I wonder if our lives would be much calmer and less nervous and hectic without all the modern technological advances? Probably yes, but it’s unlikely to be more comfortable. Now imagine that on our planet in the 21st century there are tribes living peacefully who can easily do without all this.
1. Yarawa
This tribe lives on the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean. It is believed that the age of the Yarava is from 50 to 55 thousand years. They migrated there from Africa and now there are about 400 of them left. The Yarawa live in nomadic groups of 50 people, hunt with bows and arrows, fish in coral reefs and collect fruits and honey. In the 1990s, the Indian government wanted to give them more modern conditions for life, but the Yarava refused.
2. Yanomami
The Yanomami carry on as usual ancient image of life on the border between Brazil and Venezuela: 22 thousand live on the Brazilian side and 16 thousand on the Venezuelan side. Some of them have mastered metal processing and weaving, but the rest prefer not to contact the outside world, which threatens to disrupt their centuries-old way of life. They are excellent healers and even know how to catch fish using plant poisons.
3. Nomole
About 600-800 representatives of this tribe live in the tropical forests of Peru, and only since about 2015 have they begun to appear and cautiously contact civilization, not always successfully, it must be said. They call themselves "nomole", which means "brothers and sisters". It is believed that the Nomole people do not have the concept of good and evil in our understanding, and if they want something, they do not hesitate to kill their opponent in order to take possession of his thing.
4. Ava Guaya
The first contact with Ava Guaya occurred in 1989, but it is unlikely that civilization has made them happier, since deforestation actually means the disappearance of this semi-nomadic Brazilian tribe, of which there are no more than 350-450 people. They survive by hunting, live in small family groups, have many pets (parrots, monkeys, owls, agouti hares) and possess proper names, naming himself after his favorite forest animal.
5. Sentinelese
If other tribes somehow make contact with the outside world, then the inhabitants of North Sentinel Island (Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal) are not particularly friendly. Firstly, they are supposedly cannibals, and secondly, they simply kill everyone who comes to their territory. In 2004, after the tsunami, many people on the neighboring islands were affected. When anthropologists flew over North Sentinel Island to check on its strange inhabitants, a group of aborigines came out of the forest and threateningly waved stones and bows and arrows in their direction.
6. Huaorani, Tagaeri and Taromenan
All three tribes live in Ecuador. The Huaorani had the misfortune of living in an oil-rich area, so most of them were resettled in the 1950s, but Tagaeri and Taromenan split from the main Huaorani group in the 1970s and went into the rainforest to continue their nomadic, ancient way of life. . These tribes are quite unfriendly and vindictive, so no special contacts were established with them.
7. Kawahiwa
The remaining members of the Brazilian Kawahiwa tribe are mostly nomads. They do not like contact with people and simply try to survive through hunting, fishing and occasional farming. The Kawahiwa are endangered due to illegal logging. In addition, many of them died after communicating with civilization, having contracted measles from people. According to conservative estimates, there are now no more than 25-50 people left.
8. Hadza
The Hadza are one of the last tribes of hunter-gatherers (about 1,300 people) living in Africa near the equator near Lake Eyasi in Tanzania. They are still living in the same place for the last 1.9 million years. Only 300-400 Hadza continue to live in the old ways and even officially reclaimed part of their land in 2011. Their way of life is based on the fact that everything is shared, and property and food should always be shared.
Small groups of people representing uncontacted tribes, are completely unaware of the moon landings, nuclear weapons, Internet, David Attenborough, Donald Trump, Europe, dinosaurs, Mars, aliens and chocolate, etc. Their knowledge is limited to their immediate environment.
There are probably several other tribes that have yet to be discovered, but let's stick to the ones we know about. Who are they, where do they live and why do they remain isolated?
Although it's a bit of a vague term, we define an "uncontacted tribe" as a group of people who have not had significant direct contact with modern civilization. Many of them have only a brief acquaintance with civilization, since the conquest of the New World resulted in ironically uncivilized results.
Sentinel Island
Hundreds of kilometers east of India are the Andaman Islands. About 26,000 years ago, during the heyday of the latter ice age, the land bridge between India and these islands jutted out of the shallow sea and then sank under the water.
The Andamanese peoples were nearly wiped out by disease, violence and invasion. Today, only about 500 of them remain, and at least one tribe, the Jungli, is extinct.
However, on one of the Northern Islands, the language of the tribe living there remains incomprehensible, and little is known about its representatives. It seems that these miniature people cannot shoot and do not know how to grow crops. They survive by hunting, fishing and gathering edible plants.
It is not known exactly how many of them are alive today, but there may be anywhere from several hundred to 15 people. The 2004 tsunami, which killed about a quarter of a million people across the region, also hit these islands.
As early as 1880, British authorities planned to kidnap members of this tribe, keep them well in captivity, and then release them back to the island in an attempt to demonstrate their benevolence. They captured an elderly couple and four children. The couple died of illness, but the young people were given gifts and sent to the island. Soon the Sentinelese disappeared into the jungle, and the tribe was no longer seen by the authorities.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Indian authorities, soldiers and anthropologists tried to establish contact with the tribe, but it hid inside the jungle. Subsequent expeditions were met with either threats of violence or attacks with bows and arrows, and some ended in the death of the attackers.
