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The main part of the peoples of Africa includes groups consisting of several thousand, and sometimes hundreds of people, but at the same time - does not exceed 10% of the total population of this continent. As a rule, such small ethnic groups are the wildest tribes.
It is to this group that, for example, the Mursi tribe belongs.
Ethiopian tribe Mursi - the most aggressive ethnic group
Ethiopia is the oldest country in the world. It is Ethiopia that is considered the progenitor of mankind, it is here that the remains of our ancestor, modestly named Lucy, were found.
More than 80 ethnic groups live in the country.
Living in southwestern Ethiopia, on the border with Kenya and Sudan, settled in the Mago Park, the Mursi tribe is distinguished by unusually harsh customs. They, by right, can be nominated for the title of the most aggressive ethnic group.
Prone to frequent alcohol consumption and uncontrolled use of weapons. In everyday life, the main weapon of the men of the tribe is the Kalashnikov assault rifle, which they buy in Sudan.
In fights, they can often beat each other almost to death, trying to prove their dominance in the tribe.
Scientists attribute this tribe to a mutated Negroid race, with distinctive features in the form of short stature, wide bones and crooked legs, low and strongly compressed foreheads, flattened noses and pumped up short necks.
Mursi female bodies often look flabby and sickly, bellies and breasts drooping, and backs stooped. There is practically no hair, which was often hidden under intricate headdresses of a very fantasy appearance, using as a material everything that can be picked up or caught nearby: rough skins, branches, dried fruits, marsh clams, someone's tails, dead insects, and even an incomprehensible smelly fall.
The most famous feature of the Mursi tribe is the tradition of inserting plates into the lips of girls.
In the more public, in contact with civilization, Mursi, you can not always see all these characteristic attributes, but the exotic look of their lower lip is the calling card of the tribe.
Plates are made of wood or clay in different sizes, the shape can be round or trapezoidal, sometimes with a hole in the middle. For beauty, the plates are covered with a pattern.
The lower lip is cut in childhood, pieces of wood are inserted there, gradually increasing their diameter.
Mursi girls start wearing plates at the age of 20, six months before marriage. The lower lip is pierced and a small disk is inserted into it, after the lip is stretched, the disk is replaced with a larger one and so on until the desired diameter is reached (up to 30 centimeters !!).
The size of the plate matters: the larger the diameter, the more the girl is valued and the more cattle the groom will pay for her. Girls must wear these plates at all times except during bedtime and meals, and they can also take them out if there are no males of the tribe nearby.
When the plate is pulled out, the lip droops like a long round cord. Almost all Mursi have no front teeth, the tongue is cracked to the point of blood.
The second strange and frightening adornment of Mursi women is the monista, which are recruited from human finger phalanges (nek). One person has only 28 of these bones in their hands. Each necklace usually consists of phalanxes of five or six tassels, some lovers of "jewelry" monist wrap their neck in several rows
It glistens with fat and emits a sweetish rotting smell of melted human fat, every bone is rubbed daily. The source for the beads never runs out: the priestess of the tribe is ready to deprive the hands of a man who has violated the laws for almost every offense.
It is customary for this tribe to do scarification (scarring).
Men can afford to be scarred only after the first murder of one of their enemies or ill-wishers. If they kill a man, they adorn the right hand, if a woman, then the left.
Their religion, animism, deserves a longer and more shocking story.
Short: women are priestesses of death so they daily give their husbands drugs and poisons.
Antidotes are distributed by the High Priestess, but sometimes salvation does not come to everyone. In such cases, a white cross is drawn on the widow's plate, and she becomes a very respected member of the tribe, who is not eaten after death, but buried in the trunks of special ritual trees. Honor is given to such priestesses because of the fulfillment of the main mission - the will of the God of Death Yamda, which they were able to fulfill by destroying the physical body and freeing the highest spiritual Essence from their man.
The rest of the dead are waiting for the collective eating of the whole tribe. Soft fabrics are boiled in a cauldron, bones are used for jewelry-amulets and thrown on swamps to mark dangerous places.
What seems very wild for a European, for Mursi is commonplace and tradition.
