First Contact: The Selling of the Last Savage

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Outside Magazine February 2005

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The Selling of the Last Savage (cont.)

The Rules of Engagement

FIRST CONTACTS WITH completely isolated tribes are rare these days, but they still happen. According to Survival International (SI), a London-based nonprofit group that works on behalf of tribal people all over the world, four previously unknown tribes have been discovered in the past decade: the Awá and Korubo, in Brazil, the Ayoreo-Totobiegosode, in Paraguay, and the Jarawa, on India's Andaman Islands.

When such contacts occur, anthropologists know to be careful about introducing infectious diseases and, more broadly, infectious behavior or technology that could forever alter the way primitive people live their lives. There is no binding international law in place to regulate these close encounters, but there are a few strict guidelines put forward by groups with a strong interest in tribal societies.

One major advocate is SI (www.survival-international.org), which has successfully lobbied governments to recognize and protect territories where there are tribal peoples. SI believes that "contact is the greatest danger for an isolated tribe," so their hard and fast rule is simple: Don't do it.

The American Anthropological Association publishes a code of ethics that does not specifically address first contact, but in broad terms it maintains that anthropologists' "paramount responsibility is to those they study." The rules are available at www.aaanet.org.

Finally, the issue of first contact has been addressed—indirectly—through the international governing bodies of the United Nations and the International Labor Organization (ILO). The ILO's 1989 Convention 169 asserts that indigenous people have basic ownership rights over the lands they have traditionally occupied. The UN's 1994 Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is in line with the growing trend toward recognizing natives' traditional property rights and the inherent value of preserving native culture, but it has yet to be ratified.—Grayson Schaffer

FIRST CONTACT OR HOAX? I may never know. The last time I speak with Woolford, in December 2004, he's almost positive that the older man we came across was the same tribal chief he saw last year, but he's still uncertain about the rest of the men. He's already scheduled his next First Contact trek for August 2005, based on information he's gathered about an unknown tribe sighted in an area roughly 100 miles north of where we trekked. Woolford says this could be one of his last First Contact expeditions.

"People pay a lot of money for this trip, and I want to try to find them something," he says. "But locating new tribes is getting harder and harder—and who knows what you are going to come across, if anything."

As I listen to Woolford, he seems heartfelt and sincere, like a man who really wants to give his clients their money's worth. His love of the province is obvious, and he treats his porters exceptionally well, paying them generously and often buying them rubber boots and clothing.

Nevertheless, I can't stop feeling like I've done something wrong by participating in the First Contact experience, even if Woolford is correct in his belief that his treks are helping redefine exploration in a positive manner. The way Woolford sees it, the scholarly elite, once the gatekeepers of discovery, are having to make room for any adventure seeker who can pay for the experience. To him, the First Contact expedition is a means to further democratize the process.

"If a postal clerk is interested in primitive times," he argues, "who am I to say, ‘Oh, you only graduated from high school—you don't have a degree in anthropology; therefore, you're not qualified to see these people'? If you are fit, and you want to pay, then you should have the right to go."

Perhaps Woolford has a point. I confess that, a week after returning home, my reaction against what I see as his risky, exploitative style starts to fade. My intuition tells me that what I saw on our trek can't possibly exist. But what if it does? What if West Papua is the last place on earth where ghosts of the past still thrive in the present—where the surreal becomes real?

Now all I want to do is go back. But I don't know if I should.

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