The most unusual tribes on Earth (34 photos). Wild tribes and their life in the modern world
The ethnic diversity on Earth is amazing in its abundance. People living in different parts of the planet are at the same time similar to each other, but at the same time very different in their way of life, customs, and language. In this article we will talk about some unusual tribes that you might be interested to know about.
Piraha Indians - a wild tribe inhabiting the Amazon jungle
The Pirahã Indian tribe lives among the Amazon rain forest, mainly along the banks of the Maici River, in the state of Amazonas, Brazil.
This South American people are famous for their language, Pirahã. In fact, Pirahã is one of the rarest languages among the 6,000 spoken languages around the world. The number of native speakers ranges from 250 to 380 people. The language is amazing because:
- does not have numbers, for them there are only two concepts “several” (from 1 to 4 pieces) and “many” (more than 5 pieces),
- verbs do not change either by numbers or by persons,
- there are no names for colors,
- consists of 8 consonants and 3 vowels! Isn't this amazing?
According to linguistic scholars, Piraha men understand rudimentary Portuguese and even speak very limited topics. True, not all male representatives can express their thoughts. Women, on the other hand, have little understanding of the Portuguese language and do not use it at all to communicate. However, the Pirahã language has several loanwords from other languages, mainly Portuguese, such as "cup" and "business".
Speaking of business, the Piraha Indians trade Brazil nuts and provide sexual services in order to buy consumables and tools, for example, machetes, milk powder, sugar, whiskey. Chastity is not a cultural value for them.
There are several more interesting points associated with this nationality:
- Pirahã have no compulsion. They don't tell other people what to do. There seems to be no social hierarchy at all, no formal leader.
- This Indian tribe has no idea of \u200b\u200bdeities and God. However, they believe in spirits, which sometimes take the form of jaguars, trees, or people.
— it feels like the Pirahã tribe are people who don’t sleep. They can take a nap of 15 minutes or at most two hours throughout the day and night. They rarely sleep through the night.
The Wadoma tribe is an African tribe of people with two toes.
The Vadoma tribe lives in the Zambezi River valley in northern Zimbabwe. They are known for the fact that some members of the tribe suffer from ectrodactyly, three middle toes are missing from their feet, and the outer two are turned inward. As a result, members of the tribe are called “two-fingered” and “ostrich-footed”. Their huge two-toed feet are the result of a single mutation on chromosome number seven. However, in the tribe such people are not considered inferior. The reason for the common occurrence of ectrodactyly in the Vadoma tribe is isolation and the prohibition of marriage outside the tribe.
Life and life of the Korowai tribe in Indonesia
The Korowai tribe, also called the Kolufo, live in the southeast of the autonomous Indonesian province of Papua and consist of approximately 3,000 people. Perhaps before 1970 they did not know about the existence of other people besides themselves.
Most Korowai clans live in their isolated territory in tree houses, which are located at an altitude of 35-40 meters. In this way, they protect themselves from floods, predators, and arson by rival clans who take people, especially women and children, into slavery. In 1980, some of the Korowai moved to settlements in open areas.
Korowai have excellent hunting and fishing skills, and are engaged in gardening and gathering. They practice slash-and-burn agriculture, when the forest is first burned and then crops are planted in this place.
As far as religion is concerned, the Korowai universe is filled with spirits. The most honorable place is given to the spirits of ancestors. In times of need, they sacrifice domestic pigs to them.
Photos from open sources
There are still untouched places on the planet where the way of life is the same as it was a couple of thousand years ago.
Today there are about a hundred tribes that are hostile towards modern society and do not want to let civilization into their lives.
Off the coast of India, on one of the Andaman Islands - North Sentinel Island - such a tribe lives.
That’s what they were called – the Sentinelese. They fiercely resist all possible outside contacts.
The first evidence of the tribe inhabiting the North Sentinel Island of the Andaman archipelago dates back to the 18th century: sailors, who were nearby, left records of strange “primitive” people who do not allow them to enter their land.