Bushmen tribe
The African Bushmen are the most ancient representatives of the human race. And this is not an assumption at all, but a scientifically proven fact. Who are these ancient people?
The Bushmen are a group of hunting tribes in South Africa. Now these are the remains of a large ancient African population. Bushmen are notable for their short stature, wide cheekbones, narrow slit eyes and much swollen eyelids. It is difficult to determine the true color of their skin, because in the Kalahari they are not allowed to waste water on washing. But you can see that they are much lighter than their neighbors. Their skin tone is slightly yellowish, which is more typical for South Asians.
Young bushwomen are considered the most beautiful among the female population of Africa.
But as soon as they reach puberty and become mothers, these beauties are simply unrecognizable. Bushmen women have overdeveloped hips and buttocks, and their belly is constantly swollen. This is a consequence of malnutrition.
To distinguish a pregnant Bushwoman from other women of the tribe, she is coated with ash or ocher, since this is very difficult to do in appearance. Bushmen men already by the age of 35 become like octogenarians, due to the fact that their skin sags and the body is covered with deep wrinkles.
Life in the Kalahari is very harsh, but even here there are laws and regulations. The most important wealth in the desert is water. There are old people in the tribe who know how to find water. In the place that they indicate, the representatives of the tribe either dig wells or bring water out with the help of plant stems.
Each Bushman tribe has a secret well, which is carefully filled with stones or covered with sand. During the dry season, the Bushmen dig a hole at the bottom of a dried-up well, take a stem of a plant, suck water through it, taking it into their mouths, and then spit it out into the shell of an ostrich egg.
The South African Bushmen tribe is the only people on Earth whose men have permanent erections. This phenomenon does not cause any discomfort or inconvenience, except for the fact that during foot hunting men have to attach the penis to the belt so as not to cling to it. branches.
Bushmen don't know what private property is. All animals and plants growing on their territory are considered common. Therefore, they hunt both wild animals and farm cows. For this they were very often punished and destroyed by entire tribes. Nobody wants such neighbors.
Among the Bushmen tribes, shamanism is very popular. They do not have leaders, but there are elders and healers who not only cure diseases, but also communicate with spirits. Bushmen are very afraid of the dead, and firmly believe in the afterlife. They pray to the sun, moon, stars. But they do not ask for health or happiness, but for success in hunting.
Bushman tribes speak Khoisan languages which are very difficult for Europeans to pronounce. A characteristic feature of these languages is clicking consonants. The representatives of the tribe speak among themselves very quietly. This is a long-standing habit of hunters - so as not to scare the game.
There is confirmed evidence that a hundred years ago they were engaged in drawing. Rock paintings depicting people and various animals are still found in the caves: buffaloes, gazelles, birds, ostriches, antelopes, crocodiles.
In their drawings there are also unusual fairy-tale characters: monkey people, eared snakes, people with a crocodile face. There is an entire open-air gallery in the desert that presents these amazing drawings by unknown artists.
But now the Bushmen do not paint, they are great in dance, music, pantomime and legends.
VIDEO: Shamanic ritual rite of healing of the Bushmen tribe. Part 1
Shamanic ritual rite of healing of the Bushmen tribe. Part 2
These people do not know what electricity is and how to drive cars, they live the way their ancestors lived for centuries, hunting for food and fishing. They cannot read and write, and they can die from a common cold or a scratch. All this is about wild tribes that still exist on our planet.
There are not many such communities closed from civilization; they live mainly in warm countries, in Africa, South America, Asia and Australia. To date, it is believed that no more than 100 such tribes have survived on the entire planet. Sometimes it is almost impossible to study their life and culture, because they live too isolated and do not want to have contacts with the outside world, or their immune system is not ready to “meet” with modern bacteria, and any disease that a modern person may not even notice , for a savage will be fatal. Unfortunately, civilization is still “advancing”, uncontrolled cutting down of trees is carried out almost everywhere, people are still developing new lands, and wild tribes are forced to leave their lands, and sometimes even go to the “big” world.
Papuans
This people lives in New Guinea, is found in Melanesia, on the islands of Halmahera, Timor and Alor.
