https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/22/photographer-shows-first-images-of-uncontacted-amazon-tribe

The article above talks about a previously uncontacted tribe of indigenous people in the Amazon rain forest. There are only a handful of these left, in some of the most remote spots on our planet, and they are rapidly disappearing due to habitat destruction, cultural absorption, and criminal activity. Its so sad, these are alternate ways of viewing reality, soon there will be only ours, and it is rapidly becoming more homogeneous and standardized.

Another language, another religion, another kinship structure, gone forever. Even those indigenous cultures that are not violently uprooted are changing, as trade and contact with the outside changes how they live, forever, and makes them more like everybody else.

I can’t think of any way around it. Even if we could protect them and their homelands from intrusion and exploitation, they will become familiar with the rest of the world around them. They will want to see, explore, find work, enjoy what they perceive, rightly or wrongly, as the benefits of civilization. And we certainly can’t deny them things like medical care, we cannot let them die of diseases or injuries that are easily cured. Can we deny them education? Its an ethical dilemma with no way out and no easy answers.

Who’s to decide what is in their culture that deserves to survive, and what not? And no matter how gentle we are with them, our very presence will change them completely, and forever. These peoples already have modern artifacts (knives, T-shirts, string) from our world that have been brought in by trade from surrounding cultures that trade with modern man. You can’t turn the clock back, only slow it down. And should we? Can we? It really doesn’t matter how benign and empathetic we are. We are participating in cultural genocide whether we like it or not.

Reflect on it. Maybe one day it will happen to us.