Buzz
Across the world, indigenous communities are standing strong against the rise of modern society, which often neglects their rights and the preservation of their unique traditions. Here are 10 captivating cultures that are at risk of disappearing.
10. The Korowai
The ancient Korowai are known for their long-standing tradition of cannibalism, but what truly captivates is their unique tree houses in southeastern Papua, Indonesia. A family of up to eight members resides in a wooden structure with a sago-leaf roof, built 6–12 meters (20–40 ft) above the ground on a single tree. At times, multiple trees support the house with additional wooden poles for stability.
The Korowai build their homes in trees to protect themselves from imagined threats such as wandering corpses and male witches on the ground. Each house lasts about a year, but their significance runs deep. Time is often measured by the number of houses a person has lived in. Life events such as births, deaths, marriages, or killings are associated with specific houses. An entire era can be defined by a series of houses and the events that occurred while living in them.
The Korowai generally do not survive past middle age due to the lack of any medical care. The tribe currently has around 3,000 members. Living in basic conditions, they wear only banana leaves and survive by hunting and gathering bananas, sago, deer, and wild boar.
Until the 1970s, when anthropologists first studied them, the Korowai were unaware of the existence of outsiders. Over the past few decades, however, younger members of the tribe have moved to settlements established by Dutch missionaries. As a result, soon only the elderly will remain in the trees, and the culture is anticipated to vanish within the next generation.
9. The Samburu
For centuries, the Samburu people have wandered the semi-arid northern regions of Kenya, seeking water and grazing land for their livestock, which is their primary food source. Now, however, the Samburu face grave dangers not only from worsening droughts but also from the Kenyan authorities. Police have subjected the Samburu to sexual violence, beatings, and the destruction of their homes.
The recent mistreatment started after two American wildlife organizations purchased land from a private seller, reportedly former Kenyan president Daniel arap Moi, and donated it to Kenya to establish a national park. The charities believed they were buying land from a private owner. As a result, thousands of Samburu families were either evicted or left to live as squatters on disputed land. They are now fighting their forced displacement in court.
Within their own tribe, young Samburu girls face brutal customs as well. A harmful tradition known as ‘beading,’ a form of systematic rape, is intended to prevent promiscuity among girls, some as young as six. A male relative or acquaintance, seeking an early promise of marriage, contacts the girl’s parents and places a necklace of red beads around her neck. This marks her as ‘booked,’ and he can then engage in sexual relations with her. Josephine Kulea, a Samburu woman, describes it as a form of ‘temporary engagement.’
The girls face a strict prohibition against pregnancy, but without the use of contraceptives, many end up pregnant despite the cultural taboos. The surviving infants are either killed or sent away, while any girl who keeps her child will be barred from marriage as an adult.
Kulea has worked to help these girls by offering them refuge in a shelter and finding homes for their babies in orphanages.
8. The Loba
Nestled in the rugged terrain of the Nepalese Himalayas lies the former Tibetan kingdom of Mustang, also known as Lo. Stepping into its capital, Lo Manthang, is like traveling back in time to a 14th-century walled city, fully immersed in the traditions of Tibetan Buddhism.
Mustang remained off-limits to most foreigners until 1992 and could only be reached by foot or horseback until recent times. Today, its rich history is being revealed through ancient manuscripts, vibrant murals, and other religious relics found within caves carved into the steep cliffs of Mustang.
The Loba, the people of Mustang, live in a simple, traditional way, with little exposure to modern technology and few educational prospects for their children. Despite this, the Loba have a history of resisting Chinese authority. In the 1960s, when the Dalai Lama sought asylum in India, CIA-supported resistance fighters, known as the Khampas, established their base in Mustang. Ultimately, CIA support was withdrawn, and Nepal, under pressure from China, took military action against the Khampas. The Dalai Lama urged them to surrender, and those who refused took their own lives, bringing the resistance to a tragic end. Since then, China has kept a close watch on the region.
China is now funding the construction of a new highway linking the cities of Lhasa in Tibet and Kathmandu in Nepal, which will turn Mustang into a crucial part of a major trade route. While some of Mustang’s residents welcome the prospect of modernization, their leaders worry that their cherished Tibetan Buddhist culture may vanish forever, especially as more people leave in search of better opportunities and education elsewhere.
7. The San
In earlier discussions, we explored the San’s spiritual beliefs, their language, and even their giraffe dance. Now, we shift our focus to investigate the potential extinction of Africa’s earliest inhabitants.