In terms of anthropogenic appearance, the Papuans are closest to the Melanesians, but with a completely different language and culture. Some tribes speak completely different languages that are not even related. To date, their national language is Tok Pisin Creole.
In total, there are approximately 3.7 million Papuans, while some wild tribes number no more than 100 people. Among them there are many nationalities: Bonkins, Gimbu, Ekari, Chimbu and others. It is believed that these people inhabited Oceania 20-25 thousand years ago.
Each community has a public house called buambramba. This is a kind of cultural and spiritual center of the entire village. In some villages you can see a huge house in which everyone lives together, its length can reach 200 meters.
The Papuans are farmers, the main crops grown are taro, banana, yam and coconut. The harvest must be stored on the vine, that is, it is collected only for eating. The savages also breed pigs and hunt.
pygmies
These are the wild tribes of Africa. Even the ancient Egyptians knew about their existence. They are mentioned by Homer and Herodotus. However, the first time it was possible to confirm the existence of pygmies only in the 19th century, when they were discovered in the basin of the Uzle and Ituri rivers. To date, the existence of these people is known in Rwanda, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, Zaire and in the forests of Gabon. You can even meet pygmies in South Asia, the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia.
A distinctive feature of the pygmies is their short stature, from 144 to 150 centimeters. Their hair is curly and their skin is light brown. The body is usually quite large, and the legs and arms are short. Pygmies are isolated into a separate race. These peoples have not identified a special language; they communicate in those dialects whose peoples live nearby: Asua, Kimbuti and others.
Another feature of this people is a short life path. In some settlements, people live only up to 16 years. Girls give birth when they are still very young. In other settlements, women have been found who go through menopause as early as 28 years old. A meager diet endangers their health, pygmies die even from chicken pox and measles.
To date, the total number of this people has not been established, according to some estimates, there are about 40 thousand of them, according to others - 200.
For a long time, the pygmies did not even know how to make fire; they carried the hearth with them. They are engaged in gathering and hunting.
Bushmen
These wild tribes live in Namibia, they are also found on the territory of Angola, South Africa and Botswana, Tanzania.
These people are classified as a capoid race, with lighter skin than blacks. There are many clicking sounds in the language.
Bushmen lead an almost vagabond life, constantly half-starved. The system of building a society does not imply the presence of leaders, but there are elders who are chosen among the most intelligent and authoritative personalities of the community. This people does not have a cult of ancestors, but they are very afraid of the dead, so they conduct a unique burial ceremony. In the diet there are ant larvae, the so-called "Bushman rice".
To date, most Bushmen work on farms and have little adherence to their former way of life.
Zulu
These are the wild tribes of Africa (southern part). It is believed that there are about 10 million Zulus. They speak Zulu, the most widely spoken language in South Africa.
Many representatives of this nationality have become adherents of Christianity, but many keep their own faith. According to the canons of the Zulu religion, death is the result of witchcraft, and all life on the planet was created by the creator. This people has preserved many traditions, in particular, believers can perform the ritual of washing about 3 times a day.
The Zulus are quite organized, they even have a king, today it is Goodwill Zvelantini. Each tribe is made up of clans, which include even smaller communities. Each of them has its own leader, and in the family this role is played by the husband.
The most expensive rite of the wild tribes is marriage. To take a wife, a man will have to give her parents 100 kilograms of sugar, corn and 11 cows each. For such gifts, you can rent an apartment in the suburbs of Durban, with a gorgeous view of the ocean. Therefore, there are a lot of bachelors in the tribes.
Korowai
Perhaps this is the most brutal tribe in the whole world. It was possible to discover this people only in the 90s of the last century.
The life of the wild tribe is very harsh, they still use the teeth and tusks of animals as weapons and tools. These people pierce their ears and noses with the teeth of predators and live in the impenetrable forests of Papua New Guinea. They sleep in trees, in huts, very similar to those that many built in childhood. And the forests here are so dense and impenetrable that the neighboring villages do not even know about another settlement located a few kilometers away.
A pig is considered a holy animal, the meat of which is eaten by cows only after the boar has grown old. The animal is used as a riding pony. Often a piglet is taken from its mother and raised from childhood.