With the development of navigation and aviation, the ability to monitor the islanders has increased, but all the information known to date has been collected remotely.
Until now, not a single outsider has managed to find himself in the circle of the Sentinelese tribe without losing his life. This uncontacted tribe allows a stranger no closer than a bow shot. They even throw stones at helicopters that fly too low. The last daredevils to try to get to the island were fishermen-poachers in 2006. Their families are still unable to claim the bodies: the Sentinelese killed the intruders, burying them in shallow graves.
However, interest in this isolated culture does not decrease: researchers are constantly looking for opportunities to contact and study the Sentinelese. At different times, they were given coconuts, dishes, pigs and much more that could improve their living conditions on the small island. It is known that they liked the coconuts, but the representatives of the tribe did not realize that they could be planted, but simply ate all the fruits. The islanders buried the pigs, doing it with honor and without touching their meat.
The experiment with kitchen utensils turned out to be interesting. The Sentinelese accepted metal utensils favorably, but separated plastic ones by color: they threw away the green buckets, but the red ones suited them. There are no explanations for this, just as there are no answers to many other questions. Their language is one of the most unique and completely incomprehensible to anyone on the planet. They lead the lifestyle of hunter-gatherers, obtaining their food by hunting, fishing and collecting wild plants, while over the millennia of their existence they have never mastered agricultural activities.
It is believed that they do not even know how to start a fire: taking advantage of accidental fires, they then carefully store smoldering logs and coals. Even the exact size of the tribe remains unknown: figures vary from 40 to 500 people; such a scatter is also explained by observations only from the outside and assumptions that some of the islanders at this moment may be hiding in the thicket.
Despite the fact that the Sentinelese do not care about the rest of the world, they have defenders on the mainland. Organizations advocating the rights of tribal peoples call the inhabitants of North Sentinel Island “the most vulnerable society on the planet” and remind that they have no immunity to any common infection in the world. For this reason, their policy of driving away strangers can be seen as self-defense against certain death.
Do you dream of visiting African national parks, seeing wild animals in their natural habitat and enjoying the last untouched corners of our planet? Safari in Tanzania is an unforgettable journey through the African savannah!
The bulk of the peoples of Africa include groups consisting of several thousand and sometimes hundreds of people, but at the same time they do not exceed 10% of the total population of this continent. As a rule, such small ethnic groups are the most savage tribes.
The Mursi tribe, for example, belongs to this group.
The Ethiopian Mursi tribe is the most aggressive ethnic group
Ethiopia is the oldest country in the world. It is Ethiopia that is considered the ancestor of humanity; it was 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 Mago Park, the Mursi tribe is distinguished by unusually strict customs. They can rightfully 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 tribal men 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 such as short stature, wide bones and crooked legs, low and tightly compressed foreheads, flattened noses and pumped-up short necks.
Mursi women's bodies often look flabby and sickly, with sagging bellies and breasts, and hunched backs. There is practically no hair, which was often hidden under intricate headdresses of a very fancy type, using as material everything that could be picked up or caught nearby: rough skins, branches, dried fruits, swamp shellfish, someone's tails, dead insects and even incomprehensible stinking carrion.
The most famous feature of the Mursi tribe is the tradition of inserting plates into the lips of girls.
The more public Mursi who come into contact with civilization may not always have all these characteristic attributes, but the exotic appearance of their lower lip is the calling card of the tribe.
The 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, and pieces of wood are inserted there, gradually increasing their diameter.
Mursi girls begin wearing plates at the age of 20, six months before marriage. The lower lip is pierced and a small disc is inserted into it; after the lip is stretched, the disc 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 when sleeping and eating, and they can also take them out if there are no males of the tribe nearby.
When the plate is pulled out, the lip hangs down in a long, round rope. Almost all Mursi have no front teeth, and their tongue is cracked and bleeding.
