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For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact

blogs.smithsonianmag.com

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Re: For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact

#4
Lacking guns and even bows, they could hunt only by digging traps or pursuing prey across the mountains until the animals collapsed from exhaustion.

It's interesting that they stumbled on the persistence hunting technique so naturally. Indirect evidence to support the Endurance running hypothesis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endurance_running_hypothesis).

Re: For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact

#5
It'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 surroundings and soon thereafter the father and sister seeing the rest of their family felled in quick succession.

Re: For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact

#7
post #5

It'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…

You might already know about this, but I feel like you might be interested in the people of the North Sentinel Island, some of the "last people to remain virtually untouched by modern civilization": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sentinel_Island

Re: For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact

#8

Lacking guns and even bows, they could hunt only by digging traps or pursuing prey across the mountains until the animals collapsed from exhaustion. It's interesting that they stumbled on the persistence hunting technique so naturally. Indirect evidence to support the Endurance running hypothesis ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endurance_running_hypothesis ).

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

Re: For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact

#9
post #6

The link seems to be non responsive. Does anyone know of a mirror?

Works fro me. But if it's not working for you, you could always try the Coral Cache link, by adding .nyud.net to the end of the domain:

http://www.smithsonianmag.com.nyud.net/history-archaeology/F...

Re: For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact

#10
post #5

It'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 way back. Of course, that was 80 years ago now.

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