Short Stuff: RIP Man of the Hole

even existed. Right, So this is a bit of a recap and for sure a lot of tribute, uh to a gentleman named the Man of the Whole is what he was called. He was He lived by himself, um, in total isolation for twenty six years on his indigenous land in the Amazon rain Forest, the Tanaru indigenous land. And very sad to say, the Man of the Whole has passed away. Yeah, and they think roughly in mid fifties, maybe age sixty tops. Um. He was discovered by a

FUNAI agent. Funis Brazil's Indigenous protection agency and fun I had been basically tracking him quietly for the last twenty six years. Um. And the reason that they call him the Man of the Whole is because that's what fun I calls him. He digs holes or he used to dig holes. Um. Certainly some were for animal traps, but they think some sadly were for protection from attack from

other people. I should say, Um, but the reason they called them the man of the whole is because no one, literally no human being on earth aside from that man, knew what that man's name was. That's right. Uh. He lived on about twenty thousand acres of for us that eventually became protected, and thus he was protected. Uh. He at one point had his people. Um, we don't know what tribe he was from. We don't know what language he spoke. Uh. We do know that his people were

likely killed uh by invaders. I think the last people that they think he had was about six people with him. They were all killed, leaving him alone. And finally that land, in his lifestyle was protected. And as much as I don't even we'll get to sort of the ins and outs of even peeking in on somebody like this, uh, and whether or not that's the right thing to do, because that is sort of a thorny issue. But he passed away on August UM no signs of struggle. Uh,

they believe he died of natural causes. Um, this is another sort of thorny thing. They're going to do a forensic examination of his body, which I get. I think there could be some value there to see what someone who lived in isolation might die of. Obviously, their genetic things that can still happen, but in any sort of

man influenced death is probably not the likely cause. But my favorite part about the story is that he died in his hammock and he had covered himself with bird feathers, with McCaw feathers, because he knew he was dying, and that just sounds like a really peaceful, lovely way to go. Yeah, it is. But again, like if he was sixty and this guy was living like about as healthy a life as a human being can live, you would think it

seems really young. But yeah, the fact that he was covered in McCaw feathers and there wasn't any sign that anyone else had been around him definitely certainly does point to the idea that he was awaiting death and a new death was coming, So should we take a quick break. Let's do that, and won't come back and dig some more into this. All right. So you mentioned video which was probably around the time we did our first episode on the Man of the Whole. This was in July

of that year on Facebook. Uh, Survival International posted a video of him from a distance chopping down a tree. But this is from two thousand eleven. Uh. They sat on this footage for seven years and um, you know, they found out some things about him over his life, which is that uh and some of it since he has has left us um abandoned camp sites. This was the fifty third thatch hut that he had built at least over the past twenty six years. Holes everywhere, holes

inside these huts. Uh. So they're getting little clues on how he lived his life a little bit now that he's passed. Yeah, he was not just a hunter gather. He was also a farmer too. He farmed corn, manioc root, papaya, bananas, um. And he also is a great hunter, apparently with his bow and arrow. And also those holes that he put stakes in what they called like tiger tiger traps. No no no, no, that sounds that sounds good. But he used those to

like catch wild bore. Um. So this is how this guy was living um again by himself for twenty six years. He did not, as far as we know, have any contact with anybody, despite um Fu and I trying to make contact with him after he became the last surviving member of his tribe um because when they tried to initiate contact, they brought him some gifts and they basically went and visited him at his home and he apparently

flipped out. They said he was terrified and very aggressive and was clearly not at all happy that they were there. So from that moment, on Fu and I said, we're never contacting this man again. We're gonna track him, we're going to make sure that he's okay, but we're going to keep our distance, both for um his own comfort, but also for his safety too, because one of the problems is people from outside of the Amazon coming into contact with an uncontacted tribe bring a lot of germs

that the uncontacted tribe has no defenses against whatsoever. Yeah, and that sort of brings up a little bit of what I mentioned before, which is what what do you do in a situation like this? Do you go in and try and um vaccinate people to try and keep them safe? Do you try and completely leave them alone. Do you give them these gifts like they would? They would give them seeds apparently, and small tools occasionally, which apparently he rejected. He never or at least rarely took

the gifts. Um. You know, it is sort of a moral question that I don't think it's super easily answered. Um. I think leaving someone alone like that is for sure probably the best route. But what does leave someone alone really mean? Like does is even spying in and tracking them too much? Well? So, yeah, you could definitely argue that, like his his privacy was being invaded, whether he was aware of it or not, in that in and of

itself like robs him of some of his dignity. But the reason Fu and I was doing this wasn't just for their you know, own jollies or anything like that.