Uncontacted tribes of Brazil
Vast areas of the Brazilian Amazon, especially in the interior of the western state of Acre, are home to up to one hundred uncontacted tribes, as well as several other communities that would readily establish contact with the outside world. Some tribal members were wiped out by drugs or gold diggers.
As we know, respiratory diseases common in modern society can quickly destroy entire tribes. Since 1987, official government policy has been not to engage with tribes if their survival is at risk.
Very little is known about these isolated groups, but they are all distinct tribes with different cultures. Their representatives tend to avoid contact with anyone who tries to contact them. Some hide in the forests, while others defend themselves using spears and arrows.
Some of the tribes, such as the Awá, are nomadic hunter-gatherers, which makes them more resilient to outside influences.
Kawahiwa
This is another example of uncontacted tribes, but it is primarily known for its nomadic lifestyle.
It appears that in addition to bows and baskets, its members may use spinning wheels to make strings, ladders to collect honey from bee nests, and elaborate animal traps.
The land they occupy has received official protection, and anyone who trespasses on it faces severe persecution.
Over the years, many of the tribes engaged in hunting. The states of Rondonia, Mato Grosso and Maranhao are known to contain many dwindling uncontacted tribes.
Loner
One man presents a particularly sad picture simply because he is last representative of your tribe. Living deep in the rainforest of Tanaru in the state of Rondônia, this man always attacks those nearby. His language is completely untranslatable, and the culture of the disappeared tribe to which he belonged remains a mystery.
Besides the basic skills of growing crops, he also likes to dig holes or lure animals. Only one thing is certain, when this man dies, his tribe will become nothing more than a memory.
Other uncontacted tribes of South America
Although Brazil contains a large number of uncontacted tribes, such groups of people are known to still exist in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, French Guiana, Guyana and Venezuela. In general, little is known about them compared to Brazil. Many tribes are suspected of having similar yet distinct cultures.
Uncontacted tribes of Peru
The nomadic group of Peruvian peoples have endured decades of aggressive deforestation for the rubber industry. Some of them even deliberately contacted the authorities after fleeing drug cartels.
In general, keeping away from all other tribes, most of them rarely turn to Christian missionaries, who are accidental spreaders of disease. Most tribes like Nanti can now only be seen from a helicopter.
Huaroran people of Ecuador
This people are connected common language, which does not appear to be related to any other in the world. As hunter-gatherers, the tribe has over the past four decades settled on a long-term basis in a fairly developed area between the Curaray and Napo rivers in the east of the country.
Many of them had already made contact with the outside world, but several communities rejected this practice and instead chose to move to areas untouched by modern oil exploration.
The Taromenan and Tagaeri tribes number no more than 300 members, but are sometimes killed by loggers looking for valuable mahogany wood.
A similar situation is observed in neighboring countries, where only certain segments of tribes such as the Ayoreo from Bolivia, the Carabayo from Colombia, the Yanommi from Venezuela remain completely isolated and prefer to avoid contact with the modern world.
Uncontacted tribes of West Papua
In the western part of the island New Guinea There are about 312 tribes, 44 of which are uncontacted. The mountainous region is covered in dense, Viridian forests, which means we still don't notice these wild people.
Many of these tribes avoid socializing. Many human rights violations have been reported since their arrival in 1963, including murder, rape and torture.
The tribes usually settle along the coast, wander through the swamps and survive by hunting. In the central region, which is at a high elevation, the tribes are engaged in growing sweet potatoes and raising pigs.
Little is known regarding those who have not yet installed official contact. In addition to the difficult terrain, researchers human rights organizations and journalists are also prohibited from exploring the region.
West Papua (the far left side of the island of New Guinea) is home to many uncontacted tribes.
Do similar tribes live in other places?
There may be uncontacted tribes still lurking in other forested parts of the world, including Malaysia and parts Central Africa, but this has not been proven. If they exist, it might be best to leave them alone.
Outside world threat
Uncontacted tribes are mostly threatened by the outside world. This article serves as a cautionary tale.
If you want to know what you can do to prevent them from disappearing, then it is recommended that you join a rather interesting non-profit organization Survival International, whose staff works around the clock to ensure that these tribes live out their unique lives in our colorful world.
In our society, the transition from the state of a child to the state of adulthood is not specifically marked in any way. However, among many peoples of the world, a boy becomes a man, and a girl a woman, only if they pass a series of severe tests.
For boys, this is initiation; the most important part of it among many nations was circumcision. Moreover, it, naturally, was not done in infancy, as among modern Jews. Most often, boys aged 13-15 were exposed to it. In the African Kipsigi tribe living in Kenya, boys are brought one by one to an elder, who marks the place on the foreskin where the incision will be made.
The boys then sit down on the ground. A father or older brother stands in front of each one with a stick in his hand and demands that the boy look straight ahead. The ceremony is performed by an elder, who cuts off the foreskin at the marked place.
During the entire operation, the boy has no right not only to cry out, but also to show at all that he is in pain. It is very important. After all, before the ceremony, he received a special amulet from the girl to whom he was engaged. If now he screams in pain or winces, he will have to throw this amulet into the bushes - no girl will marry such a man. For the rest of his life, he will be a laughing stock in his village, because everyone will consider him a coward.
Among the Australian Aborigines, circumcision is a complex, multi-stage operation. First, a classic circumcision is performed - the initiate lies on his back, after which one of the elderly people pulls his foreskin as far as possible, while the other cuts off the excess skin with a quick swing of a sharp flint knife. When the boy recovers, the next main operation takes place.
