Papua New Guinea's Meakambut: National Geographic Profiles The Last Of The Cave People

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Comments

[Raglimidechi]

12:54 PM on 02/20/2012

Last of the cave people? Nah. There are a lot of them left. Only they're known as preppers.

[Kiz boy]

10:27 AM on 02/18/2012

There's a lot to be admired about living a life without illusion.

[StopMakingSense2]

02:03 PM on 02/17/2012

They could always join the republican party where they would fit in. Maybe one of them is conservative enough to please the base to be the presidential nominee?

[Parade Keegan]

03:22 PM on 02/16/2012

Evolution.

[mtfer032359]

11:47 AM on 02/16/2012

that, in part, is one of the reasons they face extinction. they dont produce. they dont think ahead to a time when they may need surplus food and water. i am however, shocked that they dont seem to have any medical knowledge. "you get better or you die". usually groups like this have huge herbal stores and people that know how to use them.

[PiperSniper]

01:17 PM on 02/16/2012

"There are only a handful left".

[dirtydog1776]

01:28 AM on 02/16/2012

I feel sorry for these tribe people who are suffering because of a cultural clash with modern society. But semi nomadic tribes, by their very nature, are only marginally productive, produce very little surplus for hard times and are incapable to accumulating the higher degree of skill and knowledge that makes a higher standard of living possible. Old and sick are left behind in such societies because they cannot work and contribute to the tribe.

Hopefully, the government will not make them dependent on welfare (look at our American Indians) but allow them to develop the skills they need to support themselves.

My ancestors lived in mud huts and caves at one time and rubbed two sticks together for fire, but I certainly do not wax nostalgically for the "good ole days." Hopefully, these people can move forward.

[mamahappy]

01:23 AM on 02/16/2012

Silly me! I thought this article was going to be about the republican party.

[Phalanxman]

11:06 PM on 02/15/2012

"When you get sick, you get better or you die." So this tribe has the same health care plan that 40 million Americans have.

[dirtydog1776]

01:19 AM on 02/16/2012

Yes, where is Obama when you need him? More freebies for everybody!

[Phalanxman]

01:58 AM on 02/16/2012

No, no, no, this is a good example of conservative values, which seek to maintain social habits, customs, and traditions. You see, this tribe represents Human existence at its most primal level, and it was true for millenia -- get sick, you die. So preserving this fundamental Human birthright is -- from everything I can tell -- one of the highest priorities of conservatives. And I'm afraid that President Obama -- in his liberal ignorance -- would actually rather provide these people with medical care. Go figure.

[Baird Campbell]

05:05 PM on 02/17/2012

You're right. Why should our taxes pay for things that will help us when they could just line of the pockets of the already rich?

[mtfer032359]

12:12 PM on 02/16/2012

OMG! lol, your soooo spot-on! or, like 40 million americans, you get BAD treatment that hastens your death (could this actually be the conspiratorial ultimate goal of ins. companies?) delete the surplus population thats "lived too long" and dont contribute.

[TINKER6]

06:45 PM on 02/15/2012

It's sad we/or their country can't put out so little, for these people to be self sufficiant.
But as a whole we can put tons out for BS. Don't expect a return anytime soon.
The south is complaining, because their over run with wild pigs.
Medical services, use to be payed in trade.
One person going to school can teach others, how much do they need to know, think the 3 r's would cover it .
And the place looks like you could raise potatoes and squash, they already raise pumpkins.
A little conservation would go along ways and bring back the fish,( what's that about 30 min. training).
If there's a will, it can flourish.
But it seems the opposite for everything now, except for the abortions of life.

[Bills Catz]

02:00 AM on 02/16/2012

All this "WE" and "WE as a country stops with you, Tinker. It's their country and their government and, essentially, their problem. Last I heard there are still a lot of Native Americans waiting for something, anything, after 200 years. In a more current light, there are Americans right now today worried about meeting the bills and feeding the families. Sympathize as you wish, start a fund or a petition, but don't ask a country were people are clinging onto bunk mortgages and tenuous jobs and barely getting by to rally around the cavemen.

[TINKER6]

10:00 AM on 02/16/2012

Gee I'm sorry, but I believe I also said them. By the way apathys ,nariccist caused me to lose my house, job, and everything else, sorry to show humanity. Panama Canal.