Women of the wild tribe are common, but sexual intercourse occurs only once a year, on the remaining 364 days it is not allowed to touch them.
The cult of the warrior flourishes among the Korowai. This is a very hardy people, for several days in a row they can only eat larvae and worms. It is believed that they are cannibals, and the first travelers who managed to reach the settlement were simply eaten.
Now that the Korowai have learned about the existence of another society, they do not seek to leave the forests, and everyone who gets here tells a legend that if they deviate from their traditions, there will be a terrible earthquake and the whole planet will die. Korowai scare away uninvited guests with stories about their bloodthirstiness, although so far there has been no evidence of this.
Masai
These are real noble warriors of the African continent. They are engaged in cattle breeding, but they never steal living creatures from neighbors and lower tribes. These people are able to protect themselves from lions and European conquerors, although in the 21st century, too much pressure of civilization, which is increasingly advancing, has led to the fact that the tribes are rapidly decreasing in number. Now children have been grazing livestock almost from the age of 3, the women are responsible for the entire household, and the remaining men mostly rest or repulse uninvited guests.
It is among this people that it is tradition to pull off the earlobes and insert rounded objects the size of a good saucer into the lower lip.
Maori
The most bloodthirsty tribes of New Zealand and the Cook Islands. In these places, the Maori are the indigenous population.
These people are cannibals who terrified more than one traveler. The path of development of Maori society went in a different direction - from man to animal. The tribes were always located in areas protected by nature itself, additionally carrying out fortification work, creating multi-meter ditches and installing a palisade, on which the dried heads of enemies necessarily flaunted. They are cooked carefully, cleaned of the brain, the nasal and eye sockets and bulges are strengthened with special boards and smoked over low heat for about 30 hours.
wild tribes of australia
In this country, a fairly large number of tribes have survived, living far from civilization and having interesting customs. For example, Arunta men show respect for each other in an interesting way by giving their wife to a comrade for a short time. If the gifted man refuses, then enmity begins between families.
And in one of the tribes of Australia, in childhood, the foreskin is cut into the boys and the urinary canal is pulled out, thus two genitals are obtained.
Amazon Indians
In the rainforests, according to the most conservative estimates, there are about 50 different wild Indian tribes.
Piraha. This is one of the most underdeveloped nations on the planet. There are about 200 people in the settlement, they live in the Brazilian jungle. Aborigines use the most primitive language on the planet, they have no history and myths, they don’t even have a number system.
Pirahu don't have the right to tell stories that didn't happen to them. You can not enter new words and heard from other people. The language does not designate animals and vegetation, flowers.
This people has never been seen in aggression, lives in trees, in huts. Often act as guides, but do not accept any objects of civilization.
Kayapo tribe. This is one of the wild tribes of the world, which lives in the eastern part of the river basin. Their number is about 3 thousand people. They firmly believe that they are controlled by a man who descended from heaven. Some of the kayapo's household items really resemble astronauts' spacesuits. Despite the fact that the whole village walks in the nude, yet the god appears in a robe and even with a headdress.
Korubo. This people is perhaps the most unexplored of all the tribes in the world who live far from civilization. All residents are quite aggressive towards any guests. They are engaged in gathering and hunting, often attacking neighboring tribes. Even women take part in the battles. A distinctive feature of this tribe is that they do not decorate themselves and do not make tattoos, unlike most of the natives.
The life of wild tribes is quite harsh. If a child is born with a cleft palate, then he is immediately killed, and this happens quite often. A child is often killed even after he has grown up, if he suddenly falls ill.
The tribe lives in long rooms characteristic of the Indians with several entrances. Several families live in such houses at once. Men of this tribe can have several wives.
The most basic problem of all savage tribes is the inexorable expansion of the habitats of civilized man. This is a huge risk that these almost primitive people will soon disappear, unable to withstand the onslaught of the modern world.
Every year there are fewer and fewer places on Earth where primitive tribes can live. There they get food by hunting and fishing, they believe that the gods send rain, they do not know how to write and read. They can die from a common cold or flu. Wild tribes are a godsend for anthropologists and evolutionists. Sometimes the meeting happens by chance, and sometimes scientists are specifically looking for them. According to scientists, about a hundred wild tribes currently live in South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia.