It is usually held at sunset. At the same time, the boy is not privy to the details of what is about to happen. The boy is placed on a kind of table made from the backs of two adult men. Next, one of those who perform the operation pulls the boy’s penis along the abdomen, and the other... rips it apart along the ureter. Only now can the boy be considered a real man. Before the wound heals, the boy will have to sleep on his back.
Such open penises of Australian aborigines take on a completely different shape during an erection - they become flat and wide. However, they are not suitable for urination, and Australian men relieve themselves while squatting.
But the most peculiar method is common among some peoples of Indonesia and Papua, such as the Batak and Kiwai. It consists of making a hole across the penis with a sharp piece of wood, into which various objects can subsequently be inserted, for example, metal - silver or, for those richer, gold sticks with balls on the sides. It is believed here that during copulation this creates additional pleasure for the woman.
Not far from the coast of New Guinea, among the inhabitants of the island of Waigeo, the ritual of initiation into men is associated with copious bloodletting, the meaning of which is “cleansing from filth.” But first you need to learn... to play the sacred flute, and then clean your tongue with sandpaper until it bleeds, since in deep childhood the young man sucked his mother’s milk and thereby “defiled” his tongue.
And most importantly, it is necessary to “cleanse” after the first sexual intercourse, which requires making a deep incision in the head of the penis, accompanied by copious bloodletting, the so-called “male menstruation.” But this is not the end of the torment!
Among the men of the Kagaba tribe, there is a custom according to which during sexual intercourse, sperm should under no circumstances fall to the ground, which is regarded as a grave insult to the gods, and therefore can lead to the death of the whole world. According to eyewitnesses, the “Kagabinites” cannot find anything better to avoid spilling sperm on the ground, “like placing a stone under a man’s penis.”
But young men of the Kababa tribe from Northern Colombia, according to custom, are forced to have their first sexual intercourse with the ugliest, toothless and ancient old woman. It’s no wonder that the men of this tribe experience a persistent aversion to sex for the rest of their lives and live poorly with their legal wives.
In one of the Australian tribes, the custom of initiation into men, which is carried out with 14-year-old boys, is even more exotic. To prove his maturity to everyone, a teenager must sleep with his own mother. This ritual means the return of the young man to the mother's womb, which symbolizes death, and orgasm - rebirth.
In some tribes, the initiate must pass through a "toothed womb." The mother puts a mask of a terrible monster on her head, and inserts the jaw of some predator into her vagina. The blood from a wound on the teeth is considered sacred; it is used to smear the face and genitals of the young man.
The young men of the Vandu tribe were much more fortunate. They can become a man only after they graduate from a special sex school, where a female sex instructor gives the boys extensive theoretical and, later, practical training. Graduates of such a school, initiated into the secrets sex life, please their wives to the fullest extent of the sexual capabilities given to them by nature.
EXCORIATION
In many Bedouin tribes in the west and south of Arabia, despite the official ban, the custom of ripping off the skin from the penis has been preserved. This procedure consists of cutting the skin of the penis along its entire length and peeling it off, just like skinning an eel while cutting it.
Boys from ten to fifteen years old consider it a matter of honor not to utter a single cry during this operation. The participant is exposed and the slave manipulates his penis until an erection occurs, after which the operation is performed.
WHEN TO WEAR A HAT?
The youths of the Kabiri tribe in modern Oceania, having reached maturity and undergone severe trials, receive the right to place on their heads a pointed cap, coated with lime, decorated with feathers and flowers; They stick it to their head and even go to bed in it.
YOUNG FIGHTER COURSE
Like many other tribes, among the Bushmen, the initiation of a boy is also carried out after his preliminary training in hunting and everyday skills. And most often young people learn this science of life in the forest.
After completing the “young fighter course,” deep cuts are made above the bridge of the boy’s nose, where the ashes of the burnt tendons of a pre-killed antelope are rubbed. And, naturally, he must endure this entire painful procedure in silence, as befits a real man.
BATTLE BUILDS COURAGE
In the African Fulani tribe, during the male initiation ceremony called "soro", each teenager was struck several times on the back or chest with a heavy club. The subject had to endure this execution in silence, without betraying any pain. Subsequently, the longer the marks of beatings remained on his body and the more terrible he looked, the more respect he gained among his fellow tribesmen as a man and a warrior.
SACRIFICE TO THE GREAT SPIRIT
Among the Mandans, the rite of initiation of young men into men was that the initiate was wrapped in ropes, like a cocoon, and hung on them until he lost consciousness.
In this unconscious (or lifeless, as they put it) state, he was laid on the ground, and when he came to his senses, he crawled on all fours to the old Indian, who was sitting in a doctor’s hut with an ax in his hands and a buffalo skull in front of him. The young man raised the little finger of his left hand as a sacrifice to the great spirit, and it was cut off (sometimes along with the index finger).
LIME INITIATION
Among the Malaysians, the ritual of entering into the secret male union of Ingiet was as follows: during initiation, naked old man, smeared from head to toe with lime, held the end of the mat, and gave the other end to the subject. Each of them took turns pulling the mat towards himself until the old man fell on the newcomer and performed sexual intercourse with him.
