First Ever Photo Of Uncontacted Massaco Tribe Released

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New photos of an uncontacted tribe in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest have been revealed to the public.

The photos were taken in Brazil’s Amazon rain forest near the Bolivian border and show men from the Massaco tribe completely naked.

Since the 1990s, the Massaco tribe has doubled, and there is an estimated 250 members in the community.

Here’s the photo

Here’s what The New York Post reported:

Astonishing new photos from Brazil’s Amazon rainforest give a glimpse of a prosperous, never-before-seen indigenous community living near the Bolivian border, according to a report.

The images, captured on automatic cameras, show the uncontacted Massaco people quietly thriving despite the pressures of loggers, miners and ranchers, the Guardian reported.

Dubbed the Massaco tribe — after the river that runs through their domain, though no one knows what they call themselves — the group appears to have a population of 200-300 people, the outlet reported.

Check out what the Guardian reported:

Remarkable images taken by automatic cameras in the Brazilian rainforest reveal an isolated community that appears to be thriving despite pressure from ranchers and illegal encroachment into the Amazon.

The pictures, of a group of men, offer the outside world its first glimpse of the community – and give further evidence the population is growing. The group is known as the Massaco after the river that runs through their lands, but no one knows what they call themselves, while their language, social fabric and beliefs remain a mystery.

Despite unrelenting pressure from agribusiness, loggers, miners and drug traffickers, the Massaco have at least doubled since the early 1990s – to an estimated 200 to 250 people – according to the Brazilian National Indigenous Peoples Foundation (Funai), which has been working for decades to protect the territory. Funai placed the cameras at a spot where it periodically leaves metal implements as gifts, a practice used to dissuade uncontacted people from venturing into farms or logging camps to get tools – as has happened in the past with tragic consequences. Photos of Massaco settlements have been captured previously during Funai expeditions into areas that satellite imagery confirmed had been abandoned.

“Now, with the detailed photographs, it’s possible to see the resemblance to the Sirionó people, who live on the opposite bank of the Guaporé River, in Bolivia,” says Altair Algayer, a government agent with Funai who has spent more than three decades protecting the Massaco’s territory. “But still, we can’t say who they are. There’s a lot that’s still a mystery.”

Despite the demographic catastrophe of Indigenous populations caused by centuries of non-Indigenous occupation and worsening environmental devastation, population growth among isolated peoples is a trend across the Amazon. In 2023, the science journal Nature revealed growing populations along Brazil’s borders with Peru and Venezuela. Satellite images showed larger cultivated plots and expanded longhouses.



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