In our society, the transition from the state of a child to the state of adulthood is not specifically marked in any way. However, among many peoples of the world, a boy becomes a man, and a girl a woman, only if they pass a series of severe tests.
For boys, this is initiation; the most important part of it among many nations was circumcision. Moreover, it, naturally, was not done in infancy, as among modern Jews. Most often, boys aged 13-15 were exposed to it. In the African Kipsigi tribe living in Kenya, boys are brought one by one to an elder, who marks the place on the foreskin where the incision will be made.
The boys then sit down on the ground. In front of each one stands a father or older brother with a stick in his hand and demands that the boy look straight ahead. The ceremony is performed by an elder, who cuts off the foreskin at the marked place.
During the entire operation, the boy has no right not only to cry out, but also to show at all that he is in pain. It is very important. After all, before the ceremony, he received a special amulet from the girl to whom he was engaged. If now he screams in pain or winces, he will have to throw this amulet into the bushes - no girl will marry such a man. For the rest of his life, he will be a laughing stock in his village, because everyone will consider him a coward.
Among the Australian Aborigines, circumcision is a complex, multi-stage operation. First, a classic circumcision is performed - the initiate lies on his back, after which one of the elderly people pulls his foreskin as far as possible, while the other cuts off the excess skin with a quick swing of a sharp flint knife. When the boy recovers, the next main operation takes place.
It is usually held at sunset. At the same time, the boy is not privy to the details of what is about to happen. The boy is placed on a kind of table made from the backs of two adult men. Next, one of those who perform the operation pulls the boy’s penis along the abdomen, and the other... rips it apart along the ureter. Only now can the boy be considered a real man. Before the wound heals, the boy will have to sleep on his back.
Such open penises of Australian aborigines take on a completely different shape during an erection - they become flat and wide. However, they are not suitable for urination, and Australian men relieve themselves while squatting.
But the most peculiar method is common among some peoples of Indonesia and Papua, such as the Batak and Kiwai. It consists of making a hole across the penis with a sharp piece of wood, into which various objects can subsequently be inserted, for example, metal - silver or, for those richer, gold sticks with balls on the sides. It is believed here that during copulation this creates additional pleasure for the woman.
Not far from the coast of New Guinea, among the inhabitants of the island of Waigeo, the ritual of initiation into men is associated with copious bloodletting, the meaning of which is “cleansing from filth.” But first you need to learn... to play the sacred flute, and then clean your tongue with sandpaper until it bleeds, since in deep childhood the young man sucked his mother’s milk and thereby “defiled” his tongue.
And most importantly, it is necessary to “cleanse” after the first sexual intercourse, which requires making a deep incision in the head of the penis, accompanied by copious bloodletting, the so-called “male menstruation”. But this is not the end of the torment!
Among the men of the Kagaba tribe, there is a custom according to which during sexual intercourse, sperm should under no circumstances fall to the ground, which is regarded as a grave insult to the gods, and therefore can lead to the death of the whole world. According to eyewitnesses, the “Kagabinites” cannot find anything better to avoid spilling sperm on the ground, “like placing a stone under a man’s penis.”
But young men of the Kababa tribe from Northern Colombia, according to custom, are forced to have their first sexual intercourse with the ugliest, toothless and ancient old woman. It’s no wonder that the men of this tribe experience a persistent aversion to sex for the rest of their lives and live poorly with their legal wives.
In one of the Australian tribes, the custom of initiation into men, which is carried out with 14-year-old boys, is even more exotic. To prove his maturity to everyone, a teenager must sleep with his own mother. This ritual means the return of the young man to the mother's womb, which symbolizes death, and orgasm - rebirth.
In some tribes, the initiate must pass through a "toothed womb." The mother puts a mask of a terrible monster on her head, and inserts the jaw of some predator into her vagina. The blood from a wound on the teeth is considered sacred; it is used to smear the face and genitals of the young man.
The young men of the Vandu tribe were much more fortunate. They can become a man only after they graduate from a special sex school, where a female sex instructor gives the boys extensive theoretical and, later, practical training. Graduates of such a school, initiated into the secrets of sexual life, delight their wives with all the power of the sexual capabilities given to them by nature.
EXCORIATION
In many Bedouin tribes in the west and south of Arabia, despite the official ban, the custom of ripping off the skin from the penis has been preserved. This procedure consists of cutting the skin of the penis along its entire length and peeling it off, just like skinning an eel while cutting it.
Boys from ten to fifteen years old consider it a matter of honor not to utter a single cry during this operation. The participant is exposed and the slave manipulates his penis until an erection occurs, after which the operation is performed.
WHEN TO WEAR A HAT?
The youths of the Kabiri tribe in modern Oceania, having reached maturity and undergone severe trials, receive the right to place on their heads a pointed cap, coated with lime, decorated with feathers and flowers; They stick it to their head and even go to bed in it.
YOUNG FIGHTER COURSE
Like many other tribes, among the Bushmen, the initiation of a boy is also carried out after his preliminary training in hunting and everyday skills. And most often young people learn this science of life in the forest.
After completing the “young fighter course,” deep cuts are made above the bridge of the boy’s nose, where the ashes of the burnt tendons of a pre-killed antelope are rubbed. And, naturally, he must endure this entire painful procedure in silence, as befits a real man.
BATTLE BUILDS COURAGE
In the African Fulani tribe, during the male initiation ceremony called "soro", each teenager was struck several times on the back or chest with a heavy club. The subject had to endure this execution in silence, without betraying any pain. Subsequently, the longer the marks of beatings remained on his body and the more terrible he looked, the more respect he gained among his fellow tribesmen as a man and a warrior.