The Botswana government forcibly removed these hunter-gatherers from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) under the guise of conservation, while simultaneously allowing diamond mining, fracking, and tourism. The San (also known as Bushmen) were relocated to camps, where they were given goats or cattle to manage as herders, a lifestyle foreign to them. Unemployment is widespread.
As Goiotseone Lobelo shared, “The police arrived, destroyed our homes, and threw us into the backs of trucks along with our belongings, taking us here. We’re contracting AIDS and other diseases we weren’t aware of; young people are turning to alcohol; young girls are becoming pregnant. Everything is wrong here.”
The San took the government to court and successfully won the right to return to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR). However, the government only allowed a few individuals, whose names were included in the court ruling, to return. In addition, the government has prohibited all hunting except on ranches or game farms, which undermines the traditional way of life for the San people.
As Jamunda Kakelebone, a displaced member of the San, shared, 'Our death rate is rising. They aim to erase us. Our people succumb to diseases like HIV and TB. When we lived independently, our death rate was low. The elderly passed from old age. Now, we attend funerals constantly. It’s horrifying. In two decades, it will be 'goodbye, Bushmen'.'
6. The Awa
Before their lands were taken, the nomadic Awa tribe lived in peaceful harmony with the Amazon rainforest in Brazil for generations. As hunter-gatherers, they formed close bonds with orphaned animals, sharing mangoes with parakeets and hammocks with coatis, creatures akin to raccoons. The women occasionally nursed monkeys and small pigs.
In 1967, American geologists, while on a survey mission, unintentionally landed their plane on what would turn out to be the world’s largest iron ore deposit, located in the Carajas Mountains. This discovery triggered the Great Carajas Project, a vast mining operation supported by industrialized nations like the United States and Japan, along with the World Bank. This led to the invasion of the Awa’s territory by loggers, ranchers, and settlers, who destroyed extensive parts of the rainforest in search of minerals and other resources.
The invaders also brutally killed numerous Awa people, sometimes by shooting them, while at other times they poisoned them with gifts of tainted flour. Only around 350 Awa remain, with about 100 of them having no contact with the outside world.
Under mounting pressure from rights organizations like Survival International, the Brazilian government initiated Operation Awa to remove the invaders and help the Awa reclaim their land. The critical issue now is whether Brazil will ensure that the loggers and ranchers do not return.
5. The Cocopah
The Cocopah, whose name means 'River People', are struggling to preserve their dwindling culture against the manipulation of their access to water by governments. For over 500 years, these natives have farmed and fished in the delta of the lower Colorado River, which stretches across Arizona in the US and the Mexican states of Baja California and Sonora. Once numbering about 22,000, their population has now reduced to approximately 1,300, with only 10 native speakers remaining. The Cocopah traditionally had no written language.
Since 1922, the US and Mexico diverted the majority of the Colorado River away from the delta where the Cocopah lived. This diversion led to the drying up of two million acres of wetlands, severely damaging the tribe's ability to farm and fish. During the 1980s, the US handled the El Niño flooding by releasing water from dam reservoirs, which flooded the delta and destroyed the homes of the Cocopah. The tribe had no choice but to relocate to El Mayor, a place without water rights or fertile land.
A few years ago, the US and Mexico agreed to allow roughly 1 percent of the Colorado River to flow back into the delta to help restore the wetlands. However, even if this plan succeeds, the Cocopah still face another significant challenge.
In 1993, the Mexican government established the Alto Golfo de California y Delta del Rio Colorado Biosphere Reserve, a conservation initiative that quickly imposed such harsh fishing restrictions on the Cocopah that they could no longer sustain themselves. Many tribe members were forced to leave in search of work elsewhere. Monica Gonzalez, 44, explains, 'Sometimes I think our leaders talk about the Cocopah as if we had already died, but we are alive and still putting up a struggle.'
4. The Mursi
The Mursi, a tribe of fewer than 10,000 people from southwestern Ethiopia, are famous for the lip-plates worn by their women. These lip-plates symbolize social adulthood and fertility potential. At the age of 15 or 16, a girl has her lower lip pierced and a wooden plug inserted to keep the wound open until it heals. Over the next few months, she gradually stretches her lip by inserting progressively larger plugs. The most determined girls will eventually wear lip-plates with a diameter of at least 12 centimeters (5 inches).
