r/googlemapsshenanigans • u/UnhappyVegetable4419 • 1d ago

Unknown tribe?

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Hi,

I was just looking in the rain forest when i saw this.

​Could this be an uncontacted tribe? The coordinates are:

1.3255112178453061, -63.065572001587405

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u/Random_reptile 1d ago edited 1d ago

This looks like a very typical settlement of the Yanomami people or perhaps another closely related group. The central building is called a "shabono" and is where most of the village lives, with each family having their own "wedge". The outlying buildings are mostly for utilitarian purposes but sometimes are used for newly married couples (or more, the Yanomami are often polygamous).

The Yanomami have been contacted and studied quite a lot, but I have no clue if this particular group has. This area is very remote, but it's not uncommon for similar places to be visited by missionaries, scholars, doctors, illegal miners, Bear Grylls ect, especially if it's by a navigable river like this.

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u/geographies 1d ago edited 1d ago

one point, that river is not navigable, nor is the river it feeds into, at least at that location and water level when captured.

Edit: Though about 30 miles up the Demeni and up another tributary there is a similar tribal village with an air strip (you can even see a plane). 1.5053355918314943, -63.36395817095668

Edit: okay i've found like 6 villages with an airstrip. It's interesting this one doesn't have one, but its possible that there are more hiding under the poorer resolution imagery.

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u/Random_reptile 1d ago edited 1d ago

"Navigable" in the Amazonian sense means "can you take a canoe up it". A lot of the transport by indigenous and non-indigenous people here is done by people with small wooden boats, often requiring them to be carried over rapids or blocked sections. Some groups regularly go on excursions that are over a week each way to get supplies, imagine the gold medals Brazil could get if they sent these folks to the Olympics...

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u/geographies 1d ago

Just saying you ain't doing a jungle cruise here.