Uncontacted People - How do they still exist?

[Slant]

This thread motivated me to read the according Wikipedia page. It's quite interesting...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncontacted_peoples

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Wouldn't it be hilarious to drop an armored TV-set in the middle of their town and showcase some reality tv drama? xD

Edit: Don't forget to put a camera on it so we can observe their reactions!

After the initial amazement at people in a box... I assume their reaction to be pretty much like this...

"So... that's the new world? Screw it, they can keep it..."

[Deleted]

The amount of "inventors" compared to the overall population of the emerging world was a lot more than 1 in 200. Even if they had 1000 there would be no guarantee of it. But also they don't have time. They spend their lives surviving. They aren't thinking about what can be improved, they don't have a concept that things can be improved. They don't have large meetings where people can talk and discuss, they don't have complex language etc. They have no access to the things that came before us. Many of the inventors had access to things like - basic math and science from thousands of years of European people. They would have to invent everything, from scratch, then 90% of their energy goes into survival.

[Deleted]

I find this thread depressing

[Orlong]

they offend orlong's morals. that's reason enough for them to shape up and behave.

They dont offend me at all, and I have no problem with them at all. Im just amazed that they havent evolved to even invent the wheel, while the west has been to space, and the fact that they havent even looked around at all the advanced civilization miles away and thought it might be nice to have air conditioning given the hot and humid climate that many of them live in.

I was especially surprised to see we even had one in the US as recently as 1911.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishi

Ishi (c. 1860 – March 25, 1916) was the last member of the Yahi, a group of the Yana people of the U.S. state of California. Widely acclaimed in his time as the "last wild Indian" in America, Ishi lived most of his life completely outside modern culture. At about 49 years of age, in 1911, he emerged from "the wild" near Oroville, California, leaving his ancestral homeland, present-day Tehama County, near the foothills of Lassen Peak, known to Ishi as Wa ganu p'a.

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Not really been seperate for long enough, probably. Humans haven't been around for very long, evolutionarily speaking.

As for the OP, they do have some of the stuff you talk about, but as other people have mentioned, it's difficult with a small population. Kind of like how if you only have 50 people and you need to make a football team, the chances of having enough good team members is low, whereas if you have a population of 50 million...

Why doesnt their population ever increase though? Its not like they have limited space. over thousands of years, you would think that population would increase like it does everywhere else. Reproduction usually multiplies each generation in every other society unless people are not allowed to like in China

[Deleted]

They dont offend me at all, and I have no problem with them at all. Im just amazed that they havent evolved to even invent the wheel, while the west has been to space, and the fact that they havent even looked around at all the advanced civilization miles away and thought it might be nice to have air conditioning given the hot and humid climate that many of them live in.

I was especially surprised to see we even had one in the US as recently as 1911.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishi

Im just amazed that they haven't evolved to even invent the wheel,

That's not evolution, that's invention; And need motivates it, they live in very dense, very difficult terrain typically where such movement of a wheel based item would be difficult.

They also have little in the need of moving supplies or lumber that would motivate the creation of wheel based cart, they carry meat on sticks back to cook after hunting, they've created huts and basic buildings from wood ect.

the fact that they havent even looked around at all the advanced civilization miles away and thought it might be nice to have air conditioning given the hot and humid climate that many of them live in.

Miles away?

Either you don't appreciate the sheer distance involved and the geographic location they reside in, or you think they've managed to stay secluded all these thousands of years from intentional ignorance from a nearby neighbor.

Just a tip, the amazon is 2.1 million square miles of land.

They were born and adapted to such climates, just as people in Africa have adapted and gotten use to theirs.

[Orlong]

The technology part has been answered, so dropping that, but why would you want them to join the "modern world"? What would be the point?

In the end, do you think the average westerner lead better lives then them?

I would say so. Definitely a more comfortable lifestyle. Living in a rainforest would be hot and humid and there are lots of bugs, snakes, and poisonous creatures. There is no entertainment in a rainforest (nothing to do when they arent hunting for food). A modern society has air conditioning, comfortable furniture, houses that wont fall apart every time the wind blows or it rains. Western life has a longer lifespan do to modern medicine. Id rather live to be 80 than 40.