[irrenmann]

12:20 PM on 02/15/2012

"'We, the Meakambut people, will give up hunting and always moving and living in the mountain caves if the government will give us a health clinic and a school, and two shovels and two axes, so we can build homes,' he said."

I see the benefit to the Meakambut in this arrangement, but not so much the benefit to the government of Papua New Guinea.

[darkclouds55]

10:20 PM on 02/15/2012

Seriously? Where's the profit in it? Our world is crashing in on theirs, changing any chance for the only kind of life they know, and we can't help because we won't "make anything off it?" Where do you people come from?

[irrenmann]

11:40 PM on 02/21/2012

Why don't you care about the other people of Papua New Guinea? Why do you want food taken from the mouths of their children to build these others a school just so they will come down from the mountains? How does that help everyone?

I care about the larger number of people and look for solutions that benefit everyone. You just pick the ones that you pity more. I'm vastly morally superior to you.

[Anne Mccormick]

12:11 AM on 02/16/2012

what part of this don't you get? these people are dying and they are desperate. I say the Government of Papua New Guinea should help in every way.

[dirtydog1776]

01:13 AM on 02/16/2012

That will help a lot, they can become as successful as the American Indians under the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Maybe the government will let them open some casinos.

[tkoon]

11:09 AM on 02/15/2012

If there were a high fence around your property and one day you looked over to the other side and saw an acre with several children living in dirt huts, eating roots and laying dying from simple infections....you wouldn't say..."we are going to destroy their culture if we help them. It's like destroying the culture of being very poor in the inner city. We are humans, we help others. Their lives aren't all wonderful, they spend their days trying to find shelter and food. Much of the time they are in pain. It is an embarrassment to the world that these people aren't helped. Document their lifestyle, much like document the lifestyle of slaves in the south....but there is no reason not to help them....why ? to keep some sort of sick social experiment..to see how long they can suffer? I've seen children taken from dirt floored houses and now educated and flourishing in top colleges. The proper nutrition, healthcare, love, support and education can change all.

[lkan]

11:31 AM on 02/15/2012

Shame on you

[krisgoldie]

11:58 AM on 02/15/2012

What ya talking about?? bfrjds1981's comment was hysterical!!!!!! He and me-shell will need somewhere to live after he's booted out of the White House.

[krisgoldie]

12:01 PM on 02/15/2012

What ya talking about?!? bfrjds1981's comment was hysterical!!!!!

[Samurai Cowboy]

11:54 AM on 02/15/2012

Go kill your family and yourself . You horrible waste of DNA.

[forksmt]

12:28 PM on 02/15/2012

Speek for yourself he has the right to his opinion. Go back to fantisy land-- on the ocean with sails unferled.

[Rachelwordsmith]

10:56 AM on 02/15/2012

I hope the anthropologist learn a lot about how they survive in the wild and pass it on. When our social structures collapse and people run out of bullets after killing each other off over the last can of corn, survival knowledge will come in handy.
I'm not a survivalist, only a historical realist. Fish kills happen and the human race is pushing the envelop. I doubt this version of humanity will last another hundred years. The Meakambut and others like them may be humanities savors. 100,000 years ago modern humans ( Not Neanderthal or or other coexisting human types) were down to less than 1000 and they made a come back. Perhaps we aren't so smart today.

[rptheone]

10:42 AM on 02/15/2012

You really should read the article. they don't actually live in caves... they are semi-nomadic tribes who visit these caves infrquently. I'm just sayin'...

[Anne Mccormick]

12:13 AM on 02/16/2012

oh gee; they're semi-nomadic. so that, in your warped mind, means these people should not get any help from the Government?

[rptheone]

07:30 AM on 02/16/2012

Where, in ANY post, did I even hint that I thought these people didn't deserve governmental aid? I was trying to correct the myriad posts (that were obviously based on erroneous assumptions) from those who had never read the original NG article.

I never ONCE opined anytnig to do with aid... (???)

[McAttorney]

10:34 AM on 02/15/2012

Pasu Aiyo, Lidia's husband, tells me this is what happens. "When you get sick, you get better or you die."

In a follow-up story, Mr. Aiyo was appointed as the prospective head of Medicare and Medicaid under the Paul Ryan budget plan....