I know you think that two-day glamping trip you did was ‘living off the grid’, but you ain’t got shit on the ‘man of the hole’.

This chap, an “uncontacted indigenous man”, has lived alone in the Amazon for at least 22 years. Believed to be in his 50s, it is the first time clear video footage has been taken, and he appears to be in pretty good health.

According to Altair Algayer, a regional coordinator for the Brazilian government indigenous agency Funai in the Amazon state of Rondônia, he hunts and maintains a plantation of papaya and corn for sustenance.

#Locavore.

Algayer’s team filmed the man from a safe distance:

The Guardian below:

Known as the “indigenous man in the hole”, he is believed to be the only survivor from an isolated tribe. He hunts forest pigs, birds and monkeys with a bow and arrow and traps prey in hidden holes filled with sharpened staves of wood. He and his group were known for digging holes and his hammock is strung over one in his house.

Loggers, farmers and land grabbers murdered and expelled indigenous populations in the area in the 1970s and 1980s, and the man is believed to be the only survivor of a group of six killed during an attack by farmers in 1995. He was first located in 1996 and has been monitored by Funai ever since. A glimpse of his face filmed in 1998 was shown in the Brazilian documentary Corumbiara.

‘Man in the hole’, we salute you. This is probably my favourite bit of the entire story:

Axes, machetes and seeds traditionally planted by indigenous people have been left for the man to find, Algayer said, but he clearly wants nothing to do with mainstream society.

“I understand his decision,” said Algayer. “It is his sign of resistance, and a little repudiation, hate, knowing the story he went through.”

And here you are, threatening to leave Facebook every six months, before chickening out because you can’t kick the need for online validation.

You can read the full piece on the Amazon’s uncontacted tribes here.

[source:guardian]