Monitoring the populations of “uncontacted” tribes via Google Earth is a noninvasive way to help improve the chances of survival of indigenous human groups, according to a paper co-authored by SFI's Marcus Hamilton.
In the paper appearing in The American Journal of Human Biology, Hamilton and Rob Walker, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Missouri, used Google Earth satellite imagery to estimate the area of the fields and the size of the village belonging to a tribe in the Brazilian Amazon, as well as the living area of the tribe’s temporary housing, and compared that with similar estimates for 71 other Brazilian indigenous communities.
“We found that the estimated population of the village is no more than 40 people,” Walker said. “A small, isolated village like this one faces an imminent threat of extinction. However, forced contact from the outside world is ill-advised, so a non-invasive means of monitoring the tribe is recommended. A remote surveillance program using satellite images taken periodically of this group would help track the movements and demographic health of the population without disrupting their lives.”
Read the paper in The American Journal of Human Biology (April 21, 2014, subscription required)
Read the University of Missiouri news release (April 22, 2014)
Read the article in The Epoch Times (April 26, 2014)