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走回丛林,还是走向文明?
新德里:印度的贾拉瓦人是赤身的游牧猎人,他们使用弓箭,在无休止的徒步
迁徒中,靠携带火炭来保留火种。贾拉瓦人在印度的安达曼群岛已经生活了近4万年。
人类学家相信,他们的近亲是中非的矮人。如今,贾拉瓦人正面临灭绝的边缘。上
个月,300个幸存的贾拉瓦人中的50个置身于“文明社会”之中时,也同时置身于文
明社会的疾病———麻疹、肺炎之中,对于这些疾病,他们没有任何免疫能力。如
今已有40人住进了该岛首府布莱尔港的医院。
支持贾拉瓦人的非政府组织的当地成员们担心,在安达曼群岛中部的700平方公
里雨林保护区生活的贾拉瓦人会有更多的人受疾病的折磨。在最近几年,其他安达
曼人的部落简直被疾病扫荡一空,极个别存留下来的人已沦落为靠政府救济为生。
应该把贾拉瓦人带到更大的社会群体中,还是把他们留在自己的圈子里?这一
争论正在当地激烈进行。在当地政府坚持不懈做出努力帮助他们,并把他们引进现
代生活之后,这50个人却都病了。安达曼岛卫生局主任南乌特·阿里博士声明:
“贾瓦拉人也是人,不应该被社会抛弃而单独谋生,应该把他们带到国家的主流社
会中。”而印度人类学研究会布莱尔港分会主席甘展·木克巴贾说:“如果强迫贾
拉瓦人在短时间内跳跃几个世纪,只会对他们造成伤害,我们不能用贾拉瓦人的生
命做实验。”
NEW DELHI - The Jarawa, naked nomadic hunters who use
bows and arrows and preserve fire by carrying embers with
them on their endless walkabouts, have lived on India's
Andaman Islands for nearly 40,000 years. Anthropologists
believe their closest relatives are the pygmies of central
Africa. Now the Jarawa are on the verge of extinction.
When 50 of the 300 surviving Jarawa were exposed to \"
civilization\" last month, they were also exposed to its
diseases - measles and pneumonia, to which they have no
immunity. Now about 40 are in hospital in the island's
capital, Port Blair.
Local members of non-governmental groups supporting the
Jarawa fear that more in their 700-square-kilometer central
Andaman rainforest reserve may be afflicted. In recent years
other Andamanese tribes have been virtually wiped out by
disease, and the few remaining members reduced to dependency
on government handouts.
Fierce debate rages locally over whether the Jarawa should
be brought into the larger society or left to themselves.
The 50 became ill after persistent efforts by the local
administration to befriend them and introduce them to
modernity. Dr Nanuta Ali, director of health services on
the island territory, asserts that the Jarawa are human
beings who should not be left to fend for themselves; they
should be \"brought into the national mainstream.\" Kanchan
Mukhopadhya, head of Port Blair division of the
Anthropological Survey of India, says the Jarawa will only be
harmed if they are forced to jump centuries in a short
time. \"We cannot experiment with Jarawa lives.\"
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奇妙而危险的世界正在向贾拉瓦儿童招唤。
A fascinating but dangerous world beckons these curious
Jarawa children on India's Andaman Islands. |
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