SACRIFICE TO THE GREAT SPIRIT
Among the Mandans, the rite of initiation of young men into men was that the initiate was wrapped in ropes, like a cocoon, and hung on them until he lost consciousness.
In this unconscious (or lifeless, as they put it) state, he was laid on the ground, and when he came to his senses, he crawled on all fours to the old Indian, who was sitting in a doctor’s hut with an ax in his hands and a buffalo skull in front of him. The young man raised the little finger of his left hand as a sacrifice to the great spirit, and it was cut off (sometimes along with the index finger).
LIME INITIATION
Among the Malaysians, the ritual of entering into the secret male union of Ingiet was as follows: during initiation, a naked elderly man, smeared from head to toe with lime, held the end of the mat, and gave the other end to the subject. Each of them took turns pulling the mat towards himself until the old man fell on the newcomer and performed sexual intercourse with him.
INITIATION AT ARANDA
Among the Aranda, initiation was divided into four periods, with gradually increasing complexity of the rituals. The first period consists of relatively harmless and simple manipulations performed on the boy. The main procedure was to throw it into the air.
Before this, it was coated with fat and then painted. At this time, the boy was given certain instructions: for example, not to play with women and girls anymore and to prepare for more serious challenges. At the same time, the boy's nasal septum was drilled.
The second period is the circumcision ceremony. It was carried out on one or two boys. All members of the clan took part in this action, without inviting outsiders. The ceremony lasted about ten days, and throughout this time the tribe members danced and performed various ritual actions in front of the initiates, the meaning of which was immediately explained to them.
Some of the rituals were performed in the presence of women, but when they started circumcision, they ran away. At the end of the operation, the boy was shown a sacred object - a wooden tablet on a cord, which the uninitiated could not see, and its meaning was explained, with a warning to keep it secret from women and children.
The initiate spent some time after the operation away from the camp, in the forest thickets. Here he received a whole series of instructions from leaders. He was instilled with moral rules: not to do bad things, not to walk on the “path of women,” and to observe food prohibitions. These prohibitions were quite numerous and painful: it was forbidden to eat opossum meat, kangaroo rat meat, the tail and rump of a kangaroo, the entrails of an emu, snakes, any water bird, young game, and so on.
He didn’t have to break bones to extract the brain, and he didn’t have to eat a little bit of soft meat. In a word, the most delicious and nutritious food was forbidden to the initiate. At this time, living in the bushes, he learned a special secret language, which he used to speak with men. Women could not approach him.
After some time, even before returning to the camp, a rather painful operation was performed on the boy: several men took turns biting his head; it was believed that after this hair would grow better.
The third stage is the initiate’s exit from maternal care. He did this by throwing a boomerang towards the location of the maternal “totemic center”.
The last, most difficult and solemn stage of initiation is the engvur ceremony. The central place in it was occupied by the trial by fire. Unlike previous stages, the entire tribe and even guests from neighboring tribes participated here, but only men: two to three hundred people gathered. Of course, such an event was organized not for one or two initiates, but for a large party of them. The celebrations lasted for a very long time, several months, usually between September and January.
Throughout the entire period, religious thematic rites were performed in a continuous series, mainly for the edification of the initiates. In addition, various other ceremonies were held, partly symbolizing the initiates' break with women and their transition to a group of full-fledged men. One of the ceremonies consisted, for example, of the initiates passing by the women's camp; at the same time, the women threw burning brands at them, and the initiates defended themselves with branches. After this, a feigned attack on the women's camp was carried out.
Finally the time came for the main test. It consisted of building a large fire, covering it with damp branches, and the young men being initiated lay down on top of them. They had to lie there, completely naked, in the heat and smoke, without moving, without screaming or moaning, for four to five minutes.
It is clear that the fiery test required from the young man enormous endurance, willpower, but also uncomplaining obedience. But they prepared for all this with long previous training. This test was repeated twice. One of the researchers describing this action adds that when he tried to kneel down on the same green floor above the fire for an experiment, he was forced to immediately jump up.
Of the subsequent rituals, an interesting one is the mocking roll call between the initiates and the women, which takes place in the dark, and in this verbal duel even the usual restrictions and rules of decency were not observed. Then emblematic images were painted on their backs. Next, the fire test was repeated in an abbreviated form: small fires were lit in the women’s camp, and the young men knelt on these fires for half a minute.
Before the end of the festival, dancing was again held, wives were exchanged, and, finally, the ritual offering of food to those dedicated to their leaders. After this, the participants and guests gradually dispersed to their camps, and that was where it all ended: from that day on, all prohibitions and restrictions on the initiates were lifted.
TRAVELS… TOOTH
During initiation rites, some tribes have a custom of removing one or more of a boy's front teeth. Moreover, certain magical actions are also subsequently performed with these teeth. Thus, among some tribes of the Darling River region, a knocked-out tooth was stuffed under the bark of a tree growing near a river or a hole with water.
If a tooth became overgrown with bark or fell into water, there was no reason to worry. But if he protruded outside and ants were running over him, then the young man, according to the natives, was in danger of having an oral disease.
Murring and other tribes of New South Wales first entrusted the custody of a knocked-out tooth to one of the old men, who passed it on to another, who passed it on to a third, and so on until, having gone around the whole community in a circle, the tooth returned to the young man’s father and, finally, to himself. to a young man. At the same time, none of those who kept the tooth should have put it in a bag with “magical” objects, since it was believed that otherwise the owner of the tooth would be in great danger.
