Scientific American - February 2019

February 2019, ScientificAmerican.com 49

denizens of the industrial world. Encounters with outsiders—
all of whom carry potentially deadly pathogens—could thus
wipe out these communities. Many experts contend that
keeping visitors away is the only way to safeguard them from
disease. Perhaps more important, many of these tribes are
aware of a larger world and have chosen to remain isolated.
“No contact,” in this view, is thus a matter of human rights.
Others counter that contact is inevitable and that preparing
the tribes for that eventuality is the most prudent course of
action. The march of modernity stops for no one. And with-
out regular contact, it is impossible to protect the tribes from
armed, evil actors who covet virgin timber, gold and other
natural resources often hidden in their lands.
In 2012 Perea’s tribe and the other communities of Curare,
along with groups in other nearby areas, launched an aggres-
sive effort to patrol the borders and protect the lands of their
uncontacted counterparts from incursions of loggers, hunters,
gold miners, missionaries, smugglers, drug dealers and com-
munist insurgents. Recently their mission has taken on added
urgency. For decades Colombia’s civil war stalled development
in the Amazon, and the presence of insurgent camps, right-

LONGHOUSE, or maloca, in Curare serves as a gathering

ǧD`x… ̧ßîšx§ ̧`D§` ̧­­ø³žîžxäî ̧lžä`øääx† ̧ßîäî ̧Çß ̧îx`î

their isolated neighbors ( 2 ÊÍ5š ̧äxx† ̧ßîäž³`§ølx­D³³ž³

several control posts strategically located along the border

of the protected lands ( 1 ).

Map by Mapping Specialists

Living in Solitude

Deep in the Colombian Amazon, tribespeople have been found

living in isolation from the outside world. Their territory encom-

passes part of the Curare–Los Ingleses Indigenous Reserve and

neighboring areas, including a large portion of the Río Puré

National Natural Park. Other tribes are working to

protect the uncontacted group.

2

Puerto Franco

Bogotá

COLOMBIA

PERU BRAZIL

ECUADOR

Curare-Los Ingleses

Indigenous Reserve

Río Puré National Natural Parkona

CCCaq

uet

táRi

vvver

COLOMBIA

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