Twilight for the Forest People:
If they are removed and survive the exposure to diseases they have never encountered, it is likely that the unique knowledge and beliefs that define them, the spirit of their life, will probably slip away.
I am to understand that governments like Brazil are better about this, but there has long been a problem with these tribal groups disappearing in 2-3 generations because of their lack of immune faculties to deal with the pathogens they're newly exposed to. Something to think about.
Medicine & Health
Comments
To me, for scientific and historical reasons alone it would be well worth keeping these cultures alive to the (not terribly large) extent possible, just to see how they work. The cost wouldn't be that great, because there's no evidence that the the Amazon will ever be a great source of wealth. I've seen argument that we should save them from their violent and impoverished lives, but they certainly don't want that, and it's not as if they're being offered full membership in western civilization. If they survived the diseases, they'd just end up in shantytowns or as the most marginal villagers.
Posted by: John Emerson | June 8, 2008 9:38 AM
What's your point, Razib? Are you suggesting they should be vaccinated or something? There's no vaccine nor effective treatment against viral infections, you know.
And, what the heck... let them live their lives, and save the jungle at the same time. You cannot make farmers of them because it's not possible to farm the jungle intensvely: just to fell it until it becomes semidesert, barely able to sustain some cattle.
What the Brazilian government has been doing in the last years is to expel the missionaries and keep contact at minimal levels, always through the specialized institutions (mostly made up of ill-paid native volunteers). It's not like no contact but good, limited, contact: something that helps them keep their culture while becoming aware of the world surrounding them.
They also have many contradictions, of course, and the recent resignation of the populat Enviroment Minister Marina Silva is a clear sign that the priorities of Lula's government are too much headed towards a likely myopic developism.
Posted by: Luis | June 8, 2008 2:16 PM
What's your point, Razib? Are you suggesting they should be vaccinated or something? There's no vaccine nor effective treatment against viral infections, you know.
hm. well, you could vaccinate them *ahead of time* and my point is that we might not have it in our ability to allow for a "good" *choice* at this pont.
Posted by: razib | June 8, 2008 2:22 PM
Luis,
"There's no vaccine nor effective treatment against viral infections, you know."
What? When did smallpox, polio and other diseases we vaccinate for not become viruses?
Perhaps it would be best to try and contact them with well trained anthropologist and nurses (who are screened for infections) who can get them vaccinated before they contact people who are infected. We will probably never be able to keep them isolated forever.
This is a situation that has no real good answers. Whatever happens will probably not end up working for these people.
Posted by: KevinC | June 9, 2008 12:13 AM