I found this post which indicates that Agafia is still alive and now trying to recruit church followers to live in the mountains with her.
http://www.byzcath.org/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/363063/A...
For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact
21–30 of 256 posts
Re: For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact
#22It's absolutely astonishing to me that there could still be people out there, even in what's termed wilderness, who have never encountered the modernities of the society we inhabit - that for an all but unknown few the world is still just what lies outside their front door. I feel true sadness for the Lykov's, being 'discovered', then somewhat forced by the intrusion of others to be aware of their greater surrounding…
There is also at least one tribe in South America that has never been contacted by the outside world. http://www.uncontactedtribes.org/brazilfootage
There are a number of tribes along the Amazon who have never been contacted by the outside World, for example Brazil actively tries to identify isolated Indian tribes by fly-over but a policy to not contact them. Here is a story about drug traffickers massacring one of the documented, but uncontacted tribes: http://www.ibtimes.com/uncontacted-amazon-tribe-massacred-pe...
Re: For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact
#23In 2010 Werner Herzog released a documentary about trappers and their families living in the Taiga. It's called "Happy People":
http://www.wernerherzog.com/62.html
I really recommend it. The people survive their arduous living conditions by continually preparing for the next season. They've done the same things more or less for generations, always working, and pretty much cut off from modern civilization. Makes you realize how happiness is a fairly relative value. Their lives are completely defined by the need to survive, and as long as that's accomplished things are good.
Re: For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact
#24It's absolutely astonishing to me that there could still be people out there, even in what's termed wilderness, who have never encountered the modernities of the society we inhabit - that for an all but unknown few the world is still just what lies outside their front door. I feel true sadness for the Lykov's, being 'discovered', then somewhat forced by the intrusion of others to be aware of their greater surrounding…
Indeed. My grandfather used to tell me tales of his day in the Civilian Conservation Corps, building roads in the southern end of the Appalachian Mountains in the 1930s. They'd be going along clearing out land for a road and they'd come across a hollow with residents who had been isolated for decades, if not a century or more. He said they knew nothing about the world at all, though they would have basic tools from w…
Interesting little story. Did your grandfather say anything about how the people out in the wilderness reacted?
Re: For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
Whoever is interested, here are two very good academic articles about persistent hunting (subscription required): http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/508695 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047248408... Also, here is a video of a modern persistent hunter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=826HMLoiE_o
How do they bring the prey home after hunting it 30km?
Well.. from the article : "across his shoulders". I can't even imagine.
Re: For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Whoever is interested, here are two very good academic articles about persistent hunting (subscription required): http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/508695 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047248408... Also, here is a video of a modern persistent hunter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=826HMLoiE_o
How do they bring the prey home after hunting it 30km?
Endurance hunting is rarely a straight line race. Here is an example of a route for one of those hunts (it's from my first link):
http://www.jstor.org/literatum/publisher/jstor/journals/cont...
As you can see, even though the overall distance is 25.1 km, the straight line distance between the start and finish is less than a mile.
Re: For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact
#27It's absolutely astonishing to me that there could still be people out there, even in what's termed wilderness, who have never encountered the modernities of the society we inhabit - that for an all but unknown few the world is still just what lies outside their front door. I feel true sadness for the Lykov's, being 'discovered', then somewhat forced by the intrusion of others to be aware of their greater surrounding…
There's a show in France called 'Rendez-vous en terres inconnues' where they get celebrities to "isolated" tribes/groups (polar ring, deep jungle, desert, etc). Paradoxically, often, their lifestyle is not grown out of ignorance or isolation, they chose it. They do interact with our societies, but don't merge. The funniest part to me was how easy it was for them to catch up with us, like using a cellphone quickly became a mundane practical thing for emergencies, nothing was really difficult as far as I could see in the videos. Their children are really drawn to the 'modern' world though. Very sad that they're blinded by shiny things and desensitized to their own treasures.
Re: For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact
#28How did they tell their kids about the birds and the bees? Must have been very awkward as a teenager.
Re: For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact
#29This is absolutely amazing. This woman is more of a man than any man I know, living in some desolate valley for all of those years now absolutely ALONE? One word: Wow.
Re: For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact
#30As a boy there was a common game that friends would play, which was -- if Newton were to come back today, what technology would he be most shocked about. I found this quote interesting, and I think shows how hard it may be to predict such things: "What amazed him most of all," Peskov recorded, "was a transparent cellophane package. 'Lord, what have they thought up—it is glass, but it crumples!'"
http://obacon.wordpress.com/2011/04/26/mother-memory-celloph...
In an NPR interview someone mentioned that right after the words 'mother' and 'memory', in 1940 "the American public voted 'cellophane' as the third most beautiful word in the English language". Cellophane revolutionized food storage, and the gentleman in the OP recognized its usefulness.