YOUTH VAMPIRISM
Some Australian tribes from the Darling River had a custom according to which, after the ceremony on the occasion of reaching manhood, the young man did not eat anything for the first two days, but drank only blood from the veins opened in the hands of his friends, who voluntarily offered him this food.
Having placed a ligature on the shoulder, a vein was opened on the inside of the forearm and the blood was released into a wooden vessel or into a piece of bark shaped like a dish. The young man, kneeling on his bed of fuchsia branches, leaned forward, holding his hands behind him, and licked the blood from the vessel placed in front of him with his tongue, like a dog. Later, he is allowed to eat meat and drink the duck's blood.
AIR INITIATION
The Mandan tribe, a group of North American Indians, has perhaps the most brutal initiation rites. It happens as follows.
The initiate first gets down on all fours. After this, one of the men, with the thumb and forefinger of his left hand, pulls back about an inch of flesh on his shoulders or chest and, holding a knife in his right hand, the double-edged blade of which is jagged and notched to intensify the pain caused by the other knife, pierces the pulled skin. His assistant standing next to him inserts a peg or pin into the wound, a supply of which he keeps ready in his left hand.
Then several men of the tribe, having climbed in advance to the roof of the room in which the ceremony takes place, lower two thin ropes through holes in the ceiling, which are tied to these pins, and begin to pull the initiate up. This continues until his body rises above the ground.
After this, the skin on each arm below the shoulders and on the legs below the knees is pierced with a knife, and pins are also inserted into the resulting wounds and ropes are tied to them. For them, the initiates are pulled even higher. After this, on stiletto heels protruding from the bleeding limbs, the observers hang a bow, shield, quiver, etc. belonging to the young man undergoing the ceremony.
Then the victim is pulled up again until he hangs in the air so that not only his own weight, but also the weight of the weapons hanging on his limbs, falls on those parts of the body to which the ropes are attached.
And so, overcoming immense pain, covered in dried blood, the initiates hung in the air, biting their tongues and lips, so as not to utter the slightest groan and triumphantly pass this highest test of strength of character and courage.
When the tribal elders leading the initiation believed that the young men had adequately endured this part of the ritual, they ordered their bodies to be lowered to the ground, where they lay without visible signs of life, slowly coming to their senses.
But the torment of the initiates did not end there. They had to pass one more test: “the last run”, or in the language of the tribe - “eh-ke-nah-ka-nah-pik”.
Each of the young men was assigned two older and physically strong men. They took places on either side of the initiate and grabbed the free ends of the wide leather straps tied to his wrists. And heavy weights were hung from the pins piercing various parts of the young man’s body.
On command, the attendants began to run in wide circles, dragging their charge along with them. The procedure continued until the victim lost consciousness from blood loss and exhaustion.
ANTS DETERMINE...
In the Amazonian tribe Mandruku there was also a kind of sophisticated torture-initiation. At first glance, the tools used to carry it out looked quite harmless. They looked like two cylinders, blind at one end, made from the bark of a palm tree and had a length of about thirty centimeters. Thus, they resembled a pair of huge, crudely made mittens.
The initiate put his hands into these cases and, accompanied by onlookers who usually consisted of members of the entire tribe, began a long walk around the settlement, stopping at the entrance to each wigwam and performing a kind of dance.
However, these gauntlets were actually not as harmless as they might seem. For inside each of them there was a whole collection of ants and other stinging insects, selected on the basis of the greatest pain caused by their bites.
Other tribes also use a pumpkin bottle filled with ants during initiation. But the candidate for membership in the society of adult men does not go around the settlement, but stands still until the wild dances of the tribe take place to the accompaniment of wild cries. After the young man has endured the ritual “torture,” his shoulders are decorated with feathers.
TISSUE OF GROWING
The South American Ouna tribe also uses the "ant test" or "wasp test". To do this, ants or wasps stick into a special mesh fabric, often depicting some fantastic quadruped, fish or bird.
The whole body of the young man is wrapped in this fabric. From this torture the young man faints, and in an unconscious state he is carried into a hammock, to which he is tied with ropes; and a weak fire burns under the hammock.
It remains in this position for one or two weeks and can feed only on cassava bread and a small variety of smoked fish. Even in the use of water there are restrictions.
This torture precedes a magnificent dance celebration that lasts several days. Guests come wearing masks and huge headdresses with beautiful feather mosaics, and various decorations. During this carnival, a young man is beaten.
LIVING NET
A number of Caribbean tribes also used ants to initiate boys. But before this, the young people used a boar's tusk or a toucan's beak to scratch their chest and skin of their arms until they bled.
And only after that they began to torture with ants. The priest who carried out this procedure had a special device, similar to a net, in the narrow loops of which 60-80 large ants were placed. They were placed so that their heads, armed with long sharp stings, were located on one side of the mesh.
At the moment of initiation, the net with ants was pressed to the boy’s body and kept in this position until the insects stuck to the skin of the unfortunate victim.
During this ritual, the priest applied the net to the chest, arms, lower abdomen, back, back of the thighs and calves of the defenseless boy, who was in no way supposed to express his suffering.
It should be noted that in these tribes girls are also subjected to a similar procedure. They must also endure the bites of angry ants calmly. The slightest groan or painful distortion of the face deprives the unfortunate victim of the opportunity to communicate with elders. Moreover, she is subjected to the same operation until she bravely endures it without showing the slightest sign of pain.
PILLAR OF COURAGE
Young people from the North American Cheyenne tribe had to endure a no less cruel test. When the boy reached the age when he could become a warrior, his father tied him to a pole that stood near the road along which the girls walked to fetch water.