INITIATION AT ARANDA
Among the Aranda, initiation was divided into four periods, with gradually increasing complexity of the rituals. The first period consists of relatively harmless and simple manipulations performed on the boy. The main procedure was to throw it into the air.
Before this, it was coated with fat and then painted. At this time, the boy was given certain instructions: for example, not to play with women and girls anymore and to prepare for more serious challenges. At the same time, the boy's nasal septum was drilled.
The second period is the circumcision ceremony. It was carried out on one or two boys. All members of the clan took part in this action, without inviting outsiders. The ceremony lasted about ten days, and throughout this time the tribe members danced and performed various ritual actions in front of the initiates, the meaning of which was immediately explained to them.
Some of the rituals were performed in the presence of women, but when they started circumcision, they ran away. At the end of the operation, the boy was shown a sacred object - a wooden tablet on a cord, which the uninitiated could not see, and its meaning was explained, with a warning to keep it secret from women and children.
The initiate spent some time after the operation away from the camp, in the forest thickets. Here he received a whole series of instructions from leaders. He was instilled with moral rules: not to do bad things, not to walk on the “path of women,” and to observe food prohibitions. These prohibitions were quite numerous and painful: it was forbidden to eat opossum meat, kangaroo rat meat, the tail and rump of a kangaroo, the entrails of an emu, snakes, any water bird, young game, and so on.
He didn’t have to break bones to extract the brain, and he didn’t have to eat a little bit of soft meat. In a word, the most delicious and nutritious food was forbidden to the initiate. At this time, living in the bushes, he learned a special secret language, which he used to speak with men. Women could not approach him.
After some time, even before returning to the camp, a rather painful operation was performed on the boy: several men took turns biting his head; it was believed that after this hair would grow better.
The third stage is the initiate’s exit from maternal care. He did this by throwing a boomerang towards the location of the maternal “totemic center”.
The last, most difficult and solemn stage of initiation is the engvur ceremony. The central place in it was occupied by the trial by fire. Unlike previous stages, the entire tribe and even guests from neighboring tribes participated here, but only men: two to three hundred people gathered. Of course, such an event was organized not for one or two initiates, but for a large party of them. The festivities lasted for a very long time, several months, usually between September and January.
Throughout the entire period, religious thematic rites were performed in a continuous series, mainly for the edification of the initiates. In addition, various other ceremonies were held, partly symbolizing the initiates' break with women and their transition to a group of full-fledged men. One of the ceremonies consisted, for example, of the initiates passing by the women's camp; at the same time, the women threw burning brands at them, and the initiates defended themselves with branches. After this, a feigned attack was carried out on the women's camp.
Finally the time came for the main test. It consisted of building a large fire, covering it with damp branches, and the young men being initiated lay down on top of them. They had to lie there, completely naked, in the heat and smoke, without moving, without screaming or moaning, for four to five minutes.
It is clear that the fiery test required from the young man enormous endurance, willpower, but also uncomplaining obedience. But they prepared for all this with long previous training. This test was repeated twice. One of the researchers describing this action adds that when he tried to kneel down on the same green floor above the fire for an experiment, he was forced to immediately jump up.
Of the subsequent rituals, an interesting one is the mocking roll call between the initiates and the women, which takes place in the dark, and in this verbal duel even the usual restrictions and rules of decency were not observed. Then emblematic images were painted on their backs. Next, the fire test was repeated in an abbreviated form: small fires were lit in the women’s camp, and the young men knelt on these fires for half a minute.
Before the end of the festival, dancing was again held, wives were exchanged, and, finally, the ritual offering of food to those dedicated to their leaders. After this, the participants and guests gradually dispersed to their camps, and that was the end of it all: from that day on, all prohibitions and restrictions on the initiates were lifted.
TRAVELS… TOOTH
During initiation rites, some tribes have a custom of removing one or more of a boy's front teeth. Moreover, certain magical actions are also subsequently performed with these teeth. Thus, among some tribes of the Darling River region, a knocked-out tooth was stuffed under the bark of a tree growing near a river or a hole with water.
If a tooth became overgrown with bark or fell into water, there was no reason to worry. But if he protruded outside and ants were running over him, then the young man, according to the natives, was in danger of having an oral disease.
Murring and other tribes of New South Wales first entrusted the custody of a knocked-out tooth to one of the old men, who passed it on to another, who passed it on to a third, and so on until, having gone around the whole community in a circle, the tooth returned to the young man’s father and, finally, to himself. young man. At the same time, none of those who kept the tooth should have put it in a bag with “magical” objects, since it was believed that otherwise the owner of the tooth would be in great danger.
YOUTH VAMPIRISM
Some Australian tribes from the Darling River had a custom according to which, after the ceremony on the occasion of reaching manhood, the young man did not eat anything for the first two days, but drank only blood from the veins opened in the hands of his friends, who voluntarily offered him this food.
Having placed a ligature on the shoulder, a vein was opened on the inside of the forearm and the blood was released into a wooden vessel or into a piece of bark shaped like a dish. The young man, kneeling on his bed of fuchsia branches, leaned forward, holding his hands behind him, and licked the blood from the vessel placed in front of him with his tongue, like a dog. Later, he is allowed to eat meat and drink the duck's blood.
AIR INITIATION
Among the Mandan tribe, belonging to the group North American Indians, the rite of passage is probably the most cruel. It happens as follows.