The second strange and terrifying decoration of Mursi women is the monista, which is made from human phalanges of fingers (nek). One person has only 28 of these bones in his hands. Each necklace usually consists of phalanges of five or six tassels; for some lovers of “costume jewelry,” the monista is wrapped around the neck in several rows
It glistens greasyly and emits a sweetish rotting smell of melted human fat; every bone is rubbed daily. The source for beads never runs low: the priestess of the tribe is ready to deprive the hands of a man who has broken the laws for almost every offense.
It is customary for this tribe to do scarification (scarring).
Men can afford scarring only after the first murder of one of their enemies or ill-wishers. If they kill a man, they decorate the right hand, if they kill a woman, then the left.
Their religion, animism, deserves a longer and more shocking story.
Short: women are priestesses of death, so they give their husbands drugs and poisons every day.
The High Priestess distributes antidotes, 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 is buried in the trunks of special ritual trees. Honor is due to such priestesses due to 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 will be collectively eaten by the entire tribe. Soft tissues are boiled in a cauldron, bones are used for amulets and thrown in swamps to mark dangerous places.
What seems very wild for a European is commonplace and tradition for the Mursi.
Bushmen tribe
African Bushmen are the most ancient representatives of the human race. And this is not speculation 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 distinguished by their short stature, wide cheekbones, narrow eyes and much swollen eyelids. It is difficult to determine the real color of their skin, because in the Kalahari they are not allowed to waste water on washing. But you can notice that they are much lighter than their neighbors. Their skin tone is slightly yellowish, which is more common among South Asians.
Young Bushmen are considered the most beautiful among the female population of Africa.
But once they reach puberty and become mothers, these beauties are simply unrecognizable. Bushmen women have overdeveloped hips and buttocks, and their stomachs are constantly swollen. This is a consequence of poor nutrition.
To distinguish a pregnant Bushwoman from the rest of the women of the tribe, she is coated with ash or ocher, since this is very difficult to do in appearance. By the age of 35, Bushman men begin to look like octogenarians, due to the fact that their skin sagging and their bodies become covered with deep wrinkles.
Life in Kalahari is very harsh, but even here there are laws and rules. The most important resource in the desert is water. There are old people in the tribe who know how to find water. At the place that they indicate, the representatives of the tribe either dig wells or drain water using plant stems.
Each Bushman tribe has a secret well, which is carefully blocked with stones or covered with sand. During the dry season, the Bushmen dig a hole at the bottom of a dry well, take a plant stem, suck water through it, take it into their mouths, and then spit it into the shell of an ostrich egg.
The South African Bushmen tribe is the only people on Earth whose men have a constant erection. This phenomenon does not cause any discomfort or inconvenience, except for the fact that when hunting on foot, men have to attach the penis to their belt so as not to cling to it. branches.
Bushmen do not know what private property is. All animals and plants growing in 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 neighbors like this.
Shamanism is very popular among the Bushmen tribes. They do not have leaders, but there are elders and healers who not only treat diseases, but also communicate with spirits. Bushmen are very afraid of the dead, and firmly believe in an afterlife. They pray to the sun, moon, stars. But they are not asking for health or happiness, but for success in hunting.
The Bushman tribes speak Khoisan languages, which are very difficult for Europeans to pronounce. A characteristic feature of these languages is clicking consonants. Representatives of the tribe speak very quietly among themselves. This is a long-standing habit of hunters - so as not to spook 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: buffalos, gazelles, birds, ostriches, antelopes, crocodiles.
Their drawings also contain unusual fairy-tale characters: monkey people, eared snakes, people with the face of a crocodile. There is an entire open-air gallery in the desert that displays these amazing drawings by unknown artists.
But now the Bushmen do not paint; they are excellent in dance, music, pantomime and stories.
VIDEO: Shamanic ritual healing ritual of the Bushmen tribe. Part 1
Shamanic ritual healing rite of the Bushmen tribe. Part 2
On the banks of the Meihi River lives the wild Pirahu tribe, numbering about three hundred people. The natives survive by hunting and gathering. The peculiarity of this tribe is their unique language: it does not have words denoting shades of colors, there is no indirect speech, and another interesting fact is that it does not have numerals (the Indians count - one, two and many). They have no legends about the creation of the world, no calendar, but despite all this, the Pirahu people have not been found to have the qualities of reduced intelligence.
