otherwise 1) In another way, differently; 2) Under other circumstances; 3) In other respects.

Evangelizing uncontacted tribes

Part of my dissertation looks at missionary imaginations of places and people "unreached" by the Christian Gospel, and how the idea of "reaching" stands for a wide range of encounters -- from contact to assimilation. Here's an interesting example of missionary discourse around the recent "discovery" of an "uncontacted" Amazonian tribe. Check out the readers' comments, too -- they're quite... something.

In the photo below, people are seen guarding against the intrusion of the photographer, probably flying low in a very noisy helicopter. (Hell, I'd shoot or throw something at the helicopter if I were them, too.)

World On the Web » World New Media Archive » Evangelizing uncontacted tribes
June 4, 2008

Last month, Indian affairs officials from the Brazilian government photographed from the air an Amazonian tribe that seems to have had little or no contact with the modern world. Pictures show men, women and children staring up from thatched huts and men painted with yellow and red attempting to scare off the airplane flying above them.

The flyover is the latest development in a controversy over “uncontacted” indigenous tribes and whether governments should prohibit outsiders from crossing paths with them. Groups like Survival International say about 100 tribes around the world have avoided or cut off any contact with outsiders, and half of them live in Brazil or Peru. The government of Peru has pledged to investigate the existence of uncontacted tribes on its side of the border, and to find out if illegal logging is driving them from their native lands as some allege. Disputes over land encroachment are central to indigenous issues: The French oil company Perenco is involved in a lawsuit in Peru that will determine whether it can drill in a remote jungle area inhabited by natives.

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