RIP "Man of the Hole", ?-2022
August 30, 2022 10:35 AM Subscribe
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posted by elkevelvet at 10:48 AM on August 30, 2022
posted by elkevelvet at 10:48 AM on August 30, 2022
we live in times where this person's death will not be mourned by his people yet many thousands of people who are essentially contributing to the reason this person died alone, are now caught in a moment of grief? sadness? this is a strange time.
From the article:
The majority of his tribe are believed to have been killed as early as the 1970s by ranchers wanting to expand their land.
In 1995, six of the remaining members of his tribe were killed in an attack by illegal miners, making him the sole survivor.
Brazil's Indigenous Affairs Agency (Funai) only became aware of his survival in 1996, and had been monitoring the area ever since for his own safety.
It was during a routine patrol that Funai agent Altair José Algayer found the man's body covered in macaw feathers in a hammock outside one of his straw huts.Indigenous expert Marcelo dos Santos told local media that he thought the man had placed the feathers on himself, knowing that he was about to die.
posted by elkevelvet at 10:52 AM on August 30, 2022 [34 favorites]
From the article:
The majority of his tribe are believed to have been killed as early as the 1970s by ranchers wanting to expand their land.
In 1995, six of the remaining members of his tribe were killed in an attack by illegal miners, making him the sole survivor.
Brazil's Indigenous Affairs Agency (Funai) only became aware of his survival in 1996, and had been monitoring the area ever since for his own safety.
It was during a routine patrol that Funai agent Altair José Algayer found the man's body covered in macaw feathers in a hammock outside one of his straw huts.Indigenous expert Marcelo dos Santos told local media that he thought the man had placed the feathers on himself, knowing that he was about to die.
posted by elkevelvet at 10:52 AM on August 30, 2022 [34 favorites]
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It would take an exceptional human to last that long, especially alone, with the actual threats from other humans, to that age, and still have the self-awareness, strength, and dignity to apparently ceremonially cover themselves before death. I am sad that we have collectively lost another unique part of our world that could have co-existed if space had been given.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 11:37 AM on August 30, 2022 [52 favorites]
It would take an exceptional human to last that long, especially alone, with the actual threats from other humans, to that age, and still have the self-awareness, strength, and dignity to apparently ceremonially cover themselves before death. I am sad that we have collectively lost another unique part of our world that could have co-existed if space had been given.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 11:37 AM on August 30, 2022 [52 favorites]
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posted by May Kasahara at 11:37 AM on August 30, 2022
posted by May Kasahara at 11:37 AM on August 30, 2022
There wil be many interests happy that his no go zone is now open for development and exploitation.
posted by Meatbomb at 11:57 AM on August 30, 2022
posted by Meatbomb at 11:57 AM on August 30, 2022
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What a tragedy and deeply moving final rite.
posted by SaltySalticid at 12:01 PM on August 30, 2022 [2 favorites]
What a tragedy and deeply moving final rite.
posted by SaltySalticid at 12:01 PM on August 30, 2022 [2 favorites]
I hope the indigenous rights groups succeed in protecting that land permanently.
Here is the 2-minute speech mentioned at the end of the article.
posted by aniola at 12:01 PM on August 30, 2022 [6 favorites]
Here is the 2-minute speech mentioned at the end of the article.
posted by aniola at 12:01 PM on August 30, 2022 [6 favorites]
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posted by heyitsgogi at 12:02 PM on August 30, 2022
posted by heyitsgogi at 12:02 PM on August 30, 2022
Incredibly sad and senseless what was done to him, as always with genocide.
Stories like his remind me of Ishi of the Yahi, the last known survivor of his people following their genocide by American colonists in California in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Ishi, at least, lived entirely alone only for a few years before deciding to contact the civilization responsible for the murders of his people, and found some form of friendship with anthropologists and doctors in Berkeley and San Francisco in the years before his death. But he still died with no one knowing his real name, because the Yahi people did not speak their own names, and there was no one left to introduce him. The funerary practices of his people were not respected when he died, including an autopsy and preservation of his brain for research. It wasn't until 2000 that his remains were repatriated to the closely-related Yana people for proper funerary rites, recognizing that while he may have been the last of the Yahi, that doesn't mean he was without surviving kin.