The initiate first gets down on all fours. After this, one of the men was large and index fingers left hand pulls back about an inch of flesh on his shoulders or chest and squeezes into right hand with a knife, on the double-edged blade of which, to intensify the pain caused by another knife, notches and notches are applied, pierces the pulled skin. His assistant standing next to him inserts a peg or pin into the wound, a supply of which he keeps ready in his left hand.
Then several men of the tribe, having climbed in advance to the roof of the room in which the ceremony takes place, lower two thin ropes through holes in the ceiling, which are tied to these pins, and begin to pull the initiate up. This continues until his body rises above the ground.
After this, the skin on each arm below the shoulders and on the legs below the knees is pierced with a knife, and pins are also inserted into the resulting wounds and ropes are tied to them. For them, the initiates are pulled even higher. After this, on stiletto heels protruding from the bleeding limbs, the observers hang a bow, shield, quiver, etc. belonging to the young man undergoing the ceremony.
Then the victim is pulled up again until he hangs in the air so that not only his own weight, but also the weight of the weapons hanging on his limbs, falls on those parts of the body to which the ropes are attached.
And so, overcoming immense pain, covered in dried blood, the initiates hung in the air, biting their tongues and lips, so as not to utter the slightest groan and triumphantly pass this highest test of strength of character and courage.
When the tribal elders leading the initiation believed that the young men had adequately endured this part of the ritual, they ordered their bodies to be lowered to the ground, where they lay without visible signs of life, slowly coming to their senses.
But the torment of the initiates did not end there. They had to pass one more test: “the last run”, or in the language of the tribe - “eh-ke-nah-ka-nah-pik”.
Each of the young men was assigned two elders in age and physical strength. strong men. They took places on either side of the initiate and grabbed the free ends of the wide leather straps tied to his wrists. And heavy weights were hung from the pins piercing various parts of the young man’s body.
On command, the accompanying people began to run in wide circles, dragging his ward along with him. The procedure continued until the victim lost consciousness from blood loss and exhaustion.
ANTS DETERMINE...
In the Amazonian tribe Mandruku there was also a kind of sophisticated torture-initiation. At first glance, the tools used to carry it out looked quite harmless. They looked like two cylinders, blind at one end, made from the bark of a palm tree and had a length of about thirty centimeters. Thus, they resembled a pair of huge, crudely made mittens.
The initiate put his hands into these cases and, accompanied by onlookers who usually consisted of members of the entire tribe, began a long walk around the settlement, stopping at the entrance to each wigwam and performing a kind of dance.
However, these gauntlets were actually not as harmless as they might seem. For inside each of them there was a whole collection of ants and other stinging insects, selected on the basis of the greatest pain caused by their bites.
Other tribes also use a pumpkin bottle filled with ants during initiation. But the candidate for membership in the society of adult men does not go around the settlement, but stands still until the wild dances of the tribe take place to the accompaniment of wild cries. After the young man has endured the ritual “torture,” his shoulders are decorated with feathers.
TISSUE OF GROWING
The South American Ouna tribe also uses the "ant test" or "wasp test". To do this, ants or wasps stick into a special mesh fabric, often depicting some fantastic quadruped, fish or bird.
The whole body of the young man is wrapped in this fabric. From this torture the young man faints, and in an unconscious state he is carried into a hammock, to which he is tied with ropes; and a weak fire burns under the hammock.
It remains in this position for one or two weeks and can feed only on cassava bread and a small variety of smoked fish. Even in the use of water there are restrictions.
This torture precedes a magnificent dance celebration that lasts several days. Guests come wearing masks and huge headdresses with beautiful feather mosaics, and various decorations. During this carnival, a young man is beaten.
LIVING NET
A number of Caribbean tribes also used ants to initiate boys. But before this, the young people used a boar's tusk or a toucan's beak to scratch their chest and skin of their arms until they bled.
And only after that they began to torture with ants. The priest who carried out this procedure had a special device, similar to a net, in the narrow loops of which 60-80 large ants were placed. They were placed so that their heads, armed with long sharp stings, were located on one side of the mesh.
At the moment of initiation, the net with ants was pressed to the boy’s body and kept in this position until the insects stuck to the skin of the unfortunate victim.
During this ritual, the priest applied the net to the chest, arms, lower abdomen, back, back of the thighs and calves of the defenseless boy, who was in no way supposed to express his suffering.
It should be noted that in these tribes girls are also subjected to a similar procedure. They must also endure the bites of angry ants calmly. The slightest groan or painful distortion of the face deprives the unfortunate victim of the opportunity to communicate with elders. Moreover, she is subjected to the same operation until she bravely endures it without showing the slightest sign of pain.
PILLAR OF COURAGE
Young people from the North American Cheyenne tribe had to endure a no less cruel test. When the boy reached the age when he could become a warrior, his father tied him to a pole that stood near the road along which the girls walked to fetch water.
But they tied the young man in a special way: parallel cuts were made in the pectoral muscles, and straps made of raw leather were pulled along them. It was with these belts that the young man was tied to the post. And they didn’t just tie him up, but left him alone, and he had to free himself.
Most of the boys leaned back, pulling on the belts with the weight of their bodies, causing them to cut into their flesh. After two days, the tension of the belts weakened, and the young man was freed.
The more courageous ones grabbed the belts with both hands and moved them back and forth, thanks to which they were released within a few hours. The young man, freed in this way, was praised by everyone, and he was looked upon as a future leader in the war. After the youth had freed himself, he was led into the hut with great honor and looked after with great care.