The way that Brazil's government set up protection of indigenous lands was you had to verify through a sighting, uh that an uncontacted tribe existed, And I guess they through And I think there's about a hundred undred and fourteen uncontacted tribes living in the Amazon still, but they're only aware of something like twenty three They've only confirmed twenty three, so only twenty three are protected, and that protection is

only continued. Uh when there's a sighting within a certain amount of time, every like say three years, they have to be cited. So that's why they were tracking him like that. Yeah, and you know, the idea of protection is not just here, take this vaccine to help protect you from sickness. UM. One of the articles I read was talking about the fact that these parts of the jungle are not just free of people. They're bad people in there. Their drug dealers and poachers and people use

this place for cover. So it's not like they're completely alone. They're just living, uh, you know, their indigenous lifestyle, ideally away from the bad people. Yeah. So those bad people apparently are the reason why he was living alone for

twenty six years. UM and fun I pieced together probably what happened to his tribe from um local residents in the area around where he lived, and they said that in the seventies they believed that most of the tribe was killed because they were given poison sugar, probably by ranching interests that were invading the area. UM, which would

explain why he would accept zero gifts from anybody. UM. When they tried to give him to him in the nineties, and then in the other six I think he was um one of seven survivors, and in or six the six others were gunned down, and from that moment on

for the next any six years, he lived by himself. Yeah, it kind of cracks me up when I think of I love all the survival shows alone and all the shows where they're like, we made it a hundred days, What an experience, even with our modern duels, and this guy's like, what a hundred days I've been That's what he said. He went, but I've been out here for twenty six years. Right, you cracked the code. His language

was not lost after all. Um. So the thing is, Chuck is, in addition to those tools, not just making it being alone, having no one to talk to, no one to interact with, Like, how would you not crack up in that sense? Even though you have an area that's almost as big as the entire Disney World resort, bigger than the entire island of Manhattan to wander around, you're still wandering around it by yourself, on your own.

That would be the hardest thing of all, I think. Yeah, And you know, as far as leaving people alone, like as a curious individual, part of my brain says, oh, I would love to have seen a documentary on this guy's day to day life because it's so fascinating to me. But the other part of my brain says, no, chuck, that's the wrong instinct, like leave him alone. So Brazil officially did say we will leave these people alone. When we discover an unkind contacted tribe, we will cordon off

their um indigenous lands and just leave them alone. Um. The problem is they have a president right now called Bolsonaro, President Bolsonaro UM, and he has done everything he can to roll back every protection that he can find that protect indigenous lands and indigenous people and instead open the Amazon up to ranchers and loggers and miners and just basically chew through the Amazon and an even even faster

rate that it was being chewed through before. So they think that I should say fu, and I believes that, Um, probably more and more uncontacted tribes are going to go extinct, include some that we will have never confirmed and never even knew about. And by extinct, we're saying like they're being massacred. Their genocides that are being carried out day to day, um year to year in the Amazon, so that people can grow plants or um graze their cattle

there instead for progress. That's what makes this whole thing so heartbreaking to me. Yeah. Absolutely, Um, hats off to you, sir, man of the whole not you, Josh I. My hats always off to you. But R I P and just very interesting story. I want Does that mean this twenty acres is now a progress so the protection runs out. It's not clear whether they'll try to roll it back before then, but fu and I was trying to say, no, let's just make this particular preserve permanently protected. And who

knows what will happen depends on whose president I think. Alright, well, good, good yet sad follow up to this story Creed Chuck good idea, uh and I guess that ain't short. Stuff is out. Radio Stuff You Should Know is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts my Heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.