Satellites Spot Hidden Villages In Amazon

sciencehabit writes The Amazon is home to perhaps dozens of isolated tribes who make their living far off the grid from the wider society, growing crops and hunting and gathering in the forest. These reclusive peoples are threatened by drug running, illegal logging, and highway construction, even if they dwell in 'protected' reserves in Peru or Brazil; one group, apparently pushed out of its lands, made contact this summer. Now, researchers have a new way of examining their fate without disruptive and frightening flyovers by aircraft. Researchers use high-resolution WorldView or GeoEye satellite images to monitor demographic changes in isolated Amazon tribes. The scientists got location and population estimates for five isolated villages along the Brazil-Peru border from Brazilian government reports and other sources. Then they examined 50-centimeter resolution satellite images taken in 2006, 2012, and 2013 and could spot the peoples' horticultural fields and characteristic pattern of either longhouses or clusters of small houses; these villages could be clearly differentiated from the transient camps of illegal loggers or drug runners.

But

[rossdee]

Do they get free 2 day shipping with Prime?

Re:

[An0nymous Coward]

There's always that critical of everyone comment.

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How far off the grid do you have to go.

[Anonymous Coward]

If even these people can't have any privacy then we're all really screwed.

I hear it comes with a shiny gold ring

[jpellino]

and all the fissshes you can eat.

Re:How far off the grid do you have to go.

[penguinoid]

I would really like to live underground. That would solve so many problems. You would be immune to aerial surveillance, you would not have to worry about tornadoes or storms. The temperature is a constant. You can expand just by digging more rooms. It would be a lair. However it probably wouldn't get you laid.

Close, very close. Just replace the "expand just by digging more rooms" with "have food brought to you by your mom" and you got a perfect description of the stereotypical Slashdotter.

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[An0nymous Coward]

It's your mom who brings me food, smartass.

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[stephanruby]

I would really like to live underground. That would solve so many problems. You would be immune to aerial surveillance,

Make sure to cover up those air vents, infrared cameras could pick them up.

you would not have to worry about tornadoes or storms.

Except for the floods they bring.

The temperature is a constant. You can expand just by digging more rooms. It would be a lair. However it probably wouldn't get you laid.

Those particular tribes were found by the fields they cultivated.

We technically haven't found their homes yet.

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[NoImNotNineVolt]

I would really like to live underground.... you would not have to worry about ... storms

Spoken like someone who has never had a basement in a flood-prone area.

Re:How far off the grid do you have to go.

[ShanghaiBill]

If even these people can't have any privacy then we're all really screwed.

The Sentinelese People [wikipedia.org] of the Andaman Islands have figured out how to keep their privacy: kill anyone who comes within the range of their arrows. Other, less belligerent, tribes in the Andaman Islands have made contact with outsiders, and suffered near extermination from introduced diseases. So the Sentinelese privacy policy seems to be working well for them.

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[NoImNotNineVolt]

Awesome link. Sent me down quite the wikipedia rathole.

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[LessThanObvious]

I wonder how much longer our Indians would have lasted if they just killed Columbus and his crew. If they never made it back to Spain it might have bought the indigenous people another 100 years.

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[r1348]

We clearly need to create a Drone Patrol to guard our privacy!

Re:Tomorrow's news

[Camembert]

Their life cannot be complete without the opportunity to whine about the U2 album that appeared on their iphones.

Re: Tomorrow's news

[Anonymous Coward]

You missed Jehovah's Witness.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

if christians really believe that complete and utter ignorance of christ, never having an opportunity to learn of him and his dad, means that a person will go to heaven by default, then the best thing christians can do is never go anywhere near these people. by leaving them alone they ensure the gift of eternal life in heaven. also these people dont have to deal with annoying christians preaching at them

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[camperdave]

The Christian belief is that without a knowledge of God, a person is judged based on their own conscience, not that they would go to Heaven by default. However, that is beside the point. Christians are commanded to go and make disciples of all nations.

