Lost in the Taiga: family in remotest Siberia unaware of the outside world

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

This is absolutely incredible: in the mid 1970s a family, in remotest Siberia with no knowledge of the outside world, discovered by a Soviet Geological survey team. A sad and fascinating look at incredibly determined people.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/For-40-Years-This-Russian-Family-Was-Cut-Off-From-Human-Contact-Unaware-of-World-War-II-188843001.html

There is a youtube documentary on this, unfortunately it's in Russian with no translation.

[mikejohnson]

Wow thats a interesting story,its pretty amasing they survived for so long, what a life lol.

[Peter B]

Reading it reminded me of Fritz Leiber's story "A Pail of Air": http://www.baenebooks.com/chapters/0743498747/0743498747___6.htm

Talk about survival at the ragged edge.

Thanks ICR.

[twik]

That is a truly remarkable story. When we think of mankind's ingenuity in going to space, we must also consider it in these people who learned to survive on their own (because even their farmers' skills would have been different than those of a completely isolated group of hunter-gatherers).

[ka9q]

Then there are people who have never been part of modern civilization and who seem happy to keep it that way. Like the Sentinelese.

Too bad they don't even want to talk to outsiders; it would be fascinating to hear what it was like during the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. It lifted their island several meters, exposing a large coral beach and significantly adding to their total land area.