Never Before Seen Amazon Tribe Photographed For The First Time

These people are part of an unknown and uncontacted Amazon tribe living in the jungle. Look at their faces arching towards the sky in wonderment, it’s so… completely refreshing. Can you imagine what they’re thinking about?

AU: In case you’re suffering from a weird case of déjà vu, these are new photos of the same tribe that was discovered back in 2008 in the Amazon. Still mind blowing that they can exist in complete isolation in today’s world – NB

I can’t even try to imagine their situation but I’m almost jealous of them. Their complete use of the land, building houses with palm frond roofs. Their rituals, painting their body red with annatto shrub seeds. Their world, honoring their ancestors just by living like them. It’s simple, and maybe at times inconvenient, but it’s also peaceful and natural. Sure, maybe they’re not advancing but they live.

What are they thinking about as the overhead plane flies past them? It doesn’t look like they’re hostile, other pictures of uncontacted tribes show bows and arrows pointed directly at the plane. This picture catches them stunned, mouth agape, curiously pointing. Like you caught them acting, only they’re not acting. I can’t quite explain it, it’s not exactly confusion on their faces but rather an interrupted moment mixed with a little bit of incredulity. So very amazing, nonetheless.

The pictures were taken with an overhead plane in an attempt to stop illegal logging in Peru. Kinda odd that tribal advocacy groups had to invade these tribes’ privacy to protect their privacy but the groups justified it by saying:

“[It's]necessary to reaffirm that these peoples exist, so we support the use of images that prove these facts. These peoples have had their most fundamental rights, particularly their right to life, ignored … it is therefore crucial that we protect them.”

Hopefully, they get protected. They look healthy and happy and that should never change. [Uncontacted Tribes via Wired]

Discuss

(29 Comments)
  • [–]

    chaz

    Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 10:14 AM

    That white pot in the first photo looks decidedly manufactured to me.

    Floated down the river?

    • [–]

      Simon Reidy

      Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 10:27 AM

      They must have ordered it from Amazon :)

    • [–]

      Jon

      Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 10:50 AM

      Agreed, it’s a bloody metal saucepan with a typical handle on the side of it and all.

  • [–]

    Harvz

    Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 10:24 AM

    they have clearly had contact with the out side world. in the first photo the child in the middle is holding a spear with a large knife attached and there is a steal pot just to the left resting on the rock

    • [–]

      Harvz

      Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 10:26 AM

      sorry his holding the knife and spears

    • [–]

      Josh

      Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 10:42 AM

      They probably traded it from another tribe that may have had contact with the outside world, or that tribe could have traded it with another tribe etc etc.

      • [–]

        huu

        Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 11:19 AM

        Agree with chaz and Harvz, those 2 things look out of place. And trading a most sharpest metal thing in the village and let a kid play with it dont make sense.

  • [–]

    Damo

    Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 10:53 AM

    My inital reaction was that it looked like someone had asked them to go and get their spears and knives to make them look more the part. I could be wrong of course but I couldn’t imagine they carry that gear around all the time in case they run into Predator.

    • [–]

      Steve

      Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 12:30 PM

      but he doesnt attack if you are unarmed…
      no spawrt

      • [–]

        Angelo

        Thursday, June 23, 2011 at 5:50 AM

        lol, thahts a gooud one

  • [–]

    Mr Biggles

    Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 11:07 AM

    Just cos the tribe as a whole has never been seen before doesn’t mean one or two of them don’t don on a flanny, jump in the old Hiace and head into town to chuck on a few bets at the local. The missus probably puts in a request for a new pot and a bottle of Pimms every now and then too.

  • [–]

    Cam

    Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 12:13 PM

    It’s just the next season of Survivor: Peru, and the contestants have fully embraced the challenge…

  • [–]

    Hugh

    Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 12:53 PM

    It would be interesting to see what their health and life expectancy would be.

  • [–]

    Kan

    Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 1:00 PM

    Bet you they have Karaoke. All villages do.

  • [–]

    Stuart

    Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 1:17 PM

    All that’s going through my mind is there is someone down there yelling:

    “Check it out it’s a Cessna Skyline 182. That thing can get up to 150 knots and travel around 1700 kilometers. Wonder if it’s going the google maps photography?”

  • [–]

    Samuel Haller

    Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 1:43 PM

    This was outed as a fraud not long after it was first posted last year.

    Get with the times man…

  • [–]

    HeyJD

    Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 2:50 PM

    So why hasn’t anyone using google earth found pictures of tribes yet?

    • [–]

      alistair

      Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 4:12 PM

      Cos google earth typically doesn’t take million of high res photographs of vast jungles, they only do suburban areas mostly

  • [–]

    red t-rex

    Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 3:41 PM

    Looks like a sequel to “Krippendorf’s Tribe”. They probably go back inside their huts and blog on their iPads.

  • [–]

    PrettySureitsahoax

    Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 7:23 PM

    I saw these pics early last year and it made a furore then but a few days later it came out as a hoax

    Has anyone run it by snopes? (if you don’t read xkcd that is)

    • [–]

      Seamus Byrne

      Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 11:19 PM

      It’s not a hoax. Follow the links, search the photo credit name, and yes, check Snopes (there’s nothing there about it). Brazil has been monitoring this tribe from the air for some years. The Uncontacted Tribes website linked in the story has a lot of cool info about it all.

  • [–]

    Kuujiryo

    Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 7:25 PM

    The Spiderman warpaint looks kinda cool.

  • [–]

    pj

    Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 9:34 PM

    Cmon, this is old news and FAKE

    http://www.geekologie.com/2008/06/fake_uncontacted_amazon_tribe.php

    • [–]

      Seamus Byrne

      Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 11:21 PM

      It’s not fake! The term is ‘uncontacted’, not undiscovered. Yep, Casey made a meal of the headline. But it’s a real tribe, that has never been contacted, only observed at a distance.

  • [–]

    Survival International

    Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 9:40 PM

    The tribe IS uncontacted, but is not “never before seen”. The Brazilian government has been monitoring them for 20 years.

    More here:

    http://www.uncontactedtribes.org/brazilphotos

  • [–]

    Ben

    Thursday, February 3, 2011 at 1:36 PM

    Old news is old.

  • [–]

    Joanna

    Sunday, February 6, 2011 at 2:04 AM

    Is it just me, or do the people look the slightest bit computer generated? I do believe that this is true and the tribe is there, however there is a possibility that it’s a hoax. The lighting on the man’s face looks a little different to the child on his right, and their feet give the impression that the people were pasted onto the background, although I understand that the sharp edges could simply be that the camera was so zoomed in that the quality was poor, and they had to increase the sharpness. (I’ve seen the footage too and I thought it was possible they could have been an animation.
    I’m probably wrong, but it’s possible! :)
    what do you think?

    • [–]

      Mr Biggles

      Monday, February 7, 2011 at 8:07 AM

      I think that’s foolish… You could just as easily take the whole photo from National Geographic, rather than take a photo of tribes people from one photo and superimpose it on another photo of forest.

      Seriously…??

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