I'm sure that the colonist-farmers in Brazil who want to claim The Man of the Hole's land now that he's gone will try to argue that with his death, the indigenous claim on his land expires too. But just as Ishi's being the last of the Yahi people didn't exclude his kinship with the Yana, I'm sure this man, whose name and people we will probably never know, has kinship with indigenous people who survive and deserve to claim and protect his land. I hope the indigenous rights activists will be able to resist the Bolsonaro regime and other advocates of colonization and genocide, and keep that land secure for indigenous use or as a protected wild space. And I hope that someday, someone will be able to identify and complete the funerary rites that he would have wanted, not for him but for the dignity of those who live on.
posted by biogeo at 1:07 PM on August 30, 2022 [35 favorites]
Stories like his remind me of Ishi of the Yahi, the last known survivor of his people following their genocide by American colonists in California in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Ishi, at least, lived entirely alone only for a few years before deciding to contact the civilization responsible for the murders of his people, and found some form of friendship with anthropologists and doctors in Berkeley and San Francisco in the years before his death. But he still died with no one knowing his real name, because the Yahi people did not speak their own names, and there was no one left to introduce him. The funerary practices of his people were not respected when he died, including an autopsy and preservation of his brain for research. It wasn't until 2000 that his remains were repatriated to the closely-related Yana people for proper funerary rites, recognizing that while he may have been the last of the Yahi, that doesn't mean he was without surviving kin.
I'm sure that the colonist-farmers in Brazil who want to claim The Man of the Hole's land now that he's gone will try to argue that with his death, the indigenous claim on his land expires too. But just as Ishi's being the last of the Yahi people didn't exclude his kinship with the Yana, I'm sure this man, whose name and people we will probably never know, has kinship with indigenous people who survive and deserve to claim and protect his land. I hope the indigenous rights activists will be able to resist the Bolsonaro regime and other advocates of colonization and genocide, and keep that land secure for indigenous use or as a protected wild space. And I hope that someday, someone will be able to identify and complete the funerary rites that he would have wanted, not for him but for the dignity of those who live on.
posted by biogeo at 1:07 PM on August 30, 2022 [35 favorites]
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posted by JoeXIII007 at 2:11 PM on August 30, 2022
posted by JoeXIII007 at 2:11 PM on August 30, 2022
This makes me sad, but also filled with wonder that someone could survive alone in the jungle for that long.
posted by wittgenstein at 2:15 PM on August 30, 2022
posted by wittgenstein at 2:15 PM on August 30, 2022
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Brazil miner sees Indigenous land as ripe for exploration if protections expire, because of course they do.
posted by bouvin at 2:50 PM on August 30, 2022
Brazil miner sees Indigenous land as ripe for exploration if protections expire, because of course they do.
posted by bouvin at 2:50 PM on August 30, 2022
Survival International: He was the last member of his tribe, and the only inhabitant of Tanaru Indigenous Territory in Rondonia state, in the western Brazilian Amazon.
A symbol of Indigenous Genocide.
Fiona Watson, Survival’s Research and Advocacy Director, visited the territory in 2004 with a government monitoring team, and wrote an account of the visit.
If President Bolsonaro and his agribusiness allies get their way, this story will be repeated over and over again until all the country’s Indigenous peoples are wiped out. However there is a presidential election with first round voting on 2 october.
The latest datafolha poll will be announced later tonight. At the moment Lula is shown with 51%.
posted by adamvasco at 2:54 PM on August 30, 2022
A symbol of Indigenous Genocide.
Fiona Watson, Survival’s Research and Advocacy Director, visited the territory in 2004 with a government monitoring team, and wrote an account of the visit.
If President Bolsonaro and his agribusiness allies get their way, this story will be repeated over and over again until all the country’s Indigenous peoples are wiped out. However there is a presidential election with first round voting on 2 october.
