August 13, 2016

"The Mashco had a ritual greeting: they hugged visitors, put their heads on their shoulders, and then felt inside their clothing, as if to ascertain their sex."

"For perhaps forty minutes, the two groups mingled: the Mashco touching and probing, and the Nomole team acquiescing, mostly in good humor. The Mashco women approached Flores and, as she giggled, touched her breasts and stomach... When I asked Flores about the women, she put a hand to her mouth in embarrassment. 'They felt my breasts and stomach and said to me, 'You’re pregnant, aren’t you?' When I said, ‘No, I’m not,’ they said, ‘Tell us the truth! Don’t you have milk?’ When I said no, Knoygonro squirted her milk in my face, to say, ‘I do.’ ”

From "AN ISOLATED TRIBE EMERGES FROM THE RAIN FOREST/In Peru, an unsolved killing has brought the Mashco Piro into contact with the outside world," by Jon Lee Anderson in The New Yorker.

26 comments:

rhhardin said...

The writer seemed to be settling in for a long pointless story. Then I see it's the New Yorker.

Pays by the word.

Darrell said...

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/10/151013-uncontacted-tribes-mashco-nomole-peru-amazon/

bleh said...

I wonder if all these "undiscovered" tribes in the Amazon are just playing along to attract government and tourist attention, aka funds.

Anonymous said...

".. the Mashco touching and probing, and the Nomole team acquiescing, mostly in good humor.."

A pat-down for weapons with a smiley face.

Ann Althouse said...

"I wonder if all these "undiscovered" tribes in the Amazon are just playing along to attract government and tourist attention, aka funds."

Read the article!

Etienne said...

Sounds like the perfect story to make their blue hair readers blush.

FullMoon said...

Saw a documentary where the filmmaker took a native woman from mud hut to USA and married her. They had a couple of kids. In spite of all his threats, bribery and begging, she went back to the tribe in the jungle. Left supermarkets and malls for bow and arrows loin cloths and wandering in the jungle. I think she may have left the kids with hubs.

Anonymous said...

"..Saw a documentary where the filmmaker took a native woman from mud hut to USA and married her..."

The one I saw it was an anthropologist and when she went back she was promptly raped by the men of the tribe. Unprotected by a male, she was fair game for a gangbang.

FullMoon said...

Here is story of a grown son going back to Amazon to find mom, who is still there. Good backstory also.


http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-23758087

Fernandinande said...

From the article's area of interest in Peru, go west to the coast and back 500 years...

"In 1491 the Inka Ruled the greatest empire on earth. Bigger than Ming Dynasty, China, bigger than Ivan the Great's expanding Russia, bigger than Songhay in the Sahel or powerful Great Zimbabwe in the West African Tablelands, bigger than the cresting Ottoman Empire, Bigger than the Triple Alliance (Aztecs), bigger by far than any European state, the Inka domination extended of a staggering thirty-two degrees of latitude - as if a single power had from St Petersburg to Cairo." ("1491")

With connecting roads, many paved with stone, along 4,000 miles of coastline and extending inland 100 to 500 miles.

Fernandinande said...

"power had from St Petersburg" -> "held sway from St..."

D. said...

funny the newyorker never does anthropology down the street in bed sty

Unknown said...

Curious greeting. I wonder if the homosexuals among the Mashco are open or not. It seems that open homosexuality can cause signaling hazards among traditional societies.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

The remarkable thing is that there are people anywhere who haven't been significantly ensnared by modernity. I think the Victorians would be astounded that, at this late date, there are still tribes of folks running around bare-assed in the world. Regardless, these people will be assimilated soon. And it's not just the loggers and miners. Even the best intentioned government cannot simply just leave people alone. One way or another,they will interfere.

sane_voter said...

In one way it is sad these tribes are doomed. But when I read about how the Mashco can't swim, and if you teach them to fish they might choke on the bones, isn't that utterly pathetic?

traditionalguy said...

Don't let Hillary read this, or she will grab their bows and arrows and regulate the jungle cover and tax the river water usages until they unexpectedly die out and she gets rich from a saleof their Riverfront land by silent partners.

tim maguire said...

"As if to ascertain their sex"? Was it just for fun, then?

n.n said...

Establishing order and status. Flores is a low class woman. The Mashco seem to follow the maxim: choose life, not abortion; which is an exotic concept to the visiting aliens from the "first-world". The Liberals will indoctrinate them with their Church's fantasy of spontaneous conception and other sincerely-held Pro-Choice beliefs. The corruption will be progressive and the Mashco will be assimilated into their quasi-civilized society.

Sydney said...

It doesn't seem right to keep them isolated, especially if they apparently want to make contact. Doesn't the story say they are stealing tools from people and even killing them to get the tools? Seems like the government should give them the opportunity to purchase the tools and move into modernity if that's what they want. Also, teach them that it is wrong to kill people just to get what you want. The government's solution seems to be to give them food to keep them happy- as you would a simple beast.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Respect all rape cultures.

David said...

The hard part is convincing them you're Mashco.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Lars,

Wait, what?

Sydney,

And if you shoot the malefactors, I suppose you just make them angry.

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

Any trannys amongst the anthropologists or film crew? That should confound or amuse the mob.

Ann Althouse said...

I guess I motivated exactly no one to read this interesting article. Sigh.

Bad Lieutenant said...

We try not to encourage you :)

Sydney said...

I read it. Also read the link to the BBC article about the young man who went to the Amazonian rain forest to find his long-lost mother that someone else in the comments linked to. Just found a different aspect of it interesting than the feel-up greeting.