Confused about if this article should be posted in Science or Anthropology....

[Judi Lynn]

So I did both:

John Allen Chau: What we could learn from remote tribes
By Gareth Evans & Roland Hughes
BBC News
4 hours ago

When American John Allen Chau was killed by an endangered tribe in India last week, it brought a renewed focus on some of the world's most isolated people.

Officials in India said Chau was a missionary keen to convert the protected Sentinelese people on the Andaman and Nicobar islands.

But the Sentinelese, who are fearful of outsiders, attacked Chau with bows and arrows.

Advocates for isolated communities, like London-based Survival International, say Chau's killing should act as a reminder that remote tribes need to be protected from the outside world.

More:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-46301059

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

1. To all future Chaus of the world...

"NOT EVERYONE wants to hear the nonsense." Just bc people in America will suffer a few minutes when you're on the back porch, doesn't mean that's true the world over.

[rusty quoin]

2. I saw it as anthropology. You don't hear about isolated groups much anymore.

[TreasonousBastard]

3. There is, naturally, a raging debate about what to do about these isolated peoples...

and there is a disturbing link in the story to "tribal tourism".

I have no answer to the question of what, if anything, should be done with these people, but I am horrified of treating them as if they were animals in a zoo.

Maybe 40 years ago we were heading across Alligator Alley and saw a sign advertising a Seminole Village. Figuring it was another tourist trap, we stopped to check it out, but soon realized that it was an actual village with actual Seminoles living there. We walked by their "bedrooms" watching them get up and get dressed.

We paid a buck or so to see them in their "natural environment".

Couldn't get out of there fast enough.

[3Hotdogs]

5. I remember the Seminole Village on my several trips to Florida in the '50's.

I believe they were part of the Ross Allen reptile institute. My parents didn't pay for us to go in and I wasn't much interested.


Side script - my boss years ago, earned summer college tuition money as an alligator wrestler at Ross Allen's. tourist trap.

"Tails were as dangerous as the teeth."

[Judi Lynn]

6. That is creepy, isn't it? Good grief.

Reminds one of having heard about Bedlam:

To raise hospital income, London’s Bedlam Asylum allowed, for a penny, public and casual visitors to stare at caged patients

Feb 21, 2017 Goran Blazeski

London’s Bethlem Royal Hospital, nicknamed Bedlam, is one of the world’s oldest hospitals for the treatment of mental illness accepting patients suffering from “insanity” since the 14th century. It was the first institution in Europe to specialize in mental illnesses, but it is also remembered for its scandalous history as world’s most notorious mental asylum. In fact, it was so notorious that its nickname Bedlam entered the English language meaning ‘an uproar or confusion.’

It was founded back in 1247, during the reign King Henry III, by the Italian Bishop Goffredo de Prefetti as the Priory of the New Order of St Mary of Bethlem and originally served to help raise money for the Crusades via alms collection. It was originally located in the parish of St Botolph, Bishopsgate’s ward, just beyond London’s wall on the site that’s now covered by Liverpool Street station in the City of London.

People with depression, dementia, schizophrenia, epilepsy, anxiety, learning disabilities and other mental illnesses were subjected to horrendous cruelty and experimentation by the managers of the facility known as “keepers.”

The Daily Mail reports that Bedlam was racked by scandals. One inmate died after his intestines burst, having been chained in a confined space for years. Others slept naked on straw in the cold, tormented by sadistic keepers.

More:
https://www.thevintagenews.com/2017/02/21/to-raise-hospital-income-londons-bedlam-asylum-allowed-for-a-penny-public-and-casual-visitors-to-stare-at-caged-patients/

[safeinOhio]

4. Learning that cultures that you think are nuts, think your culture is nuts

That is Anthropology.

Thank you for all of your post.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Thank you for your comment, safeinOhio. Very kind of you. n/t