Mythologies of the Mashco-Piro/Cujareño Tribe

 

Numbering between 100 and 250 members, the Mashco-Piro tribe faces threats as a result of logging and oil/gas exploration. They largely shun outsiders, which is understandable considering back in 1894, most of their ancestors were slaughtered by the private army of Pervian rubber baron Carlos Fitzcarrald. However, due to their increasing displacement, some have started to emerge and have even been reported asking neighboring communities for food. This carries its own risks since the Mashco Piro lack immunities to common diseases.

Anthropologists report more than 100 sightings of these tribespeople since 2014. The Mascho-Piro raided a nearby village for machetes and goods and killed two villagers, the most recent in May. In past months they have also repeatedly gestured at, called to, and received goods from local people. Tour operators sell tickets for "human safaris" along the river, and missionaries are reported to have given food and clothing to the group in the past year. "You can see a group on the beaches for hours, waiting for the boats to pass," writes Luis Felipe Torres, and Peruvian ministry anthropologist who has spent time in the area, in an essay published 22 July. "They are especially interested in bananas, cassava, sugarcane, machetes, and pots." Torres concludes that "they are deliberately seeking to interact with people transiting the river."

The Mashco-Piro or Mascho Piro, also known as the Cujareño people and Nomole, are an indigenous tribe of nomadic hunter-gatherers who inhabit the remote regions of the Amazon rainforest. They live in Manú National Park in the Madre de Dios Region in Peru. They have in the past actively avoided contact with non-native peoples. The Mashco-Piro tribe recently started making time-displaced, half-naked guest appearances beside a Peruvian river popular with Western tourists. Nobody knows why the tribe suddenly started showing up at the river, but according to specialists, so far they have mainly shown interest in metal cooking pots and machetes. So we’re going to say it’s either a whole tribe of Iron Chefs, or else they’re melting the stuff down to build some kind of primitive machete-tank.The Mashco-Piro tribe recently started making time-displaced, half-naked guest appearances beside a Peruvian river popular with Western tourists. Nobody knows why the tribe suddenly started showing up at the river, but according to specialists, so far they have mainly shown interest in metal cooking pots and machetes. So we’re going to say it’s either a whole tribe of Iron Chefs, or else they’re melting the stuff down to build some kind of primitive machete-tank.

The 'Mashco-Piro' are one of an estimated fifteen indigenous groups in Peru living without any regular contact with outsiders. 'Uncontacted' is a short-hand term often used for them, although the evidence suggests they are the descendants of people who had contact in the past. During the 'Rubber Boom' in the late 19th and early 20th centuries scores of people poured into the Amazon to source rubber to supply the rapidly growing car and bicycle industries in Europe and the USA. The treatment of the local indigenous people was horrific, their land was invaded, and thousands were worked to death or killed, the 'Mashcos' among them. Those who survived retreated deeper into the rainforest and have lived there in isolation, more or less, ever since.

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