Yet here in Brazil there are people who continue to live as humankind has for tens of thousands of years,” says Ricardo Stuckert
Photographer Ricardo Stuckert recently captured exclusive footage of Amazonian tribes in the jungle of Jordao near the border of Peru after his helicopter took an impromptu detour amidst a rainstorm. His intentions were originally set in contacting an indigenous group for a book he is currently working on, but he happened to stumble upon undiscovered tribes in Acre out of sheer luck and pure amazement. Stuckert found himself captivated in a trance of awe and wonder as he witnessed these curious individuals analyzing his futuristic tools and equipment while he became wonder struck by their efficiently made homes and greeneries filled with natural crops.
These indigenous people are natives to areas of natural, vegetated land that remains desolate by contemporary society in Acre, Brazil. Many live as nomadic hunter-gatherer based societies while others live in communal homes while planting crops and hunting and fishing. One may wonder: have we simply forgotten to string a series of generations along the process of building up a technological society? The short answer to this is, no, the decision to remain hidden is purely by choice.The indigenous people’s isolation from modern societies is no coincidence, nor are they recognized as forgotten individuals who were accidentally left behind while the rest of us progressed. Photographs display their apparent opposition to being discovered when they shoot arrows at helicopters, but this also may just be a response of attempting to decipher what this unknown flying contraption in the air is. The decision to diminish contact is more likely the result of their ancestors’ traumatic past around the time colonialism occurred; Survival International claims the tribes in Acre are probably survivors of the rubber boom in which Indians were enslaved years ago. These remaining tribes have been predicted to have fled up rivers among the chaos while grasping onto strong memories of the terrors their ancestors had undergone in history to this day. Society today has also given them reason to remain in deep fear as translators have reported tribes feeling unsafe due to “violent attacks” made on their homes while witnessing their elder relatives being massacred by illegal loggers and cocaine traffickers as reported by the Brazilian government.
At some point we have to prod at the fact that these tribes haven’t been exposed to the acquisitive hands of anthropologists or sociologists who would die to study these time travelers of ancient history. It’s no secret that as humans we tend to destroy everything and stick our noses in places they don’t belong in. Contact remains limited for a multitude of reasons, one of them being the Brazilian government staying true to their responsibility of upholding the protection and safety of these individuals. FUNAI, the National Indian Foundation ensures that the rights of the indigenous people are protected under law of the Brazilian constitution; without this protection the homes of tribes would plausibly be destroyed by illegal miners and loggers who pose serious threats to their communities.
Our interference is not only dangerous through a cultural clash, but on a medical basis as well. Keep in the mind that the immune systems of these individuals aren’t well-equipped to seemingly minuscule diseases such as the common cold; these native people are genuinely living as their ancestors did thousands of years ago, immunity included and our human contact with them can be deadly. Aside from this, the indigenous people may be fascinating and viewed as an unreal concept, but they are real people just like us who deserve a right to choose to live peacefully in their own unscathed sanctions as opposed to being poked and prodded at like a science experiment without having a say in the matter.
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