{"id":6510,"date":"2018-04-07T15:39:35","date_gmt":"2018-04-07T19:39:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=6510"},"modified":"2018-04-07T16:17:45","modified_gmt":"2018-04-07T20:17:45","slug":"lost-amazonian-tribes-why-the-west-cant-get-over-its-obsession-with-el-dorado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=6510","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Lost\u2019 Amazonian Tribes: Why the West Can\u2019t Get Over Its Obsession with El Dorado"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"File<\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

A number of ancient settlement sites<\/a> were recently discovered in the Amazon\u2019s Upper Tapaj\u00f3s Basin. This is no El Dorado \u2013 although you\u2019d be forgiven for thinking so. The press coverage<\/a> demonstrates a fixation on the idea that the tropical New World may once have been the site of monumental societies, such as those in Egypt or Mesopotamia. The recent discoveries were heralded by Newsweek<\/a> as \u201crewriting\u201d the history of the Americas before Columbus: not a modest claim. The Guardian proclaimed<\/a>: \u201cLost Amazon villages uncovered by archaeologists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the National Geographic (partly responsible for the funding of the project) announced<\/a> that the \u201cAmazon jungle was once home to millions more than previously thought\u201d. This is far from the idea of a pristine landscape that conservationists have been alluding to for years. As one of the Exeter researchers noted<\/a> to the Washington Post: \u201cIt seems that it was a mosaic of cultures.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
Evidence of a prehistoric settlement. University of Exeter<\/figcaption><\/figure>
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

News from the Amazon has long been concerned with \u201clost tribes\u201d or \u201cuncontacted peoples\u201d. One 1970 documentary<\/a> portrays the key element of the genre: native peoples resisting assimilation. In this century, the emphasis has shifted somewhat. Increasingly, native Amazonian peoples are portrayed not only as \u201clost\u201d, but also occupying a natural realm that is in danger of being lost itself to oil exploration, mining and timber extraction.<\/p>\n

\u2018Lost\u2019 Indians<\/strong><\/p>\n

This was strikingly illustrated in 2008, when Jos\u00e9 Carlos dos Reis Meirelles Junior, a FUNAI official (Brazil\u2019s national Indian agency) published dramatic and still widely reproduced images<\/a> of exotically-dyed Indians trying to bring down aircraft with bows and arrows. Meirelles described the threats to such tribes and their land as \u201ca monumental crime against the natural world\u201d.<\/p>\n

Meirelles acknowledged that efforts to forestall destructive timber exploitation were more effective if borne on the shoulders of \u201cuncontacted\u201d Indians, in part because the \u201cexotic Indian\u201d is a potent symbol to a metropolitan public.<\/p>\n

Yet as noted in a review<\/a> of a 2016 documentary that chronicled some of Meirelles\u2019 efforts to draw attention to the Indians\u2019 plight, there is a useful ambiguity in the term \u201cuncontacted\u201d. To the na\u00efve observer, the term implies autonomy and isolation. But, in fact, it is a term used by FUNAI officials to identify groups that simply have no official relationship with those agents of the state empowered to act on their behalf. As Meirelles himself said<\/a> when queried by The Guardian about the term:<\/p>\n

All the peoples described as \u2018isolated\u2019 have had some kind of contact with us. Usually violent. What they don\u2019t have is regular contact. But they\u2019ve been using axes, machetes and iron pots for at least 100 years.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n