The latest datafolha poll will be announced later tonight. At the moment Lula is shown with 51%.
posted by adamvasco at 2:54 PM on August 30, 2022
Rapine and greed killed this man, his family and society, and it's going to get around to the rest of us if we don't do something about it soon.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 3:29 PM on August 30, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 3:29 PM on August 30, 2022 [2 favorites]
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posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 4:11 PM on August 30, 2022
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 4:11 PM on August 30, 2022
Ishi was the last wild native in North America. His story is amazing.
posted by neuron at 4:14 PM on August 30, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by neuron at 4:14 PM on August 30, 2022 [2 favorites]
I don't know how easy it is to find macaws and take their feathers in that part of the world, but I imagine it takes a fair bit of work. If the feathers were not reused, it is possible that he spent years slowly preparing this final rite a few feathers at a time, knowing no one else would be there to complete it for him.
posted by cubeb at 4:16 PM on August 30, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by cubeb at 4:16 PM on August 30, 2022 [4 favorites]
From the NY Times article reporting his death: ... local residents who confirmed there were at least two attacks against the Indigenous group, one in which they received poisoned sugar (with no clear date), and another in the early 1990s, when the few remaining members, roughly six people, were nearly all gunned down.
The attackers were ranchers expanding their land.
posted by donpardo at 4:43 PM on August 30, 2022
The attackers were ranchers expanding their land.
posted by donpardo at 4:43 PM on August 30, 2022
32 years ago my wife and I went to the Amazon on our honeymoon because we felt it may be our last chance to experience it before it began what then seemed certain to be an inevitable descent - even though that was just a year + after they'd emerged from a military dictatorship - and sure enough, our considerations at that time are as bad or even worse than we'd imagined in the late 80's. It is all so tragically disheartening, there seems nothing can curtail the wholesale takeover of the last, greatest rainforest on the planet.
posted by thecincinnatikid at 5:12 PM on August 30, 2022
posted by thecincinnatikid at 5:12 PM on August 30, 2022
there seems nothing can curtail the wholesale takeover of the last, greatest rainforest on the planet.
The stories we tell ourselves build the world we live in.
There are also countless people, communities, organizations, and governments working to save the Amazon rainforest. That's why the "man of the hole" was able to continue to live alone in the forest for so long with big ag right there wanting to replace it with cows or something. One of the ways people are working to protect the Amazon is through indigenous land rights.
The Amazon Rainforest is being destroyed mainly to supply the world with milk and meat. One thing many individuals reading this can do (besides donating money and/or getting involved) is eat fewer animal products.
posted by aniola at 6:24 PM on August 30, 2022 [9 favorites]
The stories we tell ourselves build the world we live in.
There are also countless people, communities, organizations, and governments working to save the Amazon rainforest. That's why the "man of the hole" was able to continue to live alone in the forest for so long with big ag right there wanting to replace it with cows or something. One of the ways people are working to protect the Amazon is through indigenous land rights.
The Amazon Rainforest is being destroyed mainly to supply the world with milk and meat. One thing many individuals reading this can do (besides donating money and/or getting involved) is eat fewer animal products.
posted by aniola at 6:24 PM on August 30, 2022 [9 favorites]
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posted by Token Meme at 10:44 PM on August 30, 2022
posted by Token Meme at 10:44 PM on August 30, 2022
This is part of ongoing genocide carried out by the international meat industry, fueled by demand from countries where people will shake their head at this story and talk about how sad it is, while paying for it.
posted by BinaryApe at 12:32 AM on August 31, 2022
posted by BinaryApe at 12:32 AM on August 31, 2022
How awful. As a 55-year old atheist whose mother just passed, my attitude towards death is decreasingly cavalier. The thought of leaving behind loved ones is terrifying enough; dying so completely alone in the world is not fathomable.
Did the utterly poignant macaw feather gesture gave him some peace at the end? I can't bring my dumb science-mind to have real faith in such things, but surely some earnest nature-based spirituality goes a long way in the angst department.
posted by wolfpants at 8:06 AM on August 31, 2022
Did the utterly poignant macaw feather gesture gave him some peace at the end? I can't bring my dumb science-mind to have real faith in such things, but surely some earnest nature-based spirituality goes a long way in the angst department.
posted by wolfpants at 8:06 AM on August 31, 2022
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posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 10:37 AM on August 30, 2022