WRITERS' BLOCK 27 RESEARCH

 

 

RESEARCH

 

We told him not to take the camera, but some of these raw graduates think they know it all.  It is almost universal that tribes do not like the flash or the idea of a camera.

 

 

We are researchers with the Anthropological Studies Group of North Western. We are based in the upper reaches of the Amazon basin on the Tapajos, a tributary of the Amazon. Primitive camping does not do justice to our research station. We can only reach our camp in the dry season, which severely limits our research time. One of the reasons we welcome interns to help us.

 

 

We study and make contact with "lost tribes" who have lived as they have for thousands of years. Of course they have never considered themselves lost, that is one of the first lessons you learn here, but it makes for a good sound bite back home.

We prefer to call them pre-contact tribes. As social anthropologists it is so important to study their cultures before it is adversely affected by contact, or worst, lost forever.

 

 

Williams came highly recommended from Rutgers. After meeting him we weren’t sure if they wished to get him into the bush to mellow him out. He had an ego the size of the Amazon basin, and a grating personality to match the worst of the rapids. But he was good! He could pick up a language like no one we had ever seen. After a few months with us he was speaking better dialects than some of our researchers who had been here year after year. And Williams made sure he could prove it any chance he got.

 

 

He was getting itchy feet almost as soon as he stepped out of the supply boat. Instead of learning the ropes, he wanted to be in the jungle. While he should have been watching the old hands, he would wander off, and visit the nearest villages we were studying. I should have sent him packing off home after several of these unauthorized visits.

 

 

I have to give him this credit though, he did learn of a tribe we had  only heard rumors of on the far side of the Tapajos rapids.  That made up for his indiscretions and down right insubordination. We planned an expedition with some of the local Indians to the new tribe’s village for two weeks following, depending on the locals making first contact, telling of our intended visit. If the new tribe was open to our visit we would be on our way, if they were not, we would continue to work with contact through the local tribe.

 

 

Three days into our wait, Williams turned up missing again!. We did not think too much of it at first, as he had done this many times before. Three days turned into five, five into seven. We asked the locals if they had seen him, which they had, four days past, which would be the same day he first was missed. We searched the trails and spoke with the Indians, but no one had seen him since that day, if at all. The deep tropical jungle is a dangerous place, you can be standing two feet from someone and not see them for the growth. Of course the occasional Jaguar does not make the jungle any safer, plus the snakes and insects. Most of us were sure he would turn up.

 

 

Thirteen days into our wait, the local Indians returned informing us the new tribe did not welcome a visit. We were disappointed, but we had learned it can be a slow process to gain acceptance. Williams would take this hard when he returned, we were sure of that.

 

 

The tribe had sent gifts back, which was a very good sign, at least we thought it was at first. We opened the skin pouch with a collective gasp, it is amazing how much a shrunken head looks like the person it belonged to.  We never did find his camera.