But they tied the young man in a special way: parallel cuts were made in the pectoral muscles, and straps made of raw leather were pulled along them. It was with these belts that the young man was tied to the post. And they didn’t just tie him up, but left him alone, and he had to free himself.
Most of the boys leaned back, pulling on the belts with the weight of their bodies, causing them to cut into their flesh. After two days, the tension of the belts weakened, and the young man was freed.
The more courageous ones grabbed the belts with both hands and moved them back and forth, thanks to which they were released within a few hours. The young man, freed in this way, was praised by everyone, and he was looked upon as a future leader in the war. After the youth had freed himself, he was led into the hut with great honor and looked after with great care.
On the contrary, while he remained tied, women passing by him with water did not speak to him, did not offer to quench his thirst, and did not provide any help.
However, the young man had the right to ask for help. Moreover, he knew that it would be immediately given to him: they would immediately talk to him and free him. But at the same time he remembered that this would be a lifelong punishment for him, for from now on he would be considered a “woman”, dressed in a woman’s dress and forced to do women’s work; he will not have the right to hunt, carry weapons or be a warrior. And, of course, no woman would want to marry him. Therefore, the overwhelming majority of Cheyenne youths endure this cruel torture like Spartans.
WOUNDED SKULL
In some African tribes, during initiation after the circumcision ritual, an operation is performed to inflict small wounds over the entire surface of the skull until blood appears. The original purpose of this operation was clearly to make holes in the cranial bone.
ROLE GAMES ASMATS
If, for example, the Mandruku and Ouna tribes use ants for initiation, then the Asmats from Irian Jaya cannot do without human skulls during the ceremony of initiating boys into men.
At the beginning of the ritual, a specially painted skull is placed between the legs of the young man undergoing initiation, who sits naked on the bare floor of a special hut. At the same time, he must constantly press the skull to his genitals, without taking his eyes off it for three days. It is believed that during this period all the sexual energy of the owner of the skull is transferred to the candidate.
When the first ritual is completed, the young man is led to the sea, where a sailing canoe awaits him. Accompanied and under the guidance of his uncle and one of his close relatives, the young man goes in the direction of the sun, where, according to legend, the ancestors of the Asmats live. The skull at this time lies in front of him at the bottom of the canoe.
During a sea voyage, the young man is supposed to play several roles. First of all, he must be able to behave like an old man, so weak that he is not even able to stand on his own feet and constantly falls to the bottom of the boat. The adult accompanying the young man lifts him up each time, and then, at the end of the ritual, throws him into the sea along with the skull. This act symbolizes the death of the old man and the birth of a new man.
The subject must also cope with the role of a baby who cannot walk or speak. By playing this role, the young man demonstrates how grateful he is to his close relative for helping him pass the test. When the boat reaches the shore, the young man will already behave like an adult man and bear two names: his own and the name of the owner of the skull.
That is why it was very important for the Asmats, who gained the infamous popularity of ruthless “skull hunters”, to know the name of the person they killed. A skull whose owner's name was unknown was rendered useless and could not be used in initiation ceremonies.
The following incident, which occurred in 1954, can serve as an illustration of the above statement. Three foreigners were guests in one Asmat village, and the locals invited them to a meal. Although the Asmats were hospitable people, they nevertheless looked at the guests primarily as “carriers of skulls,” intending to deal with them during the holiday.
First, the hosts sang a solemn song in honor of the guests, and then asked them to say their names in order to supposedly insert them into the text of the traditional chant. But as soon as they identified themselves, they immediately lost their heads.
They don't know what a car, electricity, a hamburger or the United Nations are. They get their food by hunting and fishing, believe that the gods send rain, and do not know how to write or read. They may die from catching a cold or flu. They are a godsend for anthropologists and evolutionists, but they are becoming extinct. They are wild tribes that have preserved the way of life of their ancestors and avoid contact with the modern world.
Sometimes the meeting occurs by chance, and sometimes scientists specifically look for them. For example, on Thursday, May 29, in the Amazon jungle near the Brazilian-Peruvian border, several huts were discovered surrounded by people with bows who tried to fire at the expedition plane. In this case, specialists from the Peruvian Center for Indian Tribal Affairs carefully flew around the jungle in search of savage settlements.
Although recently scientists rarely describe new tribes: most of them have already been discovered, and there are almost no unexplored places on Earth where they could exist.
Wild tribes live in South America, Africa, Australia and Asia. According to rough estimates, there are about a hundred tribes on Earth that do not or rarely come into contact with the outside world. Many of them prefer to avoid interaction with civilization by any means, so it is quite difficult to keep an accurate record of the number of such tribes. On the other hand, tribes that willingly communicate with modern people gradually disappear or lose their identity. Their representatives gradually adopt our way of life or even go away to live “in the big world.”
Another obstacle preventing the full study of tribes is their immune system. "Modern savages" developed for a long time in isolation from the rest of the world. The most common diseases for most people, such as a runny nose or flu, can be fatal for them. The body of savages does not have antibodies against many common infections. When the flu virus strikes a person from Paris or Mexico City, his immune system immediately recognizes the “attacker”, since it has already encountered him before. Even if a person has never had the flu, immune cells “trained” against this virus enter his body from his mother. The savage is practically defenseless against the virus. As long as his body can develop an adequate “response,” the virus may well kill him.
But recently, tribes have been forced to change their usual habitats. The development of new territories by modern man and the cutting down of forests where savages live force them to establish new settlements. If they find themselves close to the settlements of other tribes, conflicts may arise between their representatives. And again, cross-infection with diseases typical for each tribe cannot be ruled out. Not all tribes were able to survive when faced with civilization. But some manage to maintain their numbers at a constant level and not succumb to the temptations of the “big world”.