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 as they lived.
Amondawa Indian Tribe
The Amondawa Indians live in the Amazon jungle. The tribe has no concept of time - the corresponding words (month, year) are simply absent in the language of the Amondawa Indians. The language of the Amondawa Indians can describe events occurring in time, but is powerless to describe time itself as a separate concept. Civilization first came to the Amondava Indians in 1986.
The Amondava people do not mention their ages. It's just that, passing from one period of his life to another or changing his status in the tribe, the Amondawa Indian changes his name. But the most intriguing thing is the absence in the Amondawa language of displaying the passage of time by spatial means. Simply put, speakers of many languages of the world use expressions such as “this event is left behind” or “before this” (precisely in the temporal sense, that is, in the meaning of “before this”). But there are no such constructions in the Amondava language.
Piraha tribe
The Piraha tribe lives in the area of the Maysi River, a tributary of the Amazon. The tribe became known through Christian missionary Daniel Everett, who met with them in 1977. First of all, Everett was struck by the language of the Indians. It had only three vowels and seven consonants, and no numerals.
The past doesn't really matter to them. Piraha do not stockpile: caught fish, hunting prey, or harvested fruits are always eaten immediately. No storage and no plans for the future. The culture of this tribe is essentially limited to the present day and the usefulness that they have. Pirahas are practically unfamiliar with the worries and fears that torment the majority of the population of our planet.
Himba tribe
The Himba tribe lives in Namibia. Himba are engaged in cattle breeding. All the huts where people live are located around the pasture. The beauty of the women of the tribe is determined by the presence of a large number of jewelry and the amount of clay applied to the skin. The presence of clay on the body performs a hygienic purpose - clay allows the skin not to be exposed to sunburn and the skin gives less water.
Women in the tribe are employed in all household affairs. They take care of livestock, build huts, raise children, and make ornaments. Men in the tribe are given the role of husbands. Polygamy is accepted in the tribe if the husband is able to feed the family. The cost of a wife reaches 45 cows. Fidelity of the wife is not a mandatory thing. A child born from another father will remain in the family.
Huli tribe
The Huli tribe lives in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. It is believed that the first Papuans of New Guinea migrated to the island over 45,000 years ago. This indigenous people fight for land, pigs and women. They also put a lot of effort into impressing the enemy. Huli paint their faces with yellow, red and white paint, and are also famous for the tradition of making elegant wigs from their own hair.
Sentinelese tribe
The tribe lives on an island in the Indian Ocean. The Sentinelese have absolutely no contact with other tribes, preferring to enter into intra-tribal marriages and maintain their population in the region of 400 people. Once, National Geographic employees tried to get to know them better, having previously laid out various offerings on the coast. Of all the gifts, the Sentinelese left only red buckets for themselves, everything else was thrown into the sea.
According to scientists, the islanders are the descendants of the first people who left Africa, the period of complete isolation of the Sentinelese can reach 50-60 thousand years, this tribe is stuck in the Stone Age.
The study of the tribe is carried out from the air or from ships, the islanders were left alone. Their piece of land surrounded by water became a kind of reserve, and the Sentinelese were allowed to live by their own laws.
Tribe Karavai
The tribe was discovered in the late 90s of the XX century. The number is estimated at about 3,000 people. Small monkey-like loaves live in huts in trees, otherwise the "sorcerers" will get them. Members of the alien tribe are reluctant to let in and behave aggressively.
Women in the tribe are considered common, but they make love only once a year, at other times women cannot be touched. Only a few of the loaves can write and read. Wild pigs are tamed as pets.
Tribes of the Nicobar and Andaman Islands
To this day, 5 tribes live on the islands located in the Indian Ocean basin, the development of which stopped in the Stone Age.
They are unique in their culture and way of life. The official authorities of the islands look after the natives and try not to interfere in their life and life.