The only positive I see to their lifestyle is its relaxed since they dont have to work (just hunt for food), and they dont have to worry about money problems and paying bills.

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Better from our point of view maybe but from theirs , probably not.

They would probably think otherwise if there was some way we could show them all the cool things they could be doing and using if there was a way to do it that wouldnt scare them or make them want to kill you.

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Go one step further, what benefit would they bring to our society? Their language would be dead in a century or two, they won't have any history anyone cares about because they won't have records and if it was important we'd already know about it. All we bring to them from their perspective is disease, confusion and fear. All they are to us is a curiosity that few people care about. There's no benefit to it from their perspective but from ours there is definitely pros for them. The only plus for us would be maybe there's a plant we can use for drugs that only grows there, but the chances are small.

As far as language dying. That would be a good thing. This world would be better off if we ALL spoke just one language. It would make communicating worldwide so much easier, and would remove a LOT of barriers to immigration (people could move from country to country much easier, business (like Blizzard having to translate every patch note or web post to 15 languages or whatever it is), entertainment (books, TV shows and movies could be released simultaneously worldwide), and scholastic research (more people could collaborate)

[ItachiZaku]

Are they really that ignorant of the world?

Also why dont the countries that they live in make them adhere to their laws? Many of these tribes KILL anyone who comes anywhere close to them and yet they are never arrested for murder.

And this is why I'm so angry at the world (more just the USA). I'm "Native American" and I tend to see almost everyone i encounter in a day, as my enemy.

[Deleted]

And this is why I'm so angry at the world (more just the USA). I'm "Native American" and I tend to see almost everyone i encounter in a day, as my enemy.

...Why?

I'm interested, do they say something to offend you?

Or is it the very existence of these people?

[Kalis]

I would say so. Definitely a more comfortable lifestyle. Living in a rainforest would be hot and humid and there are lots of bugs, snakes, and poisonous creatures. There is no entertainment in a rainforest (nothing to do when they arent hunting for food). A modern society has air conditioning, comfortable furniture, houses that wont fall apart every time the wind blows or it rains. Western life has a longer lifespan do to modern medicine. Id rather live to be 80 than 40.

The only positive I see to their lifestyle is its relaxed since they dont have to work (just hunt for food), and they dont have to worry about money problems and paying bills.

Presumably you live in a major city with easy access to all amenities and entertainment that is unavailable in the countryside.

[Miyani]

A lot of tribes have been contacted in the past and shown modern tech, typically they say they are not interested in such things. Btw they do have entertainment though it may be vastly different to your own.
Unfortunately when most untouched tribes do finally get contacted (mostly in the past) Americans tend to be very quick in sending christian missionaries to try and convert them to religion. These tribes response to such things tends more often than not to be, um nice story but we have our own stories and prefer them, so no thanks.

[Darththeo]

They would probably think otherwise if there was some way we could show them all the cool things they could be doing and using if there was a way to do it that wouldnt scare them or make them want to kill you.

Some would and Some wouldn't ... why do people honestly think these people will just embrace our culture?

[Mayhem]

Why doesnt their population ever increase though? Its not like they have limited space. over thousands of years, you would think that population would increase like it does everywhere else. Reproduction usually multiplies each generation in every other society unless people are not allowed to like in China

what are you talking about?

no it doesn´t

[Ravenblade]

They dont offend me at all, and I have no problem with them at all. Im just amazed that they havent evolved to even invent the wheel[...]

Most inventions follow practicability and needs. The wheel came into existence through the need of better carriage without requiring additional animals or people. Or simply because its form requires a certain type of applications.

[ItachiZaku]

...Why?

I'm interested, do they say something to offend you?

Or is it the very existence of these people?

Well, I'm a halfie, without having known anything about the other half. I feel as though I'm behind enemy lines, having been invaded and my land occupied. Since I'm a halfie that looks the white half, there have been so many times where the white man has seen me as friendly to him or overlooked my presence due to my skin color and spoke quite freely about all of us minorities. As a black friend of mine said "you have the best of both worlds, you look like one of them, but you really one of us."