Be that as it may, anthropologists were able to study the lifestyle of some tribes. Knowledge about their social structure, language, tools, creativity and beliefs helps scientists better understand how human development took place. In fact, each such tribe is a model of the ancient world, representing possible options for the evolution of culture and human thinking.
Piraha
In the Brazilian jungle, in the valley of the Meiki River, lives the Piraha tribe. There are about two hundred people in the tribe, they exist thanks to hunting and gathering and actively resist being introduced into “society”. The Piraha have unique language features. First, there are no words for shades of color. Secondly, the Pirahã language lacks the grammatical structures necessary for the formation of indirect speech. Thirdly, the Pirahã people do not know numerals and the words “more”, “several”, “all” and “every”.
One word, but pronounced with different intonation, serves to designate the numbers “one” and “two”. It can also mean “about one” or “not very many.” Due to the lack of words for numbers, the Pirahã cannot count and cannot solve simple mathematical problems. They are unable to estimate the number of objects if there are more than three. At the same time, the Pirahã show no signs of a decline in intelligence. According to linguists and psychologists, their thinking is artificially limited by the features of language.
The Pirahã have no creation myths, and a strict taboo forbids them to talk about things that are not part of their own experience. Despite this, the Pirahã are quite sociable and capable of organized actions in small groups.
Cinta larga
The Sinta Larga tribe also lives in Brazil. Once the number of the tribe exceeded five thousand people, but now it has decreased to one and a half thousand. The minimum social unit of the Sinta Larga is the family: a man, several of his wives and their children. They can move freely from one settlement to another, but more often they establish their own home. The Sinta Larga engage in hunting, fishing and farming. When the land where their home stands becomes less fertile or game leaves the forests, the Sinta Larga move from their place and look for a new site for their home.
Each Sinta Larga has several names. One thing - the “real name” - is kept secret by each member of the tribe; only the closest relatives know it. During their life, Sinta Largas receive several more names depending on their individual characteristics or important events that happened to them. Sinta Larga society is patriarchal and male polygamy is common.
The Sinta Larga have suffered greatly due to contact with the outside world. In the jungle where the tribe lives, there are many rubber trees. Rubber collectors systematically exterminated the Indians, claiming that they were interfering with their work. Later, diamond deposits were discovered in the territory where the tribe lived, and several thousand miners from all over the world rushed to develop the Sinta Larga land, which is illegal. The tribe members themselves also tried to mine diamonds. Conflicts often arose between savages and diamond lovers. In 2004, 29 miners were killed by Sinta Larga people. After that, the government allocated $810,000 to the tribe in exchange for a promise to close the mines, allow police cordons to be placed near them, and not engage in stone mining themselves.
Tribes of Nicobar and Andaman Islands
The Nicobar and Andaman Islands group is located 1,400 kilometers off the coast of India. Six primitive tribes lived in complete isolation on the remote islands: the Great Andamanese, Onge, Jarawa, Shompens, Sentinelese and Negrito. After the devastating 2004 tsunami, many feared the tribes had disappeared forever. However, it later turned out that most of them, to the great joy of anthropologists, were saved.
The tribes of the Nicobar and Andaman Islands are in the Stone Age in their development. Representatives of one of them - the Negritos - are considered the most ancient inhabitants of the planet who have survived to this day. The average height of a Negrito is about 150 centimeters, and Marco Polo wrote about them as “dog-faced cannibals.”
Korubo
Cannibalism is a fairly common practice among primitive tribes. And although most of them prefer to find other sources of food, some have maintained this tradition. For example, the Korubo, who live in the western part of the Amazon Valley. The Korubo are an extremely aggressive tribe. Hunting and raids on neighboring settlements are their main means of subsistence. Korubo's weapons are heavy clubs and poison darts. The Korubo do not practice religious rites, but they have a widespread practice of killing their own children. Korubo women have equal rights with men.
Cannibals from Papua New Guinea
The most famous cannibals are, perhaps, the tribes of Papua New Guinea and Borneo. The cannibals of Borneo are cruel and indiscriminate: they eat both their enemies and tourists or old people from their tribe. The last surge in cannibalism was noted in Borneo at the end of the last - beginning of this century. This happened when the Indonesian government tried to colonize some areas of the island.
In New Guinea, especially in its eastern part, cases of cannibalism are observed much less frequently. Of the primitive tribes living there, only three - the Yali, Vanuatu and Karafai - still practice cannibalism. The most cruel tribe is the Karafai, and the Yali and Vanuatu eat someone on rare ceremonial occasions or out of necessity. The Yali are also famous for their death festival, when the men and women of the tribe paint themselves as skeletons and try to please Death. Previously, to be sure, they killed a shaman, whose brain was eaten by the leader of the tribe.
Emergency ration
The dilemma of primitive tribes is that attempts to study them often lead to their destruction. Anthropologists and travelers alike find it difficult to resist the prospect of traveling back to the Stone Age. In addition, the habitat of modern people is constantly expanding. Primitive tribes managed to carry their way of life through many millennia, however, it seems that in the end the savages will join the list of those who could not stand the meeting with modern man.
Photos from open sources
There are still untouched places on the planet where the way of life is the same as it was a couple of thousand years ago.
Today there are about a hundred tribes that are hostile towards modern society and do not want to let civilization into their lives.
Off the coast of India, on one of the Andaman Islands - North Sentinel Island - such a tribe lives.
