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Absolutely fascinating stuff, and for me anyway it raises some interesting ethical questions. Making contact with these tribes would (I would imagine) destroy a

Absolutely fascinating stuff, and for me anyway it raises some interesting ethical questions. Making contact with these tribes would (I would imagine) destroy a lot of culture, to say nothing of the obvious issues of disease, etc. On the other hand, in a society where we claim to value innovation and progress, failing to offer these tribes the benefits available to others feels a little wrong. Given the choice between our lifestyles and theirs, how many of us would choose theirs? It raises some interesting legal questions too. In the United States for example, I believe (and I could be wrong on this) starting in 2014 we would fine these tribes for failure to purchase health insurance. To say nothing of the "Republican Form of Government" guarantee in the constitution.

Devilboy 16y ago
Traditionally those legal problems are solved by simply granting these people exceptions. I mean aboriginal people and native Americans do get special treatment in some cases.
- russell_h 16y ago
  Yeah, I expect thats how it would be handled here (although "granting an exception" to the Constitution could get tricky, depending on the timeline in this hypothetical). What I really meant (and I wasn't very clear on this) was more of how could we ethically reconcile our laws with our desire, if we have one, to preserve such tribes. For the most part it seems like if you have to special-case something you're doing something wrong to begin with. So either allowing such tribes to exist without interference should run counter to what we're trying to accomplish with our laws, or our laws don't actually say what we intend them to.
  - Devilboy 16y ago
    Some of these tribes are even cannibals, they kill people and eat them. Should we turn a blind eye to that too? I don't know. It's a hard question.
    - olalonde 16y ago
      Indeed. There's actually a term for that: cultural relativism. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_relativism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_relativism
    - wazoox 16y ago
      There are several ways to anthropophagy, endogamous (eating your ancestors) and exogamous (eating your enemies). Most cannibals tribes are of the first kind, until some external pressure brings them to eat their enemies : - rise of slave trades may have pushed African tribes into exogenous cannibalism; - extreme scarcity of proteins source and population growth may be the cause of cannibalism in Papua. In any case, as Montaigne famously said more than 400 years ago, they would find our way of treating our dead relatives (or enemies) incredibly cruel and barbaric, letting them rot in the ground instead of giving them the proper grave their souls call for in our own bodies?

Devilboy 16y ago

Traditionally those legal problems are solved by simply granting these people exceptions. I mean aboriginal people and native Americans do get special treatment in some cases.

russell_h 16y ago
Yeah, I expect thats how it would be handled here (although "granting an exception" to the Constitution could get tricky, depending on the timeline in this hypothetical). What I really meant (and I wasn't very clear on this) was more of how could we ethically reconcile our laws with our desire, if we have one, to preserve such tribes. For the most part it seems like if you have to special-case something you're doing something wrong to begin with. So either allowing such tribes to exist without interference should run counter to what we're trying to accomplish with our laws, or our laws don't actually say what we intend them to.
- Devilboy 16y ago
  Some of these tribes are even cannibals, they kill people and eat them. Should we turn a blind eye to that too? I don't know. It's a hard question.
  - olalonde 16y ago
    Indeed. There's actually a term for that: cultural relativism. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_relativism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_relativism
  - wazoox 16y ago
    There are several ways to anthropophagy, endogamous (eating your ancestors) and exogamous (eating your enemies). Most cannibals tribes are of the first kind, until some external pressure brings them to eat their enemies : - rise of slave trades may have pushed African tribes into exogenous cannibalism; - extreme scarcity of proteins source and population growth may be the cause of cannibalism in Papua. In any case, as Montaigne famously said more than 400 years ago, they would find our way of treating our dead relatives (or enemies) incredibly cruel and barbaric, letting them rot in the ground instead of giving them the proper grave their souls call for in our own bodies?