Is it moral to leave tribes alone in the modern world?

[mids2019]

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/dec/22/exclusive-photographs-reveal-first-glimpse-of-uncontacted-amazon-community-massaco

Never really understood the reluctance for more intervention with remote people when they are citizens of Brazil and are therefore under the same laws as the rest of the Brazilian populace, have the same right to healthcare, education etc. Also they should have the right to vote in Brazil's democrqcy.

It just feels like a human zoo and sits badly with me.....

Half of them would likely very quickly die from disease if a group that has had no contact with outsiders suddenly does. And not necessarily diseases we have vaccines for or even diseases we consider dangerous. If they have no or very little immunity to our various cold viruses then that could be enough to cause a dangerous epidemic in their population.

Are you OK with the possibility that exposure to outside people could bring diseases they are not resistant to and could kill many of them? This has happened before.

We (supposedly advanced, civilised people) have nearly wiped out previously-uncontacted tribes with various viruses in the past.

Careful, you're sounding very racist. Clearly the country they're in is happy to let them administer their own justice. Why should anyone else get to interfere? Are you assuming they're savages with no rules and justice in their society? Or is it that you think your version of rules, civilisation and morality is innately better?

It may even have happened before that some contact with outsiders was followed by a wave of deadly sickness. That might be in living memory or recorded in the history of the group (could be recalled in stories for example). If I remember rightly this is part of the reason the ´un’contacted’ group of the Andaman Islands are totally hostile to any contact with outsiders.

Your whole argument is coloniser behaviour.

Leave. Them. Alone.

Counterpoint:

Should westerners be allowed to ruin the world for everyone (climate change and the associated ecological disasters)? I can't believe we're exposing our children to this.

These are terrible statistics, but they don’t happen because these people are indigenous.

higher rates of social issues including alcoholism, domestic and child abuse in indigenous communities is directly linked to the effects of contact with settlers /non-indigenous people, who completely upend communities ways of lives and tend (in their quest to bring the great things of medicine and education) to rip out the heart of communities. this is called intergenerational trauma.

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4232330/

Think of it as a form of devolution of power OP. The tribes have responsibility for administering their own system of justice, as they've done for centuries. Maybe you should question why exactly you believe any other justice system would be superior?

You're making assumptions about their lives from a blinkered and ill-informed viewpoint.

https://time.com/5466416/survival-international-india-sentinelese-john-allen-chau/

Oh stop wringing those pearls.
How do you think such tribes have survived for milenia? You ignorantly think the 'modern world' and all it's offerings are better. That's such a colonialist attitude - 'we know better, you will do it our way.'
Why should they be sucked into this maelstrom of shit that it the modern world?. They have bothered no-one all this time, have survived quite nicely without MN, botox and snobbish, paternalistic judgement.
I am sure they are eternally grateful that you have their moral welfare at the forefront of your attitude - that is, If they knew that they were beinng patronised on a forum some several thousands miles away.

I was watching something the other day about ancient Irish judicial systems. They worked very well until the British waded in , erasing the whole system and preventing people from speaking their own language. The judicial systems were something I knew nothing about previously. These were very rural areas but the organisation behind the law courts was impressive

Did you even read the article you linked, OP?

This bucking of a global trend of cultural loss and disappearing languages has been accomplished by the innovative public policy of not initiating contact – which was pioneered by Brazil in 1987 after decades of government-led contact killed more than 90% of those contacted, mostly from disease. Since then, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, and Bolivia have adopted versions of the approach.

Would it be 'moral' to risk the death of 90% of those contacted?

If you're out of line with all expert, charity and government thinking, you probably need to read a lot more about the topic before pronouncing your moral judgement.

Look at what happened when the 'modern world' visited the Sentinalese people.

That went well.

They have survived childbirth for milenia. You say they need modern maternity care, yet mostly women moan about the medicalisation of childbirth snd that i cthey were just left with a midwife, the birth would be all rainbows and candyfloss.
Perhaps read and understand ho xsuch people's have survived this long in a 'primitive' world.

Have a look at the indigenous people of Australia and what happened to them when they were forced to become part of 'white man's' rule. Far, far too many are alcoholics, use drugs, are homeless, have mental health challenges galore. It wasn't what was best for them. It's just completely different ways of life and should be allowed to be different.

As the adage goes, 'better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and prove it.'

Yes, due the intergenerational trauma of colonialism.

You want to do this to other people?

And comparing indigenous people to animals is the height of racism.

They have managed for thousands of years. Your attitude reeks of Western imperialism. Who is to say our way of life is better?

I suspect we've lost OP if they were even genuine in the first place but I they've taken some of this on board.

What if their way IS the right way to live?

Lets be frank, they have survived eons without modern stuff and western judicial system and medication and whatnot we have and of which we need more and more and more to survive.

What if we are the ones who should change?

She is gwnuine, she comes up with odd questions often

It's a tricky question. For me, the big problem with "Just leave them alone," is that others may make contact with these tribes instead, in ways that are not sanctioned by governments, resulting in much worse consequences for the people themselves. Like, at least government-sactioned contact could result in things like vaccines being made available; casual contact by loggers will just bring in the diseases, without the vaccines.

Whether these tribes really are 100% uncontacted is a bit of a moot point. In many cases, there is more interaction with the outside world than you would imagine.

Some parts of South America are incredibly remote and you don’t have to be part of a tribe to be pretty much left to it.

They’ve lasted this long without “us”, I think they’ll be fine 😅 Leave them to it, the lucky sods!