Phylosophical Thoughts of Mingling Cultures
The Brazilian government published pictures of isolated Amazonian tribes. This issued a conversation in our lab: is it a good policy, to let those tribes stay isolated from the rest of the world?
First, the interests: the government of Brazil, trying to alert the public against the disappearance of the rainforests, published pictures of remote tribes. The pics were taken from a helicopter, and you see there about half a dozen naked people, aiming arrows at the sky (according to the report, they tried to shoot the chopper down); their body is painted in red, and there are some small basic huts in the jungle. The brazilian government used these pics to alert the public that the habitat of this people and other such groups disappears. They declared the area a nature reserve and banned all entrance.
Now, the process of photography from a chopper is a crude intervention in the life of the native groups - those indians probably have a new myth now about flying monsters or something (the government, had it really cared about the indians, could have simply bought satellite pics of the area or use high-altitude planes to avoid intervention); but there is a deeper question here. We are aware of the existance of these tribes, they are probably unaware of the outside world. Should we introduce? If yes, how?
Would your answer change if you knew that they all suffer from a desease and die very young and in great pain, and that you can cure it? Would it change if you knew for certain that they beat and abuse their kids? Do you think there’s a fair possibility to “give them a choice”?
Yesterday I saw in the television a film taken by a group of travellers. They went to a remote area in Ethiopia, and found villages that presumably never saw a white man before (though they are aware of the “outside world”). All people go around naked, have exotic habits (like putting a lot of cow-dow all over their bodies), and generally live in the wild. After a short while the kids- encouraged by the elder people - started to ask for money for the photos; later one leader - going around naked - asked for a T-shirt. This initiated a conversation among the delegation: should they give him a T-shirt (they did), or try to avoid this crude modification of the traditional life style? What if a doctor was present there, and could cure a sick kid - should he do it, or should he “avoid the intervention”?
What do you think?
June 9th, 2008 at 18:17
I think it was written on a t-shirt once - all life’s questions are answered in Sci-Fi
;-)
That being said, I was never a supporter of the “prime directive” type of thinking. I don’t think people should avoid having contact with remote societies such as this, I just think they shouldn’t treat them like they are in need of “rescuing” from their chosen life-style.