Andamanese are the indigenous people of the Andaman Islands. Now there are 200-300 people of the Jarawa tribe and about 100 people of the Onge tribe, as well as about 50 large Andamanese. This tribe has survived far from civilization, where an untouched corner of primitive nature continues to exist in an amazing way. Studies have shown that the Andaman Islands were inhabited by direct descendants of primitive people about 70 thousand years ago, who arrived from Africa.
The famous explorer and oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau visited the Andamans, but he was not allowed to get to the local tribes due to the law protecting this endangered tribe.
Hot water, light, TV, computer - all these items are familiar to modern man. But there are places on the planet where these things can cause shock and awe like magic. We are talking about the settlements of wild tribes that have preserved their way of life and habits since ancient times. And these are not the wild tribes of Africa, who now walk in comfortable clothes and know how to communicate with other peoples. We are talking about Aboriginal settlements that were discovered relatively recently. They do not seek to meet modern people, rather the opposite. If you try to visit them, you may be met with spears or arrows.
The development of digital technology and the development of new territories leads a person to a meeting with unknown inhabitants of our planet. Their habitat is hidden from prying eyes. Settlements can be located in dense forests or on uninhabited islands.
Tribes of the Nicobar and Andaman Islands
On the group of islands located in the Indian Ocean basin, to this day there are 5 tribes, the development of which stopped in the Stone Age. They are unique in their culture and way of life. The official authorities of the islands look after the natives and try not to interfere in their life and way of life. The total population of all tribes is about 1000 people. The settlers are engaged in hunting, fishing, farming and almost no contact with the outside world. One of the most vicious tribes is the inhabitants of Sentinel Island. The number of all settlers of the tribe does not exceed 250 people. But, despite the small number, these natives are ready to repulse anyone who sets foot on their lands.
Tribes of North Sentinel Island
The inhabitants of Sentinel Island belong to a group of so-called non-contact tribes. They are distinguished by a high level of aggression and lack of sociability towards a stranger. Interestingly, the emergence and development of the tribe is still not fully known. Scientists cannot understand how black people could begin to live in such a limited space on an island washed by the ocean. There is an assumption that these lands were inhabited by inhabitants more than 30,000 years ago. People remained within their lands and housing and did not move to other territories. Time passed, and the water separated them from other lands. Since the tribe did not develop in terms of technology, they did not have contacts with the outside world, so any guest for these people is a stranger or enemy. Moreover, communication with civilized people is simply contraindicated for the Sentinel Island tribe. Viruses and bacteria, to which modern man has immunity, can easily kill any member of the tribe. The only positive contact with the settlers of the island was made in the mid-90s of the last century.
Wild tribes in the Amazon forests
Are there wild tribes today that modern people have never communicated with? Yes, there are such tribes, and one of them was recently discovered in the dense forests of the Amazon. This was due to active deforestation. Scientists have long said that these places can be inhabited by wild tribes. This conjecture has been confirmed. The only video filming of the tribe was made from a light aircraft by one of the largest television channels in the United States. The footage shows that the settlers' huts are made in the form of tents covered with leaves. The inhabitants themselves are armed with primitive spears and bows.
Piraha
The Piraha tribe is about 200 people. They live in the Brazilian jungle and differ from other natives in a very poor development of the language and the absence of a number system. In other words, they can't count. They can also be called the most illiterate inhabitants of the planet. Members of the tribe are forbidden to speak about what they have not learned from their own experience or to adopt words from other languages. In the speech of the Piraha there is no designation of animals, fish, plants, color shades and weather. Despite this, the natives are not malicious in relation to others. Moreover, they often act as guides through the thickets of the jungle.
loaves
This tribe lives in the forests of Papua New Guinea. They were discovered only in the mid-90s of the last century. They found a home in the thickets of forests between two mountain ranges. Despite their funny name, the natives cannot be called good-natured. The cult of the warrior is widespread among the settlers. They are so hardy and strong in spirit that they can eat larvae and pasture food for weeks until they find suitable prey on the hunt.
Karavai live mainly on trees. Making their huts from branches and twigs like huts, they protect themselves from evil spirits and witchcraft. Pigs are revered in the tribe. These animals are used as donkeys or horses. They can only be slaughtered and eaten when the pig becomes old and can no longer carry a load or a person.