Re:

[Ol Olsoc]

Any others I've missed?

Yes - your Thorazine and Haldol

Re:

[Half-pint HAL]

Christians sending missionaries to these villages to show them the ways of Christ.

Actually, missionaries are highly unlikely to get a permit to enter regions of the Amazon populated by isolated tribes. They even used this to deny Daniel Everett the opportunity to return to study the Piraha language. (Everett originally visited the Piraha as a missionary, but was "converted" to atheism by his experiences there. His study of the language contradicted various mainstream theories of linguistics, and rather than saying "you're wrong, but feel free to look for evidence -- you won't find any,"

contact

[Noah Haders]

one group, apparently pushed out of its lands, made contact this summer.

did they make FIRST CONTACT???

Re: contact

[Anonymous Coward]

Made it out of their lands... with a warp engine of their own design.

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[kwiqsilver]

Doesn't the Amazon Prime Directive require us to make contact within two days?

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[Anonymous Coward]

Consider this scenario:

An alien race exists, which travels the stars with some kind of FTL drive, knows the cure to all diseases, can provide food for anyone on demand, and give all people a comfortable life of happiness and leisure; without war or strife.
Then this alien race encounters human-kind for the first time.

Would you, as a human being, want them to:
A) Make contact and bring all their technological advancements to improve life for yourself, your children (if any), and all of humanity?
B) Keep away be

Re:

[Paradise Pete]

I don't think that would be comparable to this situation.

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[mrchaotica]

Would you, as a human being, want them to: A) Make contact and bring all their technological advancements to improve life for yourself, your children (if any), and all of humanity? B) Keep away because "human culture should be respected", and the aliens should keep to their own?

For the average human, the correct answer would be:

C) Surrender so he can take their technology and declare himself emperor of humanity.

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[Half-pint HAL]

If those aliens were host to multivarious viral and bacterial infections to which humanity would have no resistance, I'd prefer they stopped for a rest at a LaGrange point and communicated only by radio-waves.

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[whodunit]

Actually, yes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F... [wikipedia.org] There's even a list somewhere of isolated tribes that made first contact in the 20th century. And this list of peoples yet uncontacted: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U... [wikipedia.org]

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[RockDoctor]

And this list of peoples yet uncontacted: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U [wikipedia.org]...

That calls for a re-hash of the Rumsfeldian quote about known unknowns and unknown known facts.

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[Blaskowicz]

I believe Rumsfeld focused on the known knowns, known unknowns and unknown unknows?
The unknown known was that he was bullshitting us. It's "the Emperor has no clothes" if you wish.

Perspective.

[Dutchmaan]

Imagine how we must look from their perspective. Like gods peering down on them from the heavens with magical devices that grant us powers. Can you imagine if we as a people encountered beings who were just as advanced from us as we are from those tribes. Hell even a mere 100 years of progress would seem miraculous to us to say nothing of eons. Imagine how we would look to someone from 1914.

Re:Perspective.

[unimacs]

Imagine how we would look to someone from 1914.

"You've had 100 years and still no flying cars? Lame."

Re:

[gunner_von_diamond]

You're totally right! What have I been doing with my life! These computer things are just a fad, should have went to school to learn how to make flying cars.

Re:Perspective.

[BitterOak]

There was a really good TV show (fiction) called Amazon that ran around 2000 or so, but lasted only one season unfortunately. It dealt with some of these issues. It's available on DVD, but unfortunately it ends with a cliffhanger that was never resolved. Really awesome show though. Kind of like Lost, which came years later, only much better in my opinion.

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[chrism238]

Imagine how we must look from their perspective. Like gods peering down on them from the heavens with magical devices that grant us powers.

Erich von Däniken would be extremely happy to read your comments.

Perspective.

[Anonymous Coward]

Then imagine their disappointment when they find out how we use this power. :P

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[Dutchmaan]

Your absolutely correct. Technological advancement is no indication of enlightenment. Our world is the sum of our values.

