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Mind-blowing new images give glimpse of never-before-seen Amazon tribe

Home> News> World News

Updated 13:33 23 Dec 2024 GMTPublished 13:28 23 Dec 2024 GMT

Mind-blowing new images give glimpse of never-before-seen Amazon tribe

Observations of the Massaco community indicate it is growing in size

Emily Brown

Emily Brown

Images released by Brazil’s National Indigenous Peoples Foundation offer new insight into the life of an uncontacted community living in the state of Rondônia.

The name the community has for itself - if it has one at all - is not known to the rest of the world, but the National Indigenous Peoples Foundation (Funai) has called the group the 'Massaco', after the river that runs through its domain.

Established near Brazil’s border with Bolivia, the Massaco is one of 28 confirmed isolated communities in Brazil, with dozens more yet to be confirmed.

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The images show the Massaco working with tools (Funai)
The images show the Massaco working with tools (Funai)

The new images of the community were caught by Funai veteran Altair Algayer, who oversees the territory from a nearby base. In an effort to gain insight into the group while still avoiding contact, Algayer set up cameras in the rainforest to try and capture their movements.

Now those images, caught in 2019 and 2024, have been published for the first time in The Guardian.

In the images, members of the community can be seen carrying wooden sticks while walking naked through the trees. The community are known to be skilled hunters, using longbows to catch their prey.

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Photos show Massaco members collecting tools left for them by Funai, and appearing to plant spikes in the ground with the intention of warding off unwanted visitors.

The Massaco community hunt with long bows (Funai)
The Massaco community hunt with long bows (Funai)

According to Algayer, he had been finding more and more of these spikes, which have the ability to take out a tractor tyre, close to his base as he sought to learn about the Massaco.

Earlier this year, the spikes damaged a vehicle being driven by a team from Funai as they carried out a mission in the Massaco Indigenous territory.

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Algayer's continued monitoring of the community has led him to believe that the population is growing, having increased from 100 to 120 people in the early 90s to approximately 200-250 today.

“On our most recent expeditions and in satellite images, we’ve seen more new tapiris [thatched huts], so I wouldn’t be surprised if there are 300 individuals,” he said, according to The Guardian.

Tall shelters are what help the Massaco stand out (Funai)
Tall shelters are what help the Massaco stand out (Funai)

Algayer and his team have managed to gather evidence of artefacts and create maps of the Massaco's trails to offer insight into their lives. By learning about their movements from season to season, members of Funai are able to arrive in a location just weeks after the community has moved on.

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Anthropologist Amanda Villa, who has previously joined Algayer on expeditions, spoke about the factors that make the Massaco stand out from neighboring communities.

She pointed to their tall thatched huts, longbows, extensive use of spikes, placement of animal skulls on poles, long hair, moustaches, and lack of piercings or jewellery.

The decision to try and learn about the Massaco community without making contact came after specialists from Funai determined in 1987 that attempts to connect resulted in both disease and misery for isolated groups.

Featured Image Credit: Funai

Topics: Photography, Life

Emily Brown
Emily Brown

Emily Brown is UNILAD Editorial Lead at LADbible Group. She first began delivering news when she was just 11 years old - with a paper route - before graduating with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University. Emily joined UNILAD in 2018 to cover breaking news, trending stories and longer form features. She went on to become Community Desk Lead, commissioning and writing human interest stories from across the globe, before moving to the role of Editorial Lead. Emily now works alongside the UNILAD Editor to ensure the page delivers accurate, interesting and high quality content.

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