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Judi Lynn

(160,219 posts)
Thu Oct 22, 2015, 02:53 AM Oct 2015

Uncontacted tribe's encounters with civilization fuel ethical debate

Uncontacted tribe's encounters with civilization fuel ethical debate

'Dangerous situation' as tourists, missionaries make contact with Peru's Mashco Piro people

CBC News Posted: Oct 19, 2015 4:49 PM ET| Last Updated: Oct 21, 2015 10:47 AM ET

Missionaries and tourists are increasingly making contact with an isolated "uncontacted" tribe in Peru, fuelling what the Peruvian government calls a "dangerous situation" and an ethical debate about how governments should deal with the world's uncontacted tribes.

For decades or centuries, the nomadic Mashco Piro people have kept to themselves in the jungles of Manu National Park in southeastern Peru, Luis Felipe Torres Espinoza, Peru's deputy minister of multi-culturalism told CBC's The Current.

However, recently they have started to make contact with nearby indigenous populations, seeking cultivated food such as plantains and metal objects such as knives and pots. Missionaries have also made contact with them, offering them gifts and trying to convert them to Christianity. Tourists en route to the national park have stopped to take pictures of them and give them gifts, Torres Espinoza said.

The encounters could put the Mashco Piro at risk of contracting deadly diseases — they have no natural immunity to contagious illnesses such as influenza and measles. They are also potentially risky to outsiders, as uncontacted tribes been known to attack and kill people outside their tribe.

More:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/mashco-piro-uncontacted-tribes-1.3278416

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