On the contrary, while he remained tied, women passing by him with water did not speak to him, did not offer to quench his thirst, and did not provide any help.
However, the young man had the right to ask for help. Moreover, he knew that it would be immediately given to him: they would immediately talk to him and free him. But at the same time he remembered that this would be a lifelong punishment for him, because from now on he would be considered a “woman”, dressed in a woman’s dress and forced to perform women's work; he will not have the right to hunt, carry weapons or be a warrior. And, of course, no woman would want to marry him. Therefore, the overwhelming majority of Cheyenne youths endure this cruel torture like Spartans.
WOUNDED SKULL
In some African tribes During initiation, after the ritual of circumcision, an operation is performed to inflict small wounds over the entire surface of the skull until blood appears. The original purpose of this operation was clearly to make holes in the cranial bone.
ROLE GAMES ASMATS
If, for example, the Mandruku and Ouna tribes use ants for initiation, then the Asmats from Irian Jaya cannot do without human skulls during the ceremony of initiating boys into men.
At the beginning of the ritual, a specially painted skull is placed between the legs of the young man undergoing initiation, who sits naked on the bare floor of a special hut. At the same time, he must constantly press the skull to his genitals, without taking his eyes off it for three days. It is believed that during this period all the sexual energy of the owner of the skull is transferred to the candidate.
When the first ritual is completed, the young man is led to the sea, where a sailing canoe awaits him. Accompanied and under the guidance of his uncle and one of his close relatives, the young man goes in the direction of the sun, where, according to legend, the ancestors of the Asmats live. The skull at this time lies in front of him at the bottom of the canoe.
During a sea voyage, the young man is supposed to play several roles. First of all, he must be able to behave like an old man, so weak that he is not even able to stand on his own feet and constantly falls to the bottom of the boat. The adult accompanying the young man lifts him up each time, and then, at the end of the ritual, throws him into the sea along with the skull. This act symbolizes the death of the old man and the birth of a new man.
The subject must also cope with the role of a baby who cannot walk or speak. By playing this role, the young man demonstrates how grateful he is to his close relative for helping him pass the test. When the boat reaches the shore, the young man will already behave like an adult man and bear two names: his own and the name of the owner of the skull.
That is why it was very important for the Asmats, who gained the infamous popularity of ruthless “skull hunters”, to know the name of the person they killed. A skull whose owner's name was unknown was rendered useless and could not be used in initiation ceremonies.
The following incident, which occurred in 1954, can serve as an illustration of the above statement. Three foreigners were guests in the same Asmat village, and local residents invited them to a meal. Although the Asmats were hospitable people, they nevertheless looked at the guests primarily as “carriers of skulls,” intending to deal with them during the holiday.
First, the hosts sang a solemn song in honor of the guests, and then asked them to say their names in order to supposedly insert them into the text of the traditional chant. But as soon as they identified themselves, they immediately lost their heads.
Photographer Jimmy Nelson travels the world capturing wild and semi-wild tribes who manage to maintain a traditional way of life in modern world. Every year it becomes more and more difficult for these peoples, but they do not give up and do not leave the territories of their ancestors, continuing to live the same way they lived.
Asaro tribe
Location: Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Filmed in 2010. Asaro Mudman ("People of the Asaro River Covered in Mud") first met Western world in the middle of the 20th century. Since time immemorial, these people have been smearing themselves with mud and wearing masks to instill fear in other villages.
“Individually they are all very nice, but because their culture is under threat, they are forced to fend for themselves.” - Jimmy Nelson.
Chinese fishermen tribe
Location: Guangxi, China. Filmed in 2010. Fishing with a cormorant is one of the oldest methods fishing with the help of waterfowl. To prevent them from swallowing their catch, fishermen tie them around their necks. Cormorants easily swallow small fish, and bring large ones to their owners.
Maasai
Location: Kenya and Tanzania. Filmed in 2010. This is one of the most famous African tribes. Young Maasai go through a series of rituals to develop responsibility, become men and warriors, learn to protect livestock from predators, and provide security for their families. Thanks to the rituals, ceremonies and instructions of the elders, they grow up to be real brave men.
Livestock are central to Maasai culture.
Nenets
Location: Siberia – Yamal. Filmed in 2011. The traditional occupation of the Nenets is reindeer herding. They lead a nomadic lifestyle, crossing the Yamal Peninsula. For more than a millennium, they have survived at temperatures as low as minus 50°C. The 1,000 km long annual migration route lies across the frozen Ob River.
“If you don’t drink warm blood and don’t eat fresh meat, then you’re doomed to die in the tundra.”
Korowai
Location: Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Filmed in 2010. The Korowai are one of the few Papuan tribes that do not wear kotekas, a type of sheath for the penis. The men of the tribe hide their penises by tightly tying them with leaves along with the scrotum. Korowai are hunter-gatherers who live in tree houses. This people strictly distributes rights and responsibilities between men and women. Their number is estimated at approximately 3,000 people. Until the 1970s, the Korowai were convinced that there were no other peoples in the world.
Yali tribe
Location: Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Filmed in 2010. The Yali live in the virgin forests of the highlands and are officially recognized as pygmies, since the men are only 150 centimeters tall. The koteka (gourd sheath for the penis) is part of the traditional clothing. It can be used to determine whether a person belongs to a tribe. Yali prefer long thin cats.
