Man of the Hole - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32703518 - Sept 2022 (3 comments)
'Man of the Hole': Last of his tribe dies in Brazil - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32638304 - Aug 2022 (14 comments)
Amazon activists mourn death of ‘man of the hole’, last of his tribe - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32633003 - Aug 2022 (2 comments)
Man of the Hole - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29445016 - Dec 2021 (6 comments)
Isolated man in Amazon Jungle - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12557052 - Sept 2016 (4 comments)
> In 1984 a group of Australian Aboriginal people living a traditional nomadic life were encountered in the heart of the Gibson desert in Western Australia.
> They had been unaware of the arrival of Europeans on the continent, let alone cars - or even clothes.
> If you want to know how Australian Aboriginal peoples lived for 40,000 years, just ask Yukultji.
> She stepped into the 20th Century just 30 years ago.
~ (written in 2014) https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30500591
Amazing story just the same.
> takes the viewer on a cultural travelogue through the three regions of the Kimberleys: the coast, the rivers and tablelands, and the desert.
and you're correct about the breadth of languages across Australia as a whole.
The point stands that this group were first hand direct testimony to Western Desert lifestyles prior to colonial invasion.
One of the more interesting thing about growing up in the less inhabited parts of Western Austrlia (ie. most it given its 3x size of Texas with a pop of > 2 million mostly living in the SW corner) is the direct interaction with many people that still directly connect to traditional lifestyles [2].
[1] https://www.roninfilms.com.au/feature/710/milli-milli.html
I found it incredible how several of the siblings are now well-known artists[0]! What a life these people have led.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warlimpirrnga_Tjapaltjarri
Their bond to each other, fear of the new world, confusion, and inability to communicate are heartbreaking. The way they try to smile at the camera alone is haunting.
Available free on YouTube: https://youtu.be/kGuxaY8HPjs
> Civilization is basically an ever expanding cultural grey goo meat grinder
In some ways, it was, in some ways, it wasn't. Civilization allows some ideas and some ways of life that aren't/weren't possible otherwise. An example cited in this thread is that of an aboriginal group (Pintupi Nine) that became artists after contact with civilization. Surely being a dedicated artist would be much more difficult without civilization support. Many civilizations were respectful of regional differences and even local religions and other beliefs (even e.g. Alexander). I mean, modern civilization essentially respects regional differences and has understood rights w.r.t. cultures. If you look at the consensus from social sciences it seems by far in the side of non-uniformization as being healthier and preferable choice for societies (and hence for policymaking). And of course and some of the absurdities of 20th century were ideas of supremacy and forced uniformity.
And most important, civilization is not static (and not a physical law), it's a system, maybe almost like an operating system, and we continually are making choices on how to build it. And studying how our design choices contribute to better, more fulfilling, more interesting existences.
I assure you, those choices are being made right now, and more active participation, in-depth study and science are important to assure to good future. (you shouldn't use the first few OS designs as a rule that all OSes will need to follow forever)
"Nobody really regrets any of it"
I wonder if they are using some sort of aerial surveillance. Maybe looking for heat signature from a fire at night? (Assuming he knows about or even needs fire.) Or perhaps trail cameras placed all over his territory. In a YouTube video the officials are seen giving him an axe and other gifts. A GPS locator hidden in the handle of the axe? I don't believe that's the answer, but thinking about all the nature videos I've seen in which GPS trackers are attached to birds, whales, mountain lions, and even house cats wandering the garden, it is at least technically doable.
Hopefully there are some outdoorsmen here on HN who can shed light on how the tracking might be done.
There is some hint to that in the Wikipedia entry: "They observed that he periodically moved his home, building straw huts for shelter. He hunted wild game, collected fruits and honey, and also planted maize and manioc. Over the years, more than 50 huts built by him were identified by FUNAI."
I can think of 2 major differences between locating him vs hikers:
1. Less time pressure as the government could wait weeks/months between locating him. Finding him once in a 3 month window is a success, finding hikers after 3 months would likely be for the purposes of recovering remains.
2. Hikers usually don't construct multiple semi-permanent structures that can be identified from the air (holes, animal traps, shelter)
He lost them all. All taken from him. His whole surrounding culture.
Imagine being him.
After that, I realized what was so strange about them. They were ghosts, but they still had their bodies.
One lifes day to day and digs a grave for oneself wherever the wind blows you. Hoping that at least in the afterlife, you will be together with the butchered.
The only way to stop poachers, is to provide the natives with area denial devices.. magnetic mines and drones. Nothing else will work.
Ironic though, that the genocide of the north, which stopped and was historically recognized as wrong, can go on in the present day south, without creating the same political fervor.
It happened on Brazil's watch so it's Brazil's responsibility, but I'm ill-convinced convinced that in its absence this wouldn't continue to happen (in its absence, there's no FINRA, no organization protecting these tribes... And there are still people willing to kill for mining profit).
And even when we do have the opportunity, there are cases where we can't, because the language is untranslatable, for example the North Sentinel islanders: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentinelese_language
I think that in the end, none of debate will matter and that all remaining tribes will either be dead or clumsily brought into civilization without regard for ethics.
And they're observed remotely merely to help ensure that violent people don't disturb them - making sure they aren't killed or driven to civilization unless they want to go.
A preserve is an area carved out to prohibit the others from going in and screwing with someone or something.
So basically, they’re polar opposites.
Jeeze.