In addition to the natives living on the islands or in the tropical forests, one can meet people who lead a life according to old customs in our country. So the Lykov family lived in Siberia for a long time. Fleeing from persecution in the 30s of the last century, they went to the remote taiga of Siberia. For 40 years they survived by adapting to the harsh conditions of the forest. During this time, the family managed to almost completely lose the entire crop of plants and recreate it anew from a few surviving seeds. The Old Believers were engaged in hunting and fishing. The Lykovs' clothes were made from the skins of dead animals and coarse self-woven hemp threads.
The family retained the old customs, the chronology and the original Russian language. In 1978, they were accidentally discovered by geologists. The meeting was a fatal discovery for the Old Believers. Contact with civilization led to diseases of individual family members. Two of them died suddenly from kidney problems. A little later, the youngest son died of pneumonia. This once again proved that the contact of modern man with representatives of more ancient peoples can be deadly for the latter.
They don't know what a car, electricity, a hamburger and the United Nations are. They get their food by hunting and fishing, they believe that the gods send rain, they do not know how to write and read. They may die from catching a cold or the flu. They are a godsend for anthropologists and evolutionists, but they are dying out. They are wild tribes that have preserved the way of life of their ancestors and avoid contact with the modern world.
Sometimes the meeting happens by chance, and sometimes scientists are specifically looking for them. For example, on Thursday, May 29, in the Amazon jungle near the Brazilian-Peruvian border, several huts were found surrounded by people with bows who tried to shoot at the plane with the expedition. In this case, specialists from the Peruvian Center for Indian Tribes flew around the jungle in search of savage settlements.
Although recently, scientists rarely describe new tribes: most of them have already been discovered, and there are almost no unexplored places on Earth where they could exist.
Wild tribes live in South America, Africa, Australia and Asia. According to rough estimates, there are about a hundred tribes on Earth that do not or rarely come into contact with the outside world. Many of them prefer to avoid interaction with civilization by any means, so it is quite difficult to keep an accurate record of the number of such tribes. On the other hand, tribes that willingly communicate with modern people gradually disappear or lose their identity. Their representatives gradually assimilate our way of life or even go to live "in the big world."
Another obstacle that prevents the full study of tribes is their immune system. "Modern savages" for a long time developed in isolation from the rest of the world. The most common diseases for most people, such as a runny nose or flu, can be fatal for them. In the body of savages there are no antibodies against many common infections. When the flu virus strikes a person from Paris or Mexico City, his immune system immediately recognizes the "attacker" because it has already met him before. Even if a person has never had the flu, immune cells "trained" for this virus enter his body from his mother. The savage is practically defenseless against the virus. As long as his body can develop an adequate "response", the virus may well kill him.
But recently the tribes have been forced to change their habitual habitats. The development of new territories by modern man and the deforestation where savages live, force them to found new settlements. In the event that they are close to the settlements of other tribes, conflicts may arise between their representatives. And again, cross-contamination with diseases typical of each tribe cannot be ruled out. Not all tribes were able to survive when faced with civilization. But some manage to maintain their numbers at a constant level and not succumb to the temptations of the "big world".
Be that as it may, anthropologists have managed to study the way of life of some tribes. Knowledge about their social structure, language, tools, creativity and beliefs helps scientists to better understand how human development went. In fact, each such tribe is a model of the ancient world, representing possible options for the evolution of culture and thinking of people.
Piraha
In the Brazilian jungle, in the valley of the Meiki River, a tribe of firah lives. There are about two hundred people in the tribe, they exist thanks to hunting and gathering and actively resist the introduction into the "society". Pirahã is distinguished by unique features of the language. First, there are no words for color shades. Secondly, the Pirahã language lacks the grammatical constructions necessary for the formation of indirect speech. Thirdly, Pirahã people do not know the numerals and the words "more", "several", "all" and "each".
One word, but pronounced with different intonation, serves to denote the numbers "one" and "two". It can also mean "about one" and "not very many". Due to the lack of words for numbers, Pirahãs cannot count and cannot solve simple mathematical problems. They are unable to estimate the number of objects if there are more than three. At the same time, there are no signs of a decrease in intelligence in the Piraha. According to linguists and psychologists, their thinking is artificially limited by the peculiarities of the language.