Karo tribe
Location: Ethiopia. Filmed in 2011. The Omo Valley, located in Africa's Great Rift Valley, is home to approximately 200,000 indigenous peoples who have inhabited it for thousands of years.
Here, tribes have traded among themselves since ancient times, offering each other beads, food, cattle and fabrics. Not long ago, guns and ammunition came into use.
Dasanech tribe
Location: Ethiopia. Filmed in 2011. This tribe is characterized by the absence of a strictly defined ethnicity. A person of almost any background can be admitted to Dasanech.
Guarani
Location: Argentina and Ecuador. Filmed in 2011. For thousands of years, the Amazonian rainforests of Ecuador were home to the Guaraní people. They consider themselves the bravest indigenous group in the Amazon.
Vanuatu tribe
Location: Ra Lava Island (Banks Islands Group), Torba Province. Filmed in 2011. Many Vanuatu people believe that wealth can be achieved through ceremonies. Dance is an important part of their culture, which is why many villages have dance floors called nasara.
Ladakhi tribe
Location: India. Filmed in 2012. Ladakhis share the beliefs of their Tibetan neighbors. Tibetan Buddhism, mixed with images of ferocious demons from the pre-Buddhist Bon religion, has underpinned Ladakhi beliefs for over a thousand years. The people live in the Indus Valley, engage mainly in agriculture, and practice polyandry.
Mursi tribe
Location: Ethiopia. Filmed in 2011. “It is better to die than to live without killing.” Mursi are pastoralists, farmers and successful warriors. Men are distinguished by horseshoe-shaped scars on their bodies. Women also practice scarring and also insert a plate into the lower lip.
Rabari tribe
Location: India. Filmed in 2012. 1000 years ago, representatives of the Rabari tribe were already roaming the deserts and plains that today belong to Western India. Women of this people devote long hours to embroidery. They also manage the farms and decide everything money matters and the men tend the flocks.
Samburu tribe
Location: Kenya and Tanzania. Filmed in 2010. The Samburu are a semi-nomadic people, moving from place to place every 5-6 weeks to provide pasture for their livestock. They are independent and much more traditional than the Maasai. Equality reigns in Samburu society.
Mustang tribe
Location: Nepal. Filmed in 2011. Most of the Mustang people still believe that the world is flat. They are very religious. Prayers and holidays are an integral part of their life. The tribe stands apart as one of the last strongholds of Tibetan culture that has survived to this day. Until 1991, they did not allow any outsiders into their midst.
Maori tribe
Location: New Zealand. Filmed in 2011. Maori are adherents of polytheism and worship many gods, goddesses and spirits. They believe that ancestral spirits and supernatural beings are omnipresent and help the tribe in difficult times. The Maori myths and legends that arose in ancient times reflected their ideas about the creation of the Universe, the origin of gods and people.
“My tongue is my awakening, my tongue is the window of my soul.”
Goroka tribe
Location: Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Filmed in 2011. Life in high mountain villages is simple. Residents have plenty of food, families are friendly, people honor the wonders of nature. They live by hunting, gathering and growing crops. Internecine clashes are common here. To intimidate the enemy, Goroka warriors use war paint and jewelry.
“Knowledge is just rumors while they are in the muscles.”
Huli tribe
Location: Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Filmed in 2010. These indigenous people fight for land, pigs and women. They also spend a lot of effort trying to impress the enemy. Huli paint their faces with yellow, red and white dyes, and also have a famous tradition of making fancy wigs from their own hair.
Himba tribe
Location: Namibia. Filmed in 2011. Each member of the tribe belongs to two clans, father and mother. Marriages are arranged for the purpose of expanding wealth. Appearance is vital here. It talks about a person's place within a group and their phase of life. The elder is responsible for the rules in the group.
Kazakh tribe
Location: Mongolia. Filmed in 2011. Kazakh nomads are descendants of the Turkic, Mongolian, Indo-Iranian group and the Huns, who inhabited the territory of Eurasia from Siberia to the Black Sea.
The ancient art of eagle hunting is one of the traditions that the Kazakhs have managed to preserve to this day. They trust their clan, count on their herds, believe in the pre-Islamic cult of the sky, ancestors, fire and supernatural powers good and evil spirits.
North Sentinel Island, one of the Indian-owned Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal, is located just 40 kilometers from the coast of South Andaman Island and 50 kilometers from its developed capital city of Port Blair. These 72 square kilometers of forest are only one-fifth larger than Manhattan. All the other islands of the archipelago have been explored, and their peoples have long established relations with the Indian government, but not a single stranger has ever set foot on the soil of North Sentinel Island. Moreover, the Indian government has established a five-kilometer exclusion zone around the island to protect the local people, known as the Sentinelese, who have been isolated from world civilization for millennia. Thanks to this, the Sentinelese contrast sharply with other peoples.
Residents of the island this moment are one of about a hundred uncontacted peoples remaining on the planet. Most are closely located in remote West Papua and the Amazon rainforests of Brazil and Peru. But many of these uncontacted tribes are not completely isolated. As the human rights organization Survival International notes, these peoples will undoubtedly learn from their cultural neighbors. However, many uncontacted peoples, whether due to the atrocities of the colonialists who conquered them in the past or a lack of interest in the achievements of the modern world, prefer to remain closed. They are now a changing and dynamic people, preserving their languages, traditions and skills, rather than ancient or primitive tribes. And since they are not completely secluded, missionaries and even people who want to eradicate them for the sake of free land show interest in them. It is precisely because of its territorial isolation from other cultures and external threats The Sentinelese are a unique ethnic group even among uncontacted peoples.
