Previously uncontacted tribe explain what they think planes are as they make first contact with modern society

As the we encroach ever further into the homes of indigenous communities, you might wonder how people who have no direct experience with modern technology would conceive of certain things.

Despite everything, there do remain many communities who are largely un-contacted, but even without direct contact they still see planes roaring overhead.

And one community revealed how they think about the planes they see overhead when an anthropologist when to speak with them.

The Txapanawa live far in Brazil's interior close to the border of Peru. This is a very isolated place, with the border being largely lawless.

Brazil has a large number of communities that still live in the country's vast interior. And despite a no contact policy put in place by the Brazilian government in 2006, both logging and forest clearance continue to encroach on indigenous land.

Reports have also suggested that invasions of indigenous land saw an increase under far right president Jair Bolsonaro's ruling.

Now, a video from a documentary by TRACK Travel Documentaries shows anthropologist José Carlos Meirelles visiting the Txapanawa.

YouTube / TRACKS Travel Documentaries

Among the questions he asks them is what do they believe happens when you die.

A member of the community explained: "Our spirit goes up into the sky and never returns. First we make our way downriver, and then rise up into the sky. We stay there forever."

Meirelles asked the man if they believe that white people also go to the same place, to which the man replied: "They also go down the river and up into the sky.

"They are taken to the middle of the sky by the flying thing to the centre of the sky. It takes them to another sky."

Tragically, the Txapanawa are among many communities who have been displaced by encroachment into their homes.

YouTube / TRACKS - Travel Documentaries

The community had formerly lived within the jungle, but ultimately left it following a massacre believed to have been committed on the Peruvian side of the border.

They explained: "What made us leave the jungle? The whites came looking for us. They appeared, screaming at us, they had guns and machetes. They killed my father, they killed my mother, my two wives, they killed their father.

"The Peruvians were animals, they wouldn't leave us in peace. It was too dangerous, so we came here."

It's not just logging, but also coca farmers and drug traffickers. Meirelles explained he believes they moved to the Brazilian side as there are greater protections in place for indigenous communities than in Peru.