Aerial footage of uncontacted Amazon tribe

Post by forensic » Sat, Feb 05, 2011, 2:19 AM UTC

megablast wrote: post #58

zeteo wrote: post #45

It's so easy to play God hovering in the skies, and make decisions for these people's future, isn't it? Maybe they actually don't enjoy 50+% child mortality, dying of appendicitis, and having to barter a truckload of plantains for a pot and a steel machete. Why don't they send someone on the ground, to explain to them that there's a big world out there that can change their ways forever, and give them a choice whethe…

Well, you could not simply explain it to them, you would have to show it to some of them, and let them live the life, before they could make an informed decision. Perhaps the best advice would be to contact other tribes that have been assimilated, and see how they feel about the process. Would they go back, if they could?

Post by dools » Sat, Feb 05, 2011, 2:22 AM UTC

xenophanes wrote: post #27

raganwald wrote: post #9

You know that Golden Rule?" Not the one that VCs quote, but the one that goes "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you?" We should think about that when we choose how to deal with uncontacted tribes. It may be that one day another intelligence will need to decide how to deal with us, and on that day I hope we can say, "Yes, we used to have a habit of massacring technologically inferior peoples we encounte…

We should give them access to technology and to our way of life. Our way of life is better. Preserving their backwards culture so they can continue lives of misery and suffering is just as disgusting as the Prime Directive. Help is exactly what I would want from advanced alien visitors. I don't want them to respect my culture just because it is mine; I want something better for myself, not cultural relativism. There…

Post by burgerbrain » Sat, Feb 05, 2011, 2:26 AM UTC

borism wrote: post #167

uvdiv wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> BTW: you to know that Western medicine is not the only medicine in the world. There is only one class of medicine in the world, and is scientific. Your attempt to frame science-based medicine as a racial or cultural property ("Western") lies at the root of your reasoning fallacies: you reinterpret comparison between industrialized and tribal humans as cultural/racial, regardless of whether race or culture has anyth…

There is only one class of medicine in the world, and is scientific. what is considered scientific is very often defined by culture though. I bet those tribes consider their shamans scientists, even though they won't pass our western scientific criteria. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_medicine

Post by yesbabyyes » Sat, Feb 05, 2011, 2:39 AM UTC

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #64

d3x wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really hope you are kidding. If not this is so typical of the american way of thinking. Yes, we are so superior lets convert them all to our [insert culture, religion etc...]. What is so bad about leaving them alone? I would bet they are much happer than the majority of the FB and Twitter obsessed narcissist that I run into every day. While we are at it lets make sure they all become good christians too because any…

What is so bad about leaving them alone? I would bet they are much happer than the majority of the FB and Twitter obsessed narcissist that I run into every day. What is so bad is you making the decision for them -- one way or the other. It's that kind of pompous paternalistic attitude that caused all kinds of pain and misery. If they are happy with a life expectancy of 30, of having mothers die in childbirth commonly…

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Feb 05, 2011, 2:40 AM UTC

deadmansshoes wrote: post #215

Naga wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The scope of human sacrifice was largely exaggerated. The book 1491, by Charles C. Mann, puts the amount of people sacrificed per year by the Aztecs at 3000-4000, out of around 30 million people. He compares that to England, which executed 75000 people between 1530 and 1630. England had about 1/10th the population of the Aztecs, and if it had the same, it would have been executing 7500 people each year, around double…

Yes but those executions weren't a ridiculous attempt to appease some "sun god" - many of the those executed in England were witches. As to the comment above - are you suggesting the Spanish deliberately spread diseases? It seems a little unfair to accuse the Spanish invaders of bio-warfare.