But this does not mean that no one has ever tried to contact the Sentinelese. People have been sailing to the Andaman Islands for at least the last thousand years. Both the British and Indians began colonizing the region from the 18th century. Over the last century, on most islands, even the most remote tribes have had contact with other ethnic groups, and their inhabitants have been assimilated more large people and even appointed to government positions. Despite laws restricting access to traditional tribal lands since the 1950s, illegal contact with tribes occurs throughout much of the archipelago. And yet no one has yet set foot on the lands of North Sentinel Island, because its population responded to all attempts by modern scientists to visit the island with incredible aggression. One of the first encounters with the local population was that of an escaped Indian prisoner who washed ashore on the island in 1896. Soon his body, strewn with arrows and with its throat cut, was found on the coast. The fact that even neighboring tribes find the Sentinelese language completely incomprehensible implies that they maintained this hostile isolation for hundreds or even thousands of years.
India has tried for years to contact the Sentinelese for many reasons: scientific, protectionist and even based on the idea that it is better for the tribe to maintain contact with the state than with fishermen who accidentally swam here, destroying the ethnic group with diseases and cruelty. But the locals successfully hid from the first anthropological mission in 1967 and scared away the scientists who returned in 1970 and 1973 with a hail of arrows. In 1974, the National Geographic director was shot in the leg by an arrow. In 1981, a stranded sailor was forced to fight off the Sentinelese for several days before help arrived. During the 1970s, several more people were wounded or killed while trying to establish contact with the natives. Eventually, almost twenty years later, anthropologist Trilokina Pandi made some meager contacts, spending several years dodging arrows and giving the natives metal and coconuts—he allowed himself to be stripped by the Sentinelese and gathered some information about their culture. But, realizing the financial losses, the Indian government finally gave in, leaving the Sentinelese to fend for themselves and declaring the island a no-go zone to protect the tribe's habitat.
Considering what happened to the rest of the tribes of the Andaman Islands, this may be for the best. The Great Andamanese, who numbered about 5,000 before first contact, are now only a few dozen people after waves of migration. The Jarawa people lost 10 percent of their population within two years of first contact in 1997 due to measles, displacement and sexual abuse by newcomers and police. Other tribes, such as the Onge, suffer from rampant alcoholism in addition to bullying and insults. It is typical of a people whose culture has been radically changed and whose lives have been turned upside down by an outside force that has invaded their territory.
A Sentinelese man shoots an arrow at a helicopter
Meanwhile, video of the Sentinelese - some 200 dark-skinned people whose only "clothing" was ocher on their bodies and cloth headbands - showed that the tribe's inhabitants are alive and well. We don't know much about their life and can only be guided by Pandey's observations and subsequent videos taken from a helicopter. They are thought to feed on coconuts by cracking them open with their teeth, and also prey on turtles, lizards and small birds. We suspect that they obtain metal for their arrowheads from ships sunk off the coast, since they do not have modern technologies– even the technology of making fire. (Instead, they have an intricate procedure for storing and carrying smoldering logs and burning coals in clay vessels. The coals are kept in this state for thousands of years and probably date back to prehistoric lightning strikes.) We know that they live in thatched huts, for fishing they make primitive canoes, with the help of which it is impossible to go out into the open ocean, as a greeting they sit on each other’s laps and slap the interlocutor on the buttocks, and also sing using a two-note system. But there is no certainty that all these observations are not false impressions, bearing in mind how little information we know about their culture.
Using DNA samples from surrounding tribes, and given the unique isolation of the Sentinelese language, we suspect that the genetic ancestry of the people of North Sentinel Island may go back 60,000 years. If this is true, then the Sentinelese are direct descendants of the first people to leave Africa. Any geneticist dreams of studying the DNA of the Sentinelese to better understand human history. Not to mention, the Sentinelese somehow survived the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which devastated the surrounding islands and washed away much of their own. The inhabitants themselves remained untouched, hiding on the island's peaks as if they had predicted a tsunami. This gives rise to speculation about whether they have secret knowledge about weather and nature that could be useful to us. But this secret is carefully guarded, and, no matter how ironic it may sound, the Sentinelese are clearly not eager to teach us. However, if they make contact, due to their long isolation, the whole world will definitely be enriched, both culturally and scientifically.
But despite all the tribe's previous luck and attempts to maintain its isolation, we can see worrying signs signaling an imminent forceful invasion outside world into island life. Thus, the murder by the islanders of two fishermen accidentally thrown ashore and the subsequent unsuccessful attempt to pick up their corpses - a helicopter with rescuers was driven away by the arrows of the Sentinelese - led to a thirst for justice among the Indians. That same year, officials noted that the island's waters had become attractive to poachers and that some of them might be entering the island itself (although there is currently no evidence of poachers coming into contact with the Sentinelese). Today there is a real threat of collision. And when contact with the tribe occurs, the best we can do is to prevent the atrocities that drove the Sentinelese to cruelty in the past, and try to preserve their ancient history and culture as much as possible.
Author: Mark Hay.
Original: GOOD Magazine.
