Tribe

At the age of 26, I found myself looking for new adventures. After a few good investments and my fair share of aggressive business acquisitions, I had found myself financially secure for the rest of my days. I decided that I wanted to experience some things that few other people ever would. After fighting through the rat race of modern society, I wanted to be around a closer knit social group. I like to think of myself as a people person, and decided to get to know a different culture.
If you are good at something, you never do it for free. Through one of my previous business ventures, I had a tie to an international magazine. They specialize in cultural studies, and I presented them with what I was looking to do. My contact there told me they didn’t normally accept studies or articles from independent journalists. However, there was one extremely remote jungle tribe that they have never been able to study. They gave me a flat rate contract to study the Manoan people weather or not I could gather any useful information.
I packed for a long trip, and ensured I had all of the gear I would need to live off the land for an extended period of time. I was dropped off at a remote airstrip in South America. The tribe occupies a small area of the jungle towards the center of the continent, and has been there for hundreds of years, by what anybody can tell. They speak a very basic language, not known by any of the surrounding people, and they do not like to have contact with outside people.
Previous journalists have all been driven away by the Manoans, and none of them could tell me anything useful of their ways. All I had was a general area to look for these people. It took me two days to find evidence of their land use. Once I decided that I was in the right area, I found a distinct landmark, and decided to stow my gear there. I dropped all of my electronics, my synthetic fabrics, and my backpack. I continued on in neutral colored clothes and a leather satchel. I started my walk through the jungle in an expanding spiral. After four hours of walking I smelled a small hint of smoke, and something being cooked. I proceeded slowly until I crossed over a ridgeline, looking down into a good sized village of huts.
I didn’t want to sneak up and surprise the people, so I followed the ridgeline until I came across what looked to be a main trail for entering the village. I made my way down the trail, and as I came close, I walked slowly with my hands open to show no aggression. I was spotted by a group of females who quickly dispersed into the huts. I was immediately confronted by a group of males that did not seem very receptive. I stopped my approach and stood still with my palms facing them. A man emerged from the group and started to walk toward me. He had his forehead tattooed, in a formation of lines. There were a few other men with lines on their face, but non of them had a tattoo as large as this man.
He put his hands up in a motion to stop me, and then pointed for me to leave. I brought a gift for them to trade, in an effort to get my foot in the door. I removed my satchel, and pulled out a bag of oranges. I did not want to bring something extravagant, showing I am an obvious outsider, but I wanted to give something they did not have, since I was a stranger after all. I held the bag out to give to the man, but he did not make any motion to take it. I took an orange out and peeled it, eating a slice. Once I had played guinea pig, the man that I assumed to be the leader took the bag from my hand.
He took out an orange and passed the bag on. All the men who were tattooed took a piece of fruit first, and then there were a few left over. We stood there for a little while and ate the fruit. I didn’t try to talk to them, since it would be a futile attempt anyway. Once we had finished, the group parted, and the leader let me through the middle. We walked to the center of the village and he sat me on one of the logs circling a fire ring. I put my bag down and took in the experience as all of the villagers came out to see me.
The tribesmen showed me a handshake and a spoken greeting. The chief started lining the men up in a line, showing the hierarchy of the males. The men with more lines on their face were higher up. There seemed to be four levels of males, including the leader. All of the men wore some form or another of legged pants, and either a vest or sleeved shirt. All of the clothes were made of furs and skins, or what seemed to be a coarse cloth resembling burlap. I later found out the fibers were made of a hammered out vine bark. The leader introduced himself as “Reemah” and went down the line, giving the names of the two higher ranks of men. There was a total of fourteen men in the higher ranks, and there looked to be about thirty other men.
Reemah then brought forward three females. There didn’t seem to be any leadership roles among the women, they were just divided into three groups of age. Reemah had selected one of each group to show to me. A young girl that looked to be ten. Reemah motioned to her neck which was bare. Reemah turned to the next woman, who was pregnant, and pointed to the single woven ring around her neck. Reemah then moved to a third, older woman, who had two rings around her neck. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that these people distinguished the women that were of child bearing age, from the others.
All of the women wore long skirts. The young girls wore nothing else, while some of the other women wore clothes that hung from their neck, crossed the chest, and tied off in the back. I was a little confused, trying to figure out a pattern for why some women wore it and others did not. It finally struck me that the cloths where not a symbol of status, ornamentation, or any other visual cue. The only women that wore the cloth were the ones that required support of their breasts. The women that were not endowed had no need for the purely functional brassier.
Once they were done introducing themselves, I introduced myself, and opened my bag and showed them the few things that I had brought with me. Some fire starting gear, my mess kit, hygiene kit, knife, and my prescription glasses and sunglasses. I did not wear them earlier as to not further separate myself from them. I put them on and then handed them to Reemah to look through. He seemed a little confused, and then gave them back.