That’s what they were called – the Sentinelese. They fiercely resist all possible outside contacts.
The first evidence of the tribe inhabiting the North Sentinel Island of the Andaman archipelago dates back to the 18th century: sailors, who were nearby, left records of strange “primitive” people who do not allow them to enter their land.
With the development of navigation and aviation, the ability to monitor the islanders has increased, but all the information known to date has been collected remotely.
Until now, not a single outsider has managed to find himself in the circle of the Sentinelese tribe without losing his life. This uncontacted tribe allows a stranger no closer than a bow shot. They even throw stones at helicopters that fly too low. The last daredevils to try to get to the island were fishermen-poachers in 2006. Their families are still unable to claim the bodies: the Sentinelese killed the intruders, burying them in shallow graves.
However, interest in this isolated culture does not decrease: researchers are constantly looking for opportunities to contact and study the Sentinelese. At different times, they were given coconuts, dishes, pigs and much more that could improve their living conditions on the small island. It is known that they liked the coconuts, but the representatives of the tribe did not realize that they could be planted, but simply ate all the fruits. The islanders buried the pigs, doing it with honor and without touching their meat.
The experiment with kitchen utensils turned out to be interesting. The Sentinelese accepted metal utensils favorably, but separated plastic ones by color: they threw away the green buckets, but the red ones suited them. There are no explanations for this, just as there are no answers to many other questions. Their language is one of the most unique and completely incomprehensible to anyone on the planet. They lead the lifestyle of hunter-gatherers, obtaining their food by hunting, fishing and collecting wild plants, while over the millennia of their existence they have never mastered agricultural activities.
It is believed that they do not even know how to start a fire: taking advantage of accidental fires, they then carefully store smoldering logs and coals. Even the exact size of the tribe remains unknown: figures vary from 40 to 500 people; such a scatter is also explained by observations only from the outside and assumptions that some of the islanders at this moment may be hiding in the thicket.
Despite the fact that the Sentinelese do not care about the rest of the world, they have defenders on the mainland. Organizations advocating the rights of tribal peoples call the inhabitants of North Sentinel Island “the most vulnerable society on the planet” and remind that they have no immunity to any common infection in the world. For this reason, their policy of driving away strangers can be seen as self-defense against certain death.
Despite all the attempts of historians and ethnographers to create a clear picture of the development of some peoples, there are still many secrets and blind spots in the history of the origin of many nations and nationalities. Our review contains the most mysterious peoples of our planet - some of them have sunk into oblivion, while others live and develop today.
1. Russians
As everyone knows, Russians are the most mysterious people on Earth. Moreover, there is a scientific basis for this. Scientists still cannot come to a consensus about the origin of this people and answer the question of when Russians became Russians. There is also debate about where this word comes from. Russian ancestors are sought among the Normans, Scythians, Sarmatians, Vends and even the South Siberian Usuns.
2. Maya
Nobody knows where these people came from or where they disappeared to. Some scientists believe that the Mayans are related to the legendary Atlanteans, others suggest that their ancestors were the Egyptians.
The Mayans created an efficient agricultural system and had deep knowledge of astronomy. Their calendar was used by other peoples of Central America. The Mayans used a hieroglyphic writing system that has only been partially deciphered. Their civilization was very advanced when the conquistadors arrived. Now it seems that the Mayans came from nowhere and disappeared into nowhere.
3. Laplanders or Sami
The people, which Russians also call Lapps, are at least 5,000 years old. Scientists are still arguing about their origin. Some believe that the Laplanders are Mongoloids, others insist on the version that the Sami are Paleo-Europeans. Their language is believed to belong to the Finno-Ugric group of languages, but there are ten dialects of the Sami language that are different enough to be called independent. Sometimes the Laplanders themselves have difficulty understanding each other.
4. Prussians
The very origin of the Prussians is a mystery. They were first mentioned in the 9th century in the records of an anonymous trader, and then in Polish and German chronicles. Linguists have found analogues in various Indo-European languages and believe that the word “Prussians” can be traced back to the Sanskrit word “purusha” (man). Not much is known about the Prussian language, since the last native speaker died in 1677. The history of Prussianism and the Kingdom of Prussia began in the 17th century, but these people had little in common with the original Baltic Prussians.
5. Cossacks
Scientists do not know where the Cossacks originally came from. Their homeland may be in the North Caucasus or on the Sea of Azov or in western Turkestan... Their ancestry may go back to the Scythians, Alans, Circassians, Khazars or Goths. Each version has its supporters and its own arguments. Cossacks today represent a multi-ethnic community, but they constantly emphasize that they are a separate nation.
6. Parsis
Parsis are an ethno-religious group of followers of Zoroastrianism of Iranian origin in South Asia. Today their number is less than 130 thousand people. The Parsis have their own temples and so-called “towers of silence” for burying the dead (the corpses that are laid out on the roofs of these towers are pecked by vultures). They are often compared to the Jews, who were also forced to leave their homeland, and who still carefully preserve the traditions of their cults.
7. Hutsuls
The question of what the word “Hutsul” means is still unclear. Some scientists believe that the etymology of the word is related to the Moldovan “gots” or “gutz” (“bandit”), others believe that the name comes from the word “kochul” (“shepherd”). Hutsuls are most often called Ukrainian highlanders, who still practice the traditions of molfarism (witchcraft) and who greatly honor their sorcerers.