Video: Amazon Code. In the deep jungle of the Amazon River lives the wild Piraha tribe. Christian missionary Daniel Everett came to them to bring the word of God, but as a result of becoming acquainted with their culture, he became an atheist. But much more interesting than this is a discovery related to the language of the Piraha tribe.
Another known wild tribe of Brazil is the Sinta Larga, numbering about one and a half thousand people. Previously, this tribe lived in the rubber jungle, however, due to their deforestation, the Sinta Larga became a nomadic tribe. The Indians engage in fishing, hunting and farming. There is patriarchy in the tribe, i.e. a man can have several wives. Also, throughout his life, a Cinta Larga man receives several names, depending on individual characteristics or certain events in his life, but there is one special name that is kept secret and only those closest to him know it.
And in the western part of the Amazon River valley lives a very aggressive Korubo tribe. The main occupation of the Indians of this tribe is hunting and raids on neighboring settlements. Moreover, both men and women, armed with poisoned darts and clubs, take part in the raids. There is evidence that cases of cannibalism occur in the Korubo tribe.
Video: Leonid Kruglov: GEO: Unknown world: Earth. Secrets of the new world. "The Great River of the Amazons." "Korubo Incident".
All these tribes represent a unique find for anthropologists and evolutionists. By studying their life and culture, language, and beliefs, one can better understand all stages of human development. And it is very important to preserve this historical heritage in its original form. In Brazil, a special government organization (National Indian Foundation) has been created to deal with the affairs of such tribes. The main task of this organization is to protect these tribes from any interference of modern civilization.
Adventure Magic - Yanomami.
Film: Amazonia / IMAX - Amazon HD.
Small groups of people representing uncontacted tribes are completely unaware of the moon landings, nuclear weapons, the Internet, David Attenborough, Donald Trump, Europe, dinosaurs, Mars, aliens and chocolate, etc. Their knowledge is limited to their immediate environment.
There are probably several other tribes that have yet to be discovered, but let's stick to the ones we know about. Who are they, where do they live and why do they remain isolated?
Although it's a bit of a vague term, we define an "uncontacted tribe" as a group of people who have not had significant direct contact with modern civilization. Many of them have only a brief acquaintance with civilization, since the conquest of the New World resulted in ironically uncivilized results.
Sentinel Island
Hundreds of kilometers east of India are the Andaman Islands. About 26,000 years ago, during the heyday of the last Ice Age, a land bridge between India and these islands jutted out of a shallow sea and then sank underwater.
The Andamanese peoples were nearly wiped out by disease, violence and invasion. Today, only about 500 of them remain, and at least one tribe, the Jungli, is extinct.
However, on one of the Northern Islands, the language of the tribe living there remains incomprehensible, and little is known about its representatives. It seems that these miniature people cannot shoot and do not know how to grow crops. They survive by hunting, fishing and gathering edible plants.
It is not known exactly how many of them are alive today, but there may be anywhere from several hundred to 15 people. The 2004 tsunami, which killed about a quarter of a million people across the region, also hit these islands.
Back in 1880, British authorities planned to kidnap members of this tribe, keep them well captive, and then release them back to the island in an attempt to demonstrate their benevolence. They captured an elderly couple and four children. The couple died of illness, but the young people were given gifts and sent to the island. Soon the Sentinelese disappeared into the jungle, and the tribe was no longer seen by the authorities.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Indian authorities, soldiers and anthropologists tried to establish contact with the tribe, but it hid inside the jungle. Subsequent expeditions were met with either threats of violence or attacks with bows and arrows, and some ended in the death of the attackers.
Uncontacted tribes of Brazil
Vast areas of the Brazilian Amazon, especially in the interior of the western state of Acre, are home to up to one hundred uncontacted tribes, as well as several other communities that would readily establish contact with the outside world. Some tribal members were wiped out by drugs or gold diggers.
