1976 Tribe on Papua New Guinea meets white man for the first time. BEST VIDEO IVE SEEN IN A LONG TIM

This is an amazing video! I can't believe this was filmed the year I was born and I have never seen it. I'm sure this has been posted before, but please for those of us who have never seen it.. don't kick it to the curb. I wondered as I watched this if this is how American Indians reacted to "The White Man" when they first met? I know the history books are full of tall tales...and this made me believe "The White Man" did in FACT cause the hostilities between us and the American Indian. I am a white man, and I mean no racism in anything I post...it just made me wonder.
Your thoughts?
P.S. It is almost 15 minutes long...but well worth the view

www.liveleak.com...

Awesome. The feeling you get when they are checking out the mirror and the matches is incredible. It must have been frightening for the tribesmen

It's a great beginning and I'll watch the rest but my first question is why does the guy assume that the tribe understands a hand shake?

It's a European custom that spread to N. America and he's holding out his hand to a tribe that has never even heard of Europe. Funny.

SnF

Wow, that was great.

Thanks for sharing.

reply to post by DisturbedToo


I'll have a look at the video you shared.

I've seen a long documentary that started in the 60's and restarted 20 years on and they compared the way the natives felt about the miners descending from birds and a lot more.

The thing is, the reactions are comical. You get all the stereotypical responses like they saw these guys as gods etc. In the 60's a whole area with 500,000 people were discovered that had never met white people.

They haven't done very well but it's certainly not a linear - white mans fault problem. The problem in the Sates and in Australia with aborigines is that the people they met, never left.

Australia decided to let Papua New Guinea go when it had control, because the amount of work it takes to create a stable nation was beyond our scope.

PNG is a very resource rich country, but with a tribal structure the profit runs along corrupt lines and they suffer with violence. The mines are too massive for multinational corporations to share and the natives still living in the jungles don't get properly compensated.

They have their own way about things and I wonder why you think they would be affected badly by white people?

reply to post by DisturbedToo


Beautiful video, I just couldn't help but think of how ruined that tribe was after that encounter. They probably had looong stress free life expectancy, then technology came wandering through the woods...

Again, beautiful video.

Originally posted by jude11
It's a great beginning and I'll watch the rest but my first question is why does the guy assume that the tribe understands a hand shake?

It's a European custom that spread to N. America and he's holding out his hand to a tribe that has never even heard of Europe. Funny.

SnF

Actually the way we shake our hands (generally), wink, smile, nod etc are all common to humanity. This is actually an important fact because the obvious expectation is that they are cultural.

I've travelled all through papua New Guinea .... it was an amazing experience .... thanks so much for sharing this video bought back lots of memories!

I was nervous when he handed them the knife though.So what happened after all that,they just walked away?

Originally posted by My.mind.is.mine
reply to post by DisturbedToo

 

Beautiful video, I just couldn't help but think of how ruined that tribe was after that encounter. They probably had looong stress free life expectancy, then technology came wandering through the woods...

Again, beautiful video.

I think they would have talked about all the cool things he had for months.

Invariably they'll feel like they met the rest of world and that the world is like this nice guy.

They NEVER had a perfect existence. Later on they'll complain about rat's eating their vegetables. We're all like that. It comes naturally.

You're right though. It will be hard for them to see how good they had it.

I don't think people should worry so much that they will be devastated, well... as long as nobody steals their land.

Wow that was pretty cool. Can you even imagine what was going through their minds? It would be like space aliens landing for us. It was touching to see them touch the white man as if validating he was real.

that rice must have been a delicacy to them or something watching them eat it haha

Thank you all for the positive posts so far! I was GLUED to my monitor wondering what reactions they would have, and wondering in the back of my mind if they would get hostile. No there was no hostility...and that amazed me. This video will stick with me for a long time. I hope you all enjoy!

That was a cool video, the reactions are worth watching on it's own. That must have been a powerful moment for them. Don't like the mirror part though, personally I think it had the possibility to cause more harm than good.

I'd love to see a return to that tribe now that it's been over 30 years to see what impact there has been.. I confess the video doesn't look nearly that old, the sound track certainly isn't .. I would have guessed it was shot in the early 90s

You know they must have made some sort of effort to re-create what they have seen..

S&F I had never seen this before. When they ate the rice, they kinda smacked themselves on the back of the head. I wonder if this was a sign of enjoyment or pleasure?? Or maybe their way of giving thanks? It sure looked funny when they did it. Great video. Thank you.

I think they were rubbing his skin to see if the white would come off.

Originally posted by Tasty Canadian
S&F I had never seen this before. When they ate the rice, they kinda smacked themselves on the back of the head. I wonder if this was a sign of enjoyment or pleasure?? Or maybe their way of giving thanks? It sure looked funny when they did it. Great video. Thank you.

I noticed that too... the elder guy with the red feathers smiled after words so I think that is there sign of enjoyment, odd isn't it? makes me wonder how that evolved.. I certainly never feel compelled to hit myself in the head when I have a delicious bite of curry.

What an amazing video! What's with the knocking on the head? Did that mean, yum this is good, or thank God for this food or what? Fascinating! And those things in the men's noses, ow that must hurt!

Loved it. See how the tribal leader kept looking at his own skin then at the white guys, not quite believing what he was seeing. Then when they were touching the white guy they were rubbing his arms to see if they could get the white pigment off, classic . The mirror must have seemed like having another world in their hands with strangers looking out. Awesome clip thanks for the link. It's a pity that all such meetings didn't go so well. S&F.

Great video...how long has it been available for viewing?...Made in '76? Never seen it before...one would think that National Geographic would have shown this.

The reactions of the native tribesmen to the "alien" white men was very telling. Trust ? Don't trust? Will they harm us, or will they help us...one has to believe that without the mutual trust that is necessary to grow a connection...that this contact could have been quite the opposite of what it was.

How many possible connections ended as such because no one was willing to cede to the other.

Mirrors...matches...wizardry...lol they are lucky that their new friends decided they were not "witches" as many of the forest people in New Guinea believed at the time.

This was truly a big step for man kind...or was it? Sometimes it's better to leave well enough alone...but it's all a matter of opinion.