8. Hittites
The Hittite state was very influential on the geopolitical map of the ancient world. These people were the first to create a constitution and use chariots. However, not much is known about them. The chronology of the Hittites is known only from the sources of their neighbors, but there is not a single mention of why or where they disappeared. The German scientist Johann Lehmann wrote in his book that the Hittites went north and assimilated with the Germanic tribes. But this is only one of the versions.
9. Sumerians
This is one of the most mysterious peoples in the ancient world. Nothing is known about their origins or the origin of their language. The large number of homonyms suggests that it was a polytonic language (like modern Chinese), that is, the meaning of what was said often depended on tone. The Sumerians were very advanced - they were the first in the Middle East to use the wheel, to create an irrigation system and a unique writing system. The Sumerians also developed mathematics and astronomy at an impressive level.
10. Etruscans
They entered history quite unexpectedly and that is how they disappeared. Archaeologists believe that the Etruscans lived in the north-west of the Apennine Peninsula, where they created a fairly developed civilization. The Etruscans founded the first Italian cities. Theoretically, they could move to the east and become the founders of the Slavic ethnic group (their language has much in common with the Slavic ones).
11. Armenians
The origin of the Armenians is also a mystery. There are many versions. Some scientists believe that the Armenians descended from the people of the ancient state of Urartu, but in the genetic code of the Armenians there is a component not only of the Urartians, but also of the Hurrians and Libyans, not to mention the proto-Armenians. There are also Greek versions of their origin. Most scientists, however, adhere to the mixed-migration hypothesis of Armenian ethnogenesis.
12. Gypsies
According to linguistic and genetic studies, the ancestors of the Roma left Indian territory in numbers that did not exceed 1,000 people. Today there are about 10 million Roma people worldwide. In the Middle Ages, Europeans believed that Gypsies were Egyptians. They were called the "tribe of the pharaoh" for a very specific reason: the Europeans were amazed by the gypsy tradition of embalming their dead and burying with them in crypts everything that might be needed in another life. This gypsy tradition is still alive.
13. Jews
This is one of the most mysterious peoples and many secrets are connected with Jews. At the end of the 8th century BC. five-sixths (10 out of 12 of all ethnic groups that form the race) of Jews disappeared. Where they went is a mystery to this day.
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14. Guanches
The Guanches are the original inhabitants of the Canary Islands. It is unknown how they appeared on the island of Tenerife - they did not have ships and the Guanches knew nothing about navigation. Their anthropological type does not correspond to the latitude where they lived. Also, many disputes are caused by the presence of rectangular pyramids in Tenerife - they are similar to the Mayan and Aztec pyramids in Mexico. Nobody knows when or why they were erected.
15. Khazars
Everything that people know about the Khazars today was taken from the records of their neighboring peoples. And practically nothing remained of the Khazars themselves. Their appearance was sudden and unexpected, just like their disappearance.
16. Basque
The age, origin and language of the Basques are a mystery in modern history. The Basque language, Euskara, is believed to be the only remnant of a Proto-Indo-European language that does not belong to any language group existing today. According to a 2012 National Geographic study, all Basques have a set of genes that is largely different from other peoples living around them.
17. Chaldeans
The Chaldeans lived at the end of the 2nd - beginning of the 1st thousand years BC in the territory of Southern and Central Mesopotamia. In 626-538 BC. The Chaldean dynasty ruled Babylon, founding the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The Chaldeans are still associated today with magic and astrology. In Ancient Greece and Rome, priests and Babylonian astrologers were called Chaldeans. They predicted the future of Alexander the Great and his successors.
18. Sarmatians
Herodotus once called the Sarmatians “lizards with human heads.” M. Lomonosov believed that they were the ancestors of the Slavs, and the Polish nobles considered themselves their direct descendants. The Sarmatians left behind many secrets. For example, this people had a tradition of artificial deformation of the skull, which allowed people to give themselves an ovoid head shape.
19. Kalash
A small people living in the north of Pakistan, in the Hindu Kush mountains, is notable for the fact that their skin color is whiter than that of other Asian peoples. The debate about Kalash has been subsiding for centuries. The people themselves insist on their connection with Alexander the Great. Their language is phonologically atypical for the area and has the basic structure of Sanskrit. Despite attempts at Islamization, many adhere to polytheism.
20. Philistines
The modern concept of "Philistines" comes from the name of the area "Philistia". The Philistines are the most mysterious people mentioned in the Bible. Only they and the Hittites knew the technology of steel production and it was they who laid the foundation for the Iron Age. According to the Bible, the Philistines came from the island of Caphtor (Crete). The Cretan origin of the Philistines is confirmed by Egyptian manuscripts and archaeological finds. It is unknown where they disappeared to, but it is most likely that the Philistines were assimilated into the Eastern Mediterranean peoples.
It is believed that there are no less than a hundred “isolated tribes” in the world that still live in the farthest corners of the world. Members of these tribes, who have preserved traditions long abandoned by the rest of the world, provide anthropologists with an excellent opportunity to study in detail the ways in which various cultures developed over many centuries.
10. The Surma People
The Ethiopian Surma tribe avoided contact with the Western world for many years. However, they are quite famous in the world due to the huge plates they put on their lips. However, they did not want to hear about any government. While colonization, world wars and the struggle for independence were in full swing around them, the Surma people lived in groups of several hundred people each, and continued to engage in their modest cattle breeding.
The first people who managed to establish contact with the people of Surma were several Russian doctors. They met the tribe in 1980. Because the doctors were white-skinned, the tribe members initially thought they were the living dead. One of the few pieces of equipment that members of the Surma people have adopted into their lives is the AK-47, which they use to protect their livestock.