As we know, respiratory diseases common in modern society can quickly destroy entire tribes. Since 1987, official government policy has been not to engage with tribes if their survival is at risk.
Very little is known about these isolated groups, but they are all distinct tribes with distinct cultures. Their representatives tend to avoid contact with anyone who tries to contact them. Some hide in the forests, while others defend themselves using spears and arrows.
Some of the tribes, such as the Awá, are nomadic hunter-gatherers, which makes them more resilient to outside influences.
Kawahiwa
This is another example of uncontacted tribes, but it is primarily known for its nomadic lifestyle.
It appears that in addition to bows and baskets, its members may use spinning wheels to make strings, ladders to collect honey from bee nests, and elaborate animal traps.
The land they occupy has received official protection, and anyone who trespasses on it faces severe persecution.
Over the years, many of the tribes engaged in hunting. The states of Rondonia, Mato Grosso and Maranhao are known to contain many dwindling uncontacted tribes.
Loner
One man presents a particularly sad picture simply because he is the last of his tribe. Living deep in the rainforest of Tanaru in the state of Rondônia, this man always attacks those nearby. His language is completely untranslatable, and the culture of the disappeared tribe to which he belonged remains a mystery.
Besides the basic skills of growing crops, he also likes to dig holes or lure animals. Only one thing is certain, when this man dies, his tribe will become nothing more than a memory.
Other uncontacted tribes of South America
Although Brazil contains a large number of uncontacted tribes, such groups of people are known to still exist in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, French Guiana, Guyana and Venezuela. In general, little is known about them compared to Brazil. Many tribes are suspected of having similar yet distinct cultures.
Uncontacted tribes of Peru
The nomadic group of Peruvian peoples have endured decades of aggressive deforestation for the rubber industry. Some of them even deliberately contacted the authorities after fleeing drug cartels.
In general, keeping away from all other tribes, most of them rarely turn to Christian missionaries, who are accidental spreaders of disease. Most tribes like Nanti can now only be seen from a helicopter.
Huaroran people of Ecuador
It is a people bound together by a common language which appears to be unrelated to any other in the world. As hunter-gatherers, the tribe has over the past four decades settled on a long-term basis in a fairly developed area between the Curaray and Napo rivers in the east of the country.
Many of them had already made contact with the outside world, but several communities rejected this practice and instead chose to move to areas untouched by modern oil exploration.
The Taromenan and Tagaeri tribes number no more than 300 members, but are sometimes killed by loggers looking for valuable mahogany wood.
A similar situation is observed in neighboring countries, where only certain segments of tribes such as the Ayoreo from Bolivia, the Carabayo from Colombia, the Yanommi from Venezuela remain completely isolated and prefer to avoid contact with the modern world.
Uncontacted tribes of West Papua
The western part of the island of New Guinea is home to about 312 tribes, 44 of which are uncontacted. The mountainous region is covered in dense, Viridian forests, which means we still don't notice these wild people.
Many of these tribes avoid socializing. Many human rights violations have been reported since their arrival in 1963, including murder, rape and torture.
The tribes usually settle along the coast, wander through the swamps and survive by hunting. In the central region, which is at a high elevation, the tribes are engaged in growing sweet potatoes and raising pigs.
Little is known about those who have not yet made formal contact. In addition to the challenging terrain, researchers, human rights organizations and journalists are also prohibited from exploring the region.
West Papua (the far left side of the island of New Guinea) is home to many uncontacted tribes.
Do similar tribes live in other places?
There may be uncontacted tribes still lurking in other forested parts of the world, including Malaysia and parts of Central Africa, but this has not been proven. If they exist, it might be best to leave them alone.
Outside world threat
Uncontacted tribes are mostly threatened by the outside world. This article serves as a cautionary tale.
If you want to know what you can do to prevent their extinction, it is recommended that you join a rather interesting non-profit organization, Survival International, whose employees work around the clock to make sure that these tribes live out their unique lives in our colorful world.