Uncontacted Peoples

States with Uncontacted Peoples

Uncontacted peoples are communities who live without significant contact with globalized civilization, most often by choice. Although we commonly call them ‘uncontacted,’ a more accurate description is probably ‘voluntarily isolated’ or ‘withdrawn’ or ‘evasive.’ They exist in the Amazon Rainforest, the island of New Guinea, and in India’s Andaman Islands. Survival International reports that about one hundred groups around the world prefer to be left alone. Knowledge of the existence of these groups comes mostly from encounters with neighboring tribes and from aerial footage. While this map shows in which states uncontacted peoples continue to exist, the tribes themselves are stateless societies. To varying extents they may be unaware of and unaffected by the states that have nominal authority over their territory.

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