9. Peruvian tribe discovered by tourists
While wandering in the jungles of Peru, a group of tourists suddenly encountered members of an unknown tribe. The entire incident was captured on film: the tribe tried to communicate with the tourists, but due to the fact that the tribe members did not speak either Spanish or English, they soon despaired of making contact and left the puzzled tourists where they found them.
After studying the tape recorded by the tourists, Peruvian authorities soon realized that the group of tourists had encountered one of the few tribes that had not yet been discovered by anthropologists. Scientists knew about their existence and searched for them for many years without success, and tourists found them without even looking.
8. Lonely Brazilian
Slate magazine called him "the most isolated person on the planet." Somewhere in the Amazon there is a tribe consisting of only one person. Just like Bigfoot, this mysterious man disappears just as scientists are about to discover him.
Why is he so popular, and why won’t they leave him alone? It turns out that, according to scientists, he is the last representative of an isolated tribe in the Amazon. He is the only person in the world who has preserved the customs and language of his people. Communication with him will be tantamount to finding a precious treasure trove of information, part of which is the answer to the question of how he managed to live alone for so many decades.
7. Ramapo Tribe (Ramapough Mountain Indians or The Jackson Whites)
During the 1700s, European settlers completed their colonization of the east coast of North America. By this point, every tribe between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mississippi River had been added to the catalog of known peoples. As it turned out, all but one were included in the catalogue.
In the 1790s, a previously unknown tribe of Indians emerged from the forest just 56 kilometers from New York. They somehow managed to avoid contact with the settlers, despite some of the biggest battles, such as the Seven Years' War and the Revolutionary War, actually taking place in their backyards. They became known as the "Jackson Whites" due to their light skin color and the fact that they were thought to be descended from "Jacks" (a slang word for British).
6. Vietnamese tribe Ruc (Vietnamese Ruc)
During the Vietnam War, unprecedented bombings of regions isolated at that time took place. After one particularly heavy American bombing raid, North Vietnamese soldiers were shocked to see a group of tribesmen emerging from the jungle.
This was the first contact of the Rook tribe with people with advanced technology. Because their jungle home was badly damaged, they decided to stay in modern Vietnam and not return to their traditional homes. However, the values and traditions of the tribe, passed down from generation to generation for many centuries, did not please the Vietnamese government, which led to mutual hostility.
5. The Last of the Native Americans
In 1911, the last Native American untouched by civilization walked calmly out of the woods in California, in full tribal garb - and was promptly arrested by shocked police. His name was Ishi and he was a member of the Yahia tribe.
After questioning by the police, who were able to find a translator from a local college, it was revealed that Ishi was the only survivor of his tribe after his tribe was wiped out by settlers three years earlier. After trying to survive alone using only the gifts of nature, he finally decided to turn to other people for help.
Ishi was taken under the wing of a researcher from Berkeley University. There, Ishi told the teaching staff all the secrets of his tribal life, and showed them many survival techniques, using only what nature provided. Many of these techniques were either long forgotten or completely unknown to scientists.
4. Brazilian tribes
The Brazilian government was trying to find out how many people lived in isolated areas of the Amazon lowland in order to add them to the population register. Therefore, government aircraft equipped with photographic equipment regularly flew over the jungle, trying to locate and count the people below it. Tireless flights did indeed produce results, albeit very unexpected ones.
In 2007, a plane performing a routine low flight in order to obtain photographs was unexpectedly hit by a rain of arrows, which a previously unknown tribe used to fire at the plane with bows. Then, in 2011, satellite scanning detected several specks in a corner of the jungle where people were not even expected to be present: as it turned out, the specks were people after all.
3. Tribes of New Guinea
Somewhere in New Guinea there likely remain dozens of languages, cultures and tribal customs that are still unknown to modern man. However, because the area is largely unexplored, and because the character and intentions of these tribes are uncertain, with frequent reports of cannibalism, the wild part of New Guinea is very rarely explored. Despite the fact that new tribes are often discovered, many expeditions that set out to track down such tribes never reach them, or sometimes simply disappear.
For example, in 1961, Michael Rockefeller set out to find some of the lost tribes. Rockefeller, the American heir to one of the world's largest fortunes, was separated from his group and apparently captured and eaten by members of the flames.
2. The Pintupi Nine
In 1984, an unknown group of Aboriginal people was discovered near a settlement in Western Australia. After they fled, the Pinupian Nine, as they were eventually called, were tracked down by those who spoke their language and told them that there was a place where water flowed from pipes and there was always an ample supply of food. Most of them decided to stay in the modern city, several of them became artists working in the style of traditional art. However, one of the nine, named Yari Yari, returned to the Gibson Desert, where he lives to this day.
1. The Sentinelese
The Sentinelese are a tribe of approximately 250 people who live on North Sentinel Island, located between India and Thailand. Almost nothing is known about this tribe, because as soon as the Sentinelese see that someone has sailed to them, they greet the visitor with a hail of arrows.
Several peaceful encounters with this tribe in 1960 have given us almost everything we know about their culture. The coconuts brought to the island as a gift were eaten rather than planted. Live pigs were shot with arrows and buried without being eaten. The most popular items among the Sentinelese were red buckets, which were quickly dismantled by members of the tribe - however, exactly the same green buckets remained in place.
Anyone who wanted to land on their island had to first write their will. The National Geographic team was forced to turn around after the team leader took an arrow to the thigh and two local guides were killed.
The Sentinelese have built a reputation for their ability to survive natural disasters - unlike many modern people living in similar conditions. For example, this coastal tribe successfully escaped the effects of the tsunami caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, which wreaked havoc and terror in Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