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[paiute]

Imagine how we must look from their perspective. Like gods peering down on them from the heavens with magical devices that grant us powers. Can you imagine if we as a people encountered beings who were just as advanced from us as we are from those tribes. Hell even a mere 100 years of progress would seem miraculous to us to say nothing of eons. Imagine how we would look to someone from 1914.

There is a screenplay out there based roughly on this premise: https://www.scribd.com/doc/135... [scribd.com]

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[Half-pint HAL]

A younger Bezos saw Gene Wilder's Wonka boss the Oompa-Loompas about, and thus was his business model born....

*ahem*

[fustakrakich]

Anybody using the satellite pix to catch and stop the loggers? Where's the infrared cams?

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

too busy looking for topless native women sunbathing

leave them alone

[NotQuiteReal]

OK, we found this group of people... moving on.

Chalk it up for +1 diversity, but for God's sake, don't try to visit them and sneeze in there general direction.

If they were unhappy, they would have walked in one direction long enough to "discover" others. Leave them be.

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[Neil Boekend]

But civilisation! They clearly need Iphones!

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[kesuki]

how will they learn of conservation if they don't attend school we need to build highways to their sheltered world of jungle living. it's not like they're sustainable or anything like that, are they?

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[bill_mcgonigle]

If they were unhappy, they would have walked in one direction long enough to "discover" others. Leave them be.

if we were to find natives in the US...

Team Blue:
But are they paying "their" taxes? They were born within the geographic confines of a nation state, so they implicitly agreed to a the Social Contract.

Team Red:
Do they not benefit from the clean air and logging bans the government provides? Why should they not have to pay for those benefits? We can't have any free riders taking advantage of the sy

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[The Grim Reefer]

Chalk it up for +1 diversity,

So we have an obligation to make sure they are not under represented in the tech industry.

If they were unhappy, they would have walked in one direction long enough to "discover" others. Leave them be.

Obviously they are simply to niave to realize how unhappy they truly are.

It is our duty to get them to American on an H1B ASAP. So they can sit in a cubicle in Silicon valley. Only then can they be truly happy.

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[LWATCDR]

"If they were unhappy, they would have walked in one direction long enough to "discover" others. Leave them be."

Yes we need to protect them. It is our responsibility to keep them safe from the modern world. We all know that they just could not handle knowing about rest of the world, science, and technology. It is our responsibility to protect them like innocent children or some endangered wild animal.
Kipling would be proud of how take responsibility for your burden.

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[Half-pint HAL]

Unfortunately, contact more often than not reduces their life expectancy, as everything from syphilis right down to the common cold ravages the population. In some cases, entire tribes have been wiped out, in other cases, the tribe dropped below a viable size and had to either request a "merger" with another tribe or take the government boat downriver to a life in urban slums.

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[Half-pint HAL]

They have some level of resistance to the local diseases. They don't have resistance to diseases that they have never encountered. Instead of assuring me, go and read any book on the history of contact. History is littered with the bodies of indigenous people killed by colonists' (and colonists' rats') diseases.

Quick, let's steal their land and enslave them

[Anonymous Coward]

After all, that's what happened to virtually everybody else on Earth.
Do you ever wonder why you have to work five days a week, until you're 67, and then you die within a few years of retirement?
Who claims to own all the land in your country? When somebody sells a piece of land, how did they claim to own it in the first place?

The people of the rainforest are being forced off their OWN land, where they have lived for tens of thousands of years, to be turned into wage slaves, working in factories. Wake up.

Re:

[Paul Fernhout]

"After all, that's what happened to virtually everybody else on Earth. Do you ever wonder why you have to work five days a week, until you're 67, and then you die within a few years of retirement? Who claims to own all the land in your country? When somebody sells a piece of land, how did they claim to own it in the first place? The people of the rainforest are being forced off their OWN land, where they have lived for tens of thousands of years, to be turned into wage slaves, working in factories. Wake up.