I’m disturbed with the idea of uncontacted tribes.

This is a good answer. But I am concerned with one point:

So the Moxateteu ... have chosen they don’t like it. You can’t dismiss their choice.

Who has chosen? The leaders of the Moxateteu, I imagine. But these people aren't a collection of robots who all think alike; they're people.

Similarly, in the various discussions about the Sentinelese a couple of months ago, I often saw people claiming that the Sentinelese did not want visitors coming to their island. Well, we know that a bunch of guys with weapons don't want visitors; but what about the rest of them?

In the U.S., when a bunch of guys with weapons prevent outside contact with a group of people, we often say they are holding the rest captive, and we send in the police to rescue the captives. When it's an uncontacted people on an island, we assume that they all think alike. Why the difference?

This really isn't a topic that I know very much about. But I do find it worrying that we repeatedly assume that people groups we don't know much about are all of one mind and speak with one voice. Has this issue ever been addressed? Can it be addressed?

/r/AskAnthropology Thread Parent