Some time ago, in a shack in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest, a man quietly greeted his death.
He was the loneliest man in the world.
Until his death, he never came into contact with this human society, so we have no way of knowing his name, but can only call him "man in the cave".
Human society knows nothing about him.
We don't know his culture, we don't know his language, we don't know what happened to him.
But what humans do know is that he is the last man in this primitive tribe of Amazon forests.
With his death, a primitive tribe completely disappeared, with a culture that has been passed down for thousands of years, and the answers to countless questions, together with the long river of history.
This was the first time in recorded history that there had been an isolated primitive tribe that had completely disappeared.
Anthropology researcher Sarah Shenker sadly said: "This is a genocide. ”
He was born in Sri Lanka, grew up in Sri Lanka, and died here.
He died in his own home, lying in a hammock, his body covered with macaw feathers.
A staff member discovered his death during a routine patrol, when he may have been dead for 40-50 days.
"There was no sign of violence in his house, no signs of invasion in the territory, and nothing interfered with it."
"The man in the cave is about 60 years old. He should have known that he was about to die, so he prepared his own things in advance, lay quietly, closed his eyes, and waited for death. ”
Some have likened his story to "the loneliest whale in the world"—forever rejected by his peers because his call was 52 hertz, forever singing alone in the icy North Atlantic, never being able to talk to his companions.
It is an eternal loneliness for the rest of your life.
For the "man in the hole", his life is also inseparable from loneliness...
In 1996, the Brazilian Institute of Indigenous Affairs first discovered the existence of the "Cave Man" in the "Tanaru" indigenous territory of Tanaru in the Western Londônia State of the Brazilian Amazon.
Most members of the primitive tribe lived with their own tribe, but he lived in isolation, solitude, and had no desire to communicate with anyone.
He is the only inhabitant of this forest.
Lonely and mysterious, he resists attempts to connect with him, shooting arrows at anyone who tries to get close to him.
No one knows his name, his tribal name, and what tribal culture he has.
The only thing known is his habit of digging deep holes, and he is therefore known as "Man of the Hole." ”
Near where he lived, there were dozens of deep holes. These deep holes are covered with nails, and the cave people use these holes to trap animals, and also to defend against outsiders, sometimes even hiding in them themselves.
Santos, an explorer responsible for the protection of indigenous peoples, was commissioned by the National Indigenous Peoples Foundation of Brazil to strategically leave tools, seeds, food and other supplies in his scope of activities.
However, what these outsiders left behind, without exception, were rejected.
For 26 years, no one had really communicated with him.
People on the outside are eager to understand him, but there is no way to communicate directly with him, only through the observation team, spying on his life.
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He lived in thatched huts and would move regularly, collecting fruit and honey, growing corn and papaya, hunting animals in the forest, and being self-sufficient.
He knew he was being "watched" but had never been in contact with the outside world.
Sometimes, he would signal familiar observers to avoid the traps he had dug to defend themselves, or to trap animals.
The closest people came to him was in 2018, when he was documented by government teams.
At that time, he was seen cutting down trees using sharp tools similar to axes.
After that, people never saw him again.
He hid himself from the trail of humans and hid himself in this forest forever.
One can only occasionally see traces of his life, the tools he used, the caves he dug, the scraps he ate.
Until...... His death.
People never communicated with him head-on, but over the past twenty years, through various means, some of his stories have been probably speculated.
The cave man is about 60 years old this year, so he was probably born around 1960.
His tribe, on the other hand, went extinct in the 1970s, when he was a teenager.
At that time, the development of the outside world gradually affected this forest.
There were ranchers who coveted the land, as well as illegal loggers and miners who wanted to take the land for themselves, so the plunderers who wanted the land and wealth began to attack the indigenous population many times and deliberately wipe out the entire tribe.
The tribes to which the cave people belong have also begun to be attacked and invaded by "modern civilization" again and again.
The staff of the Indigenous Conservation Organization once found the remains of a small village, and near each shack in the village, there were multiple pits similar to those dug by the people in the cave.
It was found that the tribe of the cave people may have resisted under the influence of external civilization for more than a decade. Some people deliberately left "sugar" within their hunting range, poisoning most people.
The rest began to migrate and escape, but did not escape fate.
In 1995, the last six men were shot, leaving him alone.
British media said: "He does not trust anyone because his contact with non-indigenous people has brought about traumatic experiences. ”
Since then, he has become a complete loner.
His relatives, friends, and tribes are dead, and everyone in his world is dead.
And those human beings who represent external civilizations are, in his eyes, just executioners.
For the next twenty-six years, he wandered alone in the forest, living in isolation, never speaking to anyone again.
In this way, as the last person of this tribe, he slowly moved towards the final death.
In this way, the culture that this tribe has passed down for thousands of years is no longer known.
Why do they dig holes to hunt? How do they pass on the cultivation of corn and papaya?
Do they have language and script? Do they have their own names?
Are they patrilineal or matrilineal? How do their elders teach their children? When do their children reach adulthood? How do I choose my lover or marriage partner?
What are their totems of faith or taboos? How do they celebrate the harvest and mourn the passing of their loved ones?
All this is completely gone, and there is no answer.
All we know is the beautiful feathers that end up covering his corpse.
According to the Brazilian government, 800,000 indigenous people belong to more than 300 different tribes, more than half live in the Amazon rainforest, and most of them are threatened by outlaws.
And without exception, these tribes are slowly disappearing, being either violently or exterminated by modern civilization.
The death of the cave man was the first recorded disappearance of a primitive tribe in Brazilian history that had no contact with the outside world.
But in fact, there are more primitive tribes that have long since become extinct and have never been recorded.
Indigenous conservation groups believe that at least 114 isolated tribes exist in Brazil, but only 28 tribes have been confirmed and protected by the government.
The remaining tribes, living in silence, or heading for doom.
For indigenous peoples, society beyond the forest was terrifying.
They don't see themselves as the same kind of people as outsiders.
Malice is everywhere, and kindness seems to be a condescending handout. All they brought was death, killing and disease, and they had no way to retreat.
Perhaps, it is precisely because of this that the people in the cave refuse all communication.
"At that time, we traveled all over the area and found his home, his shelter shack."
"We tried to build a conversation and give him corn and arrows, but he was scared, very aggressive, trying to scare us off."
"Maybe it's because of sadness, maybe it's because he made up his mind, but he's chosen his own path — not talking to anyone and avoiding all contact."
"From that moment on, we had to respect his loneliness..."