Pirahãs have no creation myths, and a strict taboo forbids them from talking about things that are not part of their own experience. Despite this, Pirahas are quite sociable and capable of organized activities in small groups.
Sinta larga
The Sinta Larga tribe also lives in Brazil. Once the number of the tribe exceeded five thousand people, but now it has decreased to one and a half thousand. The minimum social unit of the Sinta Larga is the family: a man, several of his wives and their children. They can move freely from one settlement to another, but more often establish their own home. Sinta larga are engaged in hunting, fishing and farming. When the land where their house stands becomes less fertile or game leaves the forests, the Sinta spotted seals move out and look for a new site for the house.
Each Sinta Larga has several names. One - "real name" - each member of the tribe keeps a secret, only the closest relatives know it. During the life of the Sinta Larga, they receive several more names, depending on their individual characteristics or important events that happened to them. The Sinta Larga society is patriarchal, male polygamy is widespread in it.
Sinta larga have suffered greatly due to contact with the outside world. In the jungle where the tribe lives, many rubber trees grow. Rubber collectors systematically exterminated the Indians, claiming that they interfere with their work. Later, diamond deposits were discovered in the territory where the tribe lived, and several thousand miners from all over the world rushed to develop the land of Sinta Larga, which is illegal. The members of the tribe themselves also tried to mine diamonds. Conflicts often arose between savages and diamond lovers. In 2004, 29 miners were killed by Sinta Larga people. After that, the government allocated $810,000 to the tribe in exchange for a promise to close the mines, allow them to set up police cordons near them, and not engage in stone mining on their own.
Tribes of the Nicobar and Andaman Islands
The group of Nicobar and Andaman Islands is located 1400 kilometers from the coast of India. Six primitive tribes lived in complete isolation on the outlying islands: the great Andamanese, the Onge, the Jarawa, the Shompens, the Sentinelese, and the Negrito. After the devastating 2004 tsunami, many feared that the tribes had disappeared forever. However, later it turned out that most of them, to the great joy of anthropologists, escaped.
The tribes of the Nicobar and Andaman Islands are in the Stone Age in their development. Representatives of one of them - Negrito - are considered the most ancient inhabitants of the planet, preserved to this day. The average height of a Negrito is about 150 centimeters, and even Marco Polo wrote about them as "cannibals with dog muzzles."
Korubo
Cannibalism is a fairly common practice among primitive tribes. And although most of them prefer to find other sources of food, some have retained this tradition. For example, Korubo living in the western part of the Amazon Valley. The Korubo are an extremely aggressive tribe. Hunting and raiding neighboring settlements are their main means of subsistence. The korubo's weapons are heavy clubs and poison darts. Korubo do not practice religious rites, but they have a widespread practice of killing their own children. Korubo women have equal rights with men.
Cannibals from Papua New Guinea
The most famous cannibals are perhaps the tribes of Papua New Guinea and Borneo. Cannibals of Borneo are cruel and promiscuous: they eat both their enemies and tourists or old people from their tribe. The last surge of cannibalism was noted in Borneo at the end of the past - the beginning of this century. This happened when the Indonesian government tried to colonize some areas of the island.
In New Guinea, especially in its eastern part, cases of cannibalism are observed much less frequently. Of the primitive tribes living there, only three - the Yali, the Vanuatu and the Carafai - still practice cannibalism. The most cruel is the Carafai tribe, while the Yali and Vanuatu eat someone on rare solemn occasions or out of necessity. The Yalis are also famous for their festival of death, when the men and women of the tribe paint themselves in the form of skeletons and try to appease Death. Previously, for fidelity, they killed the shaman, whose brain was eaten by the leader of the tribe.
Emergency ration
The dilemma of primitive tribes is that attempts to study them often lead to their destruction. Anthropologists and travelers alike find it hard to give up the prospect of going back to the Stone Age. In addition, the habitat of modern people is constantly expanding. Primitive tribes managed to carry their way of life through many millennia, however, it seems that in the end, savages will join the list of those who could not stand the meeting with modern man.
