Before the Age of Exploration, most of the world was made up of hunter-gatherer tribes, with civilization only existing in Europe, North Africa, and Asia. Today, there are still uncontacted tribes living in isolated areas such as the Amazon, New Guinea, and a small island in the Bay of Bengal. These tribes lead Stone Age lives and are an example of what human life was like before civilization. The last uncontacted tribe in Australia, the Pintupi Nine, was discovered in 1984. Most uncontacted tribes today live in the Amazon, where excessive deforestation and conflicts with loggers threaten their isolation and security.
About a thousand years ago, and for hundreds of thousands of years before that, most of the world was hunter-gatherer tribes. Civilization existed only in Europe, North Africa and Asia – the rest of the world was unknown. This included most of Africa, Southeast Asia, Oceania, Australia and the Americas. After the Age of Exploration in the 15th, 16th and early 17th centuries, much of the world had been discovered (later subjugated) by Europeans, except mainly Australia, Oceania, the heart of Africa and of some scattered points in the Americas.
Today, at the beginning of the 21st century, one might think that all the people of the world are now part of civilization or at least are directly exposed to it frequently. This is almost true, but not quite. There is still the rare phenomenon of the uncontacted tribe, the tribe that has had almost no interaction with global civilization. These “wild humans” lead Stone Age lives, living in the most isolated places in the world such as the Amazon, New Guinea and a small island in the Bay of Bengal. These pristine peoples are an example of what human life was like before the rise of civilization. They are usually almost completely naked and hunt using spears or bows and arrows. Many of them use elaborate face paints and have shamanic religions.
For a couple of centuries, Australia was the center of the uncontacted tribe, as the continent wasn’t settled by Europeans until the late 18th century, the last habitable continent to be so settled. The aborigines, who represent one of the first offshoots of humanity outside Africa, have lived there for about 18 years. By 50,000, the land’s Aboriginal people were living a traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyle, an uncontacted tribe known as the Pintupi Nine, who were located by “Aboriginal trackers” and taken to Kintore, Northern Territory. They were immediately embarrassed by their nakedness, wearing clothes, an experience they found terribly uncomfortable. They expressed amazement at the abundance of food and water available in the community. The Nine Pintupi are believed to have been the last uncontacted tribe in Australia.
Today, most of the uncontacted tribes live scattered throughout the Amazon, where the thickness and danger of the forest have isolated them from the civilization of interaction. These Amazonian tribes are often extremely aggressive, given their “uncontacted tribe” status in part due to their extreme hostility to any attempt at contact. On some occasions, uncontacted tribes have been observed shooting arrows at aircraft that rarely pass overhead. Brazil alone has 67 known uncontacted tribes. The isolation and security of these tribes have been jeopardized by excessive rainforest deforestation and conflicts with loggers.
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