Though the Ethiopian government classifies the Mursi as nomads, they are actually relatively settled. Depending on rainfall, they may move to find water sources to grow crops like sorghum, beans, and maize. Additionally, they require grasslands to graze their cattle, which not only provide food but also serve as a form of currency for trading grain and maintaining social relationships, such as marriage.
In recent years, the Ethiopian government has started large-scale development projects on the Mursi’s land, turning it into national parks and commercial irrigation areas. Thousands of Mursi have been displaced. Aid organizations acknowledge that abuses such as beatings and rapes have taken place, though not in a 'systematic' manner. Some international aid intended for local infrastructure like roads may be diverted by the government to forcibly resettle the Mursi, potentially threatening the tribe's traditional culture.
3. The Huaorani
The Huaorani, a tribe with a long history in the Amazon rainforest of Ecuador, are known for using deadly spears and blowguns against any intruders. For them, revenge is not just a response—it is a way of life.
Energy corporations are eager to drill for oil in the Amazon rainforest, aiming to extract vast reserves of crude oil from beneath the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) area within Yasuni National Park. Despite concerns over the environmental impact, the situation has escalated into a standoff between the Ecuadorian government and the Huaorani. Both parties have alternated between high rhetoric and potential ransom demands, depending on their objectives.
In 2007, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa proposed that governments worldwide contribute $3.6 billion to Ecuador in exchange for refraining from drilling the ITT. However, when it became apparent in 2013 that world leaders would not fulfill their commitments, Correa shifted to Plan B: drilling for oil. He also reneged on his promise to safeguard Amazon tribes from drilling operations, even denying the existence of these tribes. Correa justifies his actions by claiming that the revenue from Amazon oil is essential for helping the poor.
As for the Huaorani, some members vow to fight to the death with blowguns, machetes, and spears if oil companies encroach upon their land and threaten their way of life. However, the Huaorani are no match for the military might of the government.
Weya Cahuiya, a representative of a Huaorani tribal organization, states, 'Every time the oil companies expand, they divide us. There are fights between families because some people receive benefits while others don’t. The government must compensate all of us. They must respect us, and if they wish to enter our land, they must pay us, or we’ll kill them.'
2. The Ladakhis
Picture the most ideal society you could imagine. Patience, tolerance, and honesty are valued above all else. People constantly support one another, and while there is no money, there is also no poverty. Deceit, theft, violence, and disputes are practically nonexistent. Major crimes simply don’t occur. Everyone is irrepressibly happy. You are envisioning the real Ladakhi culture that endured for centuries before modernity swept in to destroy it, much like the serpent in the Garden of Eden.
Of course, life wasn't truly perfect. Located high in the Himalayas in Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh is a barren desert in the summer and a frozen moonscape in winter. With minimal resources and no modern technology, the Ladakhis built farms and raised livestock. Ladakh remained almost entirely isolated until 1962 when a road connected it to the rest of India. However, it wasn't until 1975 that the influence of tourism began to seep in.
Then, like Adam and Eve after tasting the forbidden fruit, the Ladakhis became aware of their nakedness—or, in this case, their primitive lifestyle—and began to feel ashamed. They compared themselves to the affluent tourists and the glamorous people they saw in movies and on TV. For the first time, they felt poor and inferior. As a result, their self-sufficient way of life and their family structure started to unravel as they sought happiness through material wealth.
As they modernize, they’re becoming selfish, competitive, frustrated, and argumentative. They are growing intolerant of other religions, dependent on the government, insecure, and increasingly isolated in a crowded world. In many ways, they are becoming like us.
1. The Tsaatan people
The Tsaatan's deep bond with their reindeer makes them stand out. These animals provide not only milk and cheese but also serve as vital transport across the frozen mountains and the taiga (a swampy forest) of northern Mongolia, their home.
The Tsaatan population is dwindling, with only about 500 left. The effects of disease and inbreeding have caused their reindeer numbers to decline. As a result, they no longer use reindeer hides or animal skins to cover their tents. These nomads move every five weeks in search of lichen to feed their cherished animals.
The tribe has a strained relationship with tourists. Many visitors arrive without interpreters, pollute the environment, and treat the Tsaatan as if they were exhibits in a zoo. The Tsaatan also insist that tourists ride horses that don’t harm their reindeer.
The Tsaatan's greatest concern is the survival of their ancient 3,000-year-old culture. Without the government support they once had, they face significant challenges. Children now turn to computers and technology to prepare for a modern life. Young people are leaving the taiga for the cities, and the elderly Tsaatan fear that they will be left behind in their homeland.
