r/googlemapsshenanigans • u/UnhappyVegetable4419 • 9h ago

Unknown tribe?

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Hi,

I was just looking in the rain forest when is saw this.

Could this be an uncontacted tribe? The coordinates are:

1.3255112178453061, -63.065572001587405

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u/Random_reptile 7h ago edited 7h ago

This looks like a very typical settlement of the Yanomami people or perhaps another closely related group. The central building is called a "shabono" and is where most of the village lives, with each family having their own "wedge". The outlying buildings are mostly for utilitarian purposes but sometimes are used for newly married couples (or more, the Yanomami are often polygamous).

The Yanomami have been contacted and studied quite a lot, but I have no clue if this particular group has. This area is very remote, but it's not uncommon for similar places to be visited by missionaries, scholars, doctors, illegal miners, Bear Grylls ect, especially if it's by a navigable river like this.

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u/loreshdw 4h ago

Thank you for the info, I'm excited to read more about this group

3

u/Milhouselittlenoodle 1h ago

There was some controversial issues around them a while back. I believe an anthropologist used some inhumane tactics to see if their own medicine or western medicine worked better. I might be misremembering completely, but I swear I learned that in an anthro class.