As the world becomes more and more PC, obnoxiously so, i see two fronts. I see the "Obama is decent, good hard working president that gets shit on by rich, white america (republicians)" and then I see people say that exact same thing in the company of people, and turn around privately and say "probably the only nigger ever worth enough to do what we want" or other absurd things. I'm often amazed at how shitty people are, which has really deteriorated any sort of love for my fellow man (as you have seen in some of the other threads).

And (not an excuse I suppose), being from New York, I've probably seen it more than others would in other places.

So, to directly answer, a little bit of both I guess.

[Orlong]

Presumably you live in a major city with easy access to all amenities and entertainment that is unavailable in the countryside.

I actually live in a rural area, but Im not afraid to drive 35 minutes for entertainment, and rural areas do have gas stations, doctors, and air conditioning

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Most inventions follow practicability and needs. The wheel came into existence through the need of better carriage without requiring additional animals or people. Or simply because its form requires a certain type of applications.

Well, the wheel would make it a LOT easier for them to haul the deer back to the village that they just killed for food instead of dragging it miles

[Nihilan]

War and deprivation are the greatest driving forces behind technological evolution that have ever existed. An isolated, peaceful community that has a plentiful food supply has no real impetus to evolve technologically speaking.

They will likely continue along at their present level of development until deforestation, illness, or assimilation eventually wipes the culture out. And it will happen eventually.

[Ravenblade]

Well, the wheel would make it a LOT easier for them to haul the deer back to the village that they just killed for food instead of dragging it miles

The ground may not be really good enough for wheels especially considering the levels of humidity in this environment. Wooden wheels may not last long and succumb to rot and splintering, stone wheels are too impracticable on muddy and loose ground. Given they at least know the basics of behaviour of wood and heavy objects in their environment it's not hard to see why they never went far from this angle at least. Another factor is the amount and range of the load to transport and the amount of manpower available. Secluded people tend not be trading people so their travel distance is always relatively small.
Surprisingly even the highly advanced Maya did not know wheel-based transportation devices but they had quite a lot people to move stuff around. Any application requires a minimum and maximum parameter to perform in which is why ancient Egyptians knowing the wheel but preferred sleds on wet underground to transport heavy loads. Likewise the Maya used the wheel for a lot of applications just not for transports.

[Deleted]

Why doesnt their population ever increase though? Its not like they have limited space. over thousands of years, you would think that population would increase like it does everywhere else. Reproduction usually multiplies each generation in every other society unless people are not allowed to like in China

Population tends to grow to the point where there are enough people using the resources that are available and not much more. They have an area which they can produce food, build homes etc in. If they grow enough that that area can't support the population, people will go hungry and will be more likely to die, either from hunger, or from being weak and so more susceptible to disease or animals. To support a larger population, they would need to expand into other areas, which they may not be able to do without coming into contact with other people. Places where there is a population boom like that tend to have a lot of people crammed into a very small space, and in some cases a religious ban on contraception or some kind of push to have children (like in germany around world war time, mothers were given incentives to have more children etc, and historically christians have been pushed to pumping out as many babies as possible to spread the faith). Uncontacted people don't tend to have a particularly big population density like this, and with living in a harsh environment, I would imagine they get quite a few deaths. Group sizes will swell and shrink, for sure, though as well you may find that when a group gets pretty big, some disagreement or other may cause a section of that group to split off and go live somewhere else.

[Vermicious]

I would say the OP is the one who is ignorant about the world. Perhaps a bit of research before asking such a silly question.

[Kalis]

I actually live in a rural area, but Im not afraid to drive 35 minutes for entertainment, and rural areas do have gas stations, doctors, and air conditioning

However if you move to a city you would definitely have a more comfortable lifestyle, without the need for a long journey to get entertainment. Living in a rural area there are lots of bugs, snakes, and other unsavoury creatures. Yet you choose to live in the countryside, so why shouldn't they choose to live in their world?


Lots of people are resistant to change, you yourself come across as someone who prefers a more traditional way of life, so the only difference between all those people who prefer an old fashioned way of living is the cut off date these uncontacted people have chosen to maintain - some people want to live in the 1950s, some want to stay as hunter gatherers.