An Indian tribe that has had very limited contact with the outside world has been located in a remote Amazon region, federal authorities said Friday.
The Metyktire tribe, with about 87 members, was found last week in an area that is difficult to reach because of thick jungle and a lack of nearby rivers some 1,200 miles northwest of Rio de Janeiro, said Mario Moura, a spokesman for the Federal Indian Bureau, or Funai.
The tribe is a subgroup of the Kayapo tribe, and lives on its 12.1 million-acre Menkregnoti Indian reservation, Moura said.
The Kayapo had no significant contact with the Metyktire until two tribe members inexplicably appeared at a Kayapo village last week, he said.
"We don't know why they decided to make contact now ... only time will tell. This is a very slow process," Moura said.
Uncontacted tribes are usually discovered when loggers and ranchers encroach on their territories.
Patrick Cunningham of the London-based Indigenous People's Cultural Support Trust, which is involved in an unrelated expedition in the region, said in an e-mail that the tribe speaks an archaic version of the Kayapo language and goes naked. Like many less-assimilated members of the Kayapo, the men wear penis sheaths and several have plates in their lower lips, he said. The women shave the tops of their heads.
Cunningham, who has not met the tribe, said the Kayapo believe it is was formed by a group of families who fled deeper into the forest when the pioneering Indian defender Orlando Villas Boas appeared in the area in the 1950s.
Megaron Txucarramae, a Kayapo Indian and Funai representative in the region, met with the newly found group in Kremoro village and banned all but a medical team from entering or leaving, fearing the tribe could be more vulnerable to diseases than the Kayapo, Cunningham said.
Miriam Ross, a campaigner with the indigenous rights group Survival International, estimates there are more than 100 uncontacted tribes across the world.
4 comments:
Don't know what all the fuss is about. There are groups with similarly limited contact with the outside world living in the Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland. Don't know if the men bother with penis sheaths but I've heard that the women do shave.
URGENT - GLASGOW EARTHQUAKE APPEAL
At 00.54 on Monday 23rd September 2002 a major earthquake hit measuring 4.8 on the richter scale epicentered on Glasgow.
Victims can be seen wandering aimlessly muttering: "Ah wiz sh*ttin' masel", "Ah need some jellies".
The Earthquake decimated the area, causing approximately £30 worth of damage. Untold disruption and distress was caused:
* Many were woken well before their giro arrived.
* Several priceless collections of mementos from the Balearics and Spanish costas were damaged.
* Three areas of historic and scientifically significant litter were disturbed.
* The cone fell off the head of the statue outside the Modern Art Gallery.
* Thousands are confused and bewildered, trying to come to terms with the fact that something interesting has happened in Glasgow.
* One resident, Mary-Alice McGregor, a 17 year old mother-of-three said "It was such a shock, little Chelsea came running into my bedroom crying. My youngest two, Tyler-Morgan and Shauni slept through it. I was still shaking when I was watching Trisha the next morning."
* Apparently though, looting did carry on as normal.
* The British Red Cross have so far managed to ship 4000 crates of buckfast to the area to help the stricken masses.
* Rescue workers are still searching through the rubble and have found large quantities of personal belongings including benefit books and jewellery from Elizabeth Duke at Argos.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Clothing is most sought after. Items required include:
- Sovvy rings
- Baseball caps
- Shell suits
- Tesco two stripe trainers
- White socks
- Chunky gold chains
Food parcels may be harder to put together but are necessary all the same.
Required foodstuffs include:
- Faggots and Buckfast
- Grey Peas and Buckfast
- Pork Scratchings and Buckfast
- Tripe and Onions and Buckfast
- "Pigs Blood Pud" and Buckfast
- Fray Bentos Pies and Buckfast
* £2 buys chips, scraps and ginger for a family of four.
* £10 can take a family to Coatbridge for the day, where children can sniff glue and spike up among the national collection of stinging nettles.
* 22p buys a biro for filling in a spurious compensation claim
Please send your credit card number.
Sheffield, I believe, suffered a similar natural catastrophe, where it was estimated that a twister caused £2 million worth of improvements.
But let's not get personal. Two marketing guys going head to head isn't the way forward. Truce?
I wish the twister had uprooted all the traffic lights, there are far too many in Sheffield! We could sure do with the improvements :)
Truce ( it was only a joke)
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