MOSCOW, June 16, Zakhar Andreev High-speed Internet has reached the Amazon rainforest. Local tribes, who still lead the life of hunter-gatherers, gained access to the Internet. No one was prepared for what happened next.
The path to Mars led to the jungle
American entrepreneur Elon Musk dreams of colonizing Mars. This requires money. To earn money, the businessman came up with the idea of selling the Internet. He sent thousands of Starlink satellites into orbit, which provide reliable communications in the most remote corners of the planet — if only there was a special terminal to receive the signal.
According to Musk, he created the system so that “people could relax, watch movies on Netflix, play video games.» But the advent of technology has led to unforeseen consequences. Thus, the inventor was seriously afraid that the use of Starlink terminals by Ukrainian troops could provoke a nuclear war.
Fortunately, it hasn't come to that yet. Meanwhile, Starlink and the Internet it spreads were on full display in another unexpected place: the Amazon jungle, home to tribes of hunter-gatherers.
Choose a Tribe
Tribe Marubo first became acquainted with white people at the end of the 19th century. Brazil was experiencing rubber fever. The forced extraction of a valuable resource dealt a serious blow to the indigenous people of the Amazon — it destroyed their hunting grounds and settlements.
The survivors gained access to the benefits of civilization: iron tools, firearms. By the beginning of the First World War, the fever quickly subsided. The Marubos were left alone again for several decades. During the repeated isolation, their instruments became unusable. In the 1950s, one of the families themselves went in search of whites to begin an in-kind exchange — forest gifts for means of production.
Since then, the tribe has slowly but surely integrated into the big world, while trying to maintain their usual way of life. They have hunting rifles, motor boats, mobile phones, modern clothes. They cut their hair according to the current fashion. Some were educated and moved to the cities.
Nevertheless, the people still live in huts, fish, hunt monkeys and wild boars, dig cassava (a tuber plant) and drink the psychoactive ayahuasca. But now they have something more interesting than the shaman's hallucinogen. The tribe installed terminals of the space Internet network in the settlements.
«Stingers» for the Indians
In 2023, one of the chiefs and part-time designer at the Coca-Cola company, Enok Marubo (all two thousand members of the tribe bear this surname) dressed in traditional outfits and filmed a video message from a maloka hut. I asked sponsors for 15 thousand dollars for 20 Starlink terminals. According to him, communications should help Indians communicate with relatives and receive education.
US activist Allison Reno responded to the call. She purchased terminals with family money and organized delivery. She was inspired by the example of Congressman Charlie Wilson, who achieved the delivery of Stingers to the Afghan Mujahideen: it is believed that air defense systems helped defeat the Soviet Union. True, the consequence was Bin Laden, but Reno apparently forgot.
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"One tool will completely change their lives. Healthcare, education, communications, forest protection,” she listed the advantages of the Internet in the jungle. The result was as ambiguous as with the Stingers.
Starlink “plates” were installed on poles in the middle of settlements and connected to solar panels. Nine months later, 73-year-old Tsainama Marubo complained to a journalist for The New York Times: “Young people have become lazy because of the Internet. They are studying the lifestyle of white people.”
He who does not hunt is does not eat
The Marubo have abandoned traditional activities — and this is not only about making jewelry, but also about getting food.
“It has changed the daily routine so much that it has become detrimental,” Enoch admitted. “In the village, if you don’t hunt, fish and grow plants, then you don’t eat.”
Children and teenagers are completely immersed in the virtual world: video games , social networks, dating. In addition, some young men were caught sending porn videos in chat rooms. However, Marubo culture does not even approve of public kissing.
News aggregators caught on to this last fact. More than a hundred Internet resources published notes with the headline that the tribe was “addicted to porn.” The New York Times had to issue a retraction, and Musk had to write an angry rebuke on the social network X. Marubo leaders called such statements offensive. “The Internet brings a lot of problems,” they complained.
But there are also benefits. Thus, communication terminals have already saved the life of a tribe member who needed urgent help. Until now, doctors were called by radio, which is less reliable. In addition, Marubo children are actually getting an education — now teachers can teach lessons remotely.
Despite the obvious shortcomings of the Internet, 73-year-old Tsainama asks: “Please don’t take away our internet.”
Enok firm: the benefits outweigh. But Starlink limited the operating time — it turns on for several hours a day.
An arrow to the head
While the Marubo are gradually integrating into modern life, other tribes continue to live in isolation. According to the most rough estimates, there are more than a hundred uncontacted peoples in the world, more than half are in the Amazon (mainly in Brazil, a little in Peru).
The number of such tribes is impossible to calculate. However, according to indirect signs, it is declining. A possible reason is deforestation and, consequently, the disappearance of hunting grounds.
In recent years, Amazon Indians have carried out several attacks on scientists and «civilized» locals. In 2019, representatives of one of the tribes attacked a settlement in Peru. One resident was wounded in the head by an arrow. Apparently, the cause of the aggression was a lack of food.
A year later, in the Brazilian state of Rondonia, an uncontacted tribe shot and killed explorer Riel Franciscato with a bow. Ironically, he was known as a public defender of the Indians leading a primitive lifestyle.
To Save or Not to Save
For many years, there have been debates in the scientific community about whether it is worth protecting isolated tribes from civilization or, on the contrary, it is necessary to provide them with access to modern goods as soon as possible. Back in the middle of the twentieth century, it was generally accepted that the aborigines were deeply unhappy: they suffered from hunger, lack of medicine, water closets and other achievements of progress. However, the works of the American anthropologist Marshall Sahlins led to a rethinking of this approach.
“Having analyzed economic data and mechanisms in various primitive societies, he put forward the concept of a society of initial abundance, also known as Sahlins’ paradox. Its essence is that “savages” actually have everything they need and nothing extra. Why keep it to yourself a lot of things — they will only burden,” explained ethnologist Andrei Tutorsky.
In addition, Sahlins noticed that tribes in which there was no Neolithic revolution have a greater right to be considered a leisure society than we do, because their representatives work in on average only four hours a day.
Later studies refuted these data (after all, hunter-gatherers have to work hard), but a change in consciousness has already occurred — civilized people stopped believing that the aborigines should be saved. Instead, they are helped to preserve their traditional way of life, protecting them from outside invasion.
Today, in some countries, territories occupied by isolated tribes have been declared protected areas. Thus, it is prohibited to approach the Indian island of North Sentinel, where an isolated people aggressive towards strangers lives, under penalty of criminal penalties. A daredevil who dares to break the ban will face a quick death. Delivering a Starlink terminal to locals is very difficult, so it seems that at least this island will be offline for a long time.