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Short Stuff: RIP Man of the Hole · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh, and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: there's Chuck and Jerry's here and this is short, short,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: short stuff. This hello stuff so short. I said short
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: three times. Did we do a full episode on this guy? Yeah?
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: We did the who was the Man of the Whole?
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: And I think it was within the last three years,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: maybe maybe four years. I would guess it was probably
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: around two thousand eighteen because that's when they released that
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: video of him and everybody became aware that this man
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: even existed. Right, So this is a bit of a
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: recap and for sure a lot of tribute, uh to
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: a gentleman named the Man of the Whole is what
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: he was called. He was He lived by himself, um,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: in total isolation for twenty six years on his indigenous
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: land in the Amazon rain Forest, the Tanaru indigenous land.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: And very sad to say, the Man of the Whole
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: has passed away. Yeah, and they think roughly in mid fifties,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: maybe age sixty tops. Um. He was discovered by a
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: FUNAI agent. Funis Brazil's Indigenous protection agency and fun I
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: had been basically tracking him quietly for the last twenty
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: six years. Um. And the reason that they call him
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: the Man of the Whole is because that's what fun
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: I calls him. He digs holes or he used to
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: dig holes. Um. Certainly some were for animal traps, but
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: they think some sadly were for protection from attack from
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: other people. I should say, Um, but the reason they
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: called them the man of the whole is because no one,
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: literally no human being on earth aside from that man,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: knew what that man's name was. That's right. Uh. He
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: lived on about twenty thousand acres of for us that
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: eventually became protected, and thus he was protected. Uh. He
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: at one point had his people. Um, we don't know
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: what tribe he was from. We don't know what language
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: he spoke. Uh. We do know that his people were
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: likely killed uh by invaders. I think the last people
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: that they think he had was about six people with him.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: They were all killed, leaving him alone. And finally that land,
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: in his lifestyle was protected. And as much as I
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: don't even we'll get to sort of the ins and
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: outs of even peeking in on somebody like this, uh,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: and whether or not that's the right thing to do,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: because that is sort of a thorny issue. But he
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: passed away on August UM no signs of struggle. Uh,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: they believe he died of natural causes. Um, this is
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: another sort of thorny thing. They're going to do a
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: forensic examination of his body, which I get. I think
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: there could be some value there to see what someone
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: who lived in isolation might die of. Obviously, their genetic
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: things that can still happen, but in any sort of
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: man influenced death is probably not the likely cause. But
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: my favorite part about the story is that he died
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: in his hammock and he had covered himself with bird feathers,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: with McCaw feathers, because he knew he was dying, and
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: that just sounds like a really peaceful, lovely way to go. Yeah,
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: it is. But again, like if he was sixty and
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: this guy was living like about as healthy a life
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: as a human being can live, you would think it
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: seems really young. But yeah, the fact that he was
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: covered in McCaw feathers and there wasn't any sign that
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: anyone else had been around him definitely certainly does point
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: to the idea that he was awaiting death and a
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: new death was coming, So should we take a quick break.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Let's do that, and won't come back and dig some
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: more into this. All right. So you mentioned video which
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: was probably around the time we did our first episode
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: on the Man of the Whole. This was in July
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: of that year on Facebook. Uh, Survival International posted a
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: video of him from a distance chopping down a tree.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: But this is from two thousand eleven. Uh. They sat
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: on this footage for seven years and um, you know,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: they found out some things about him over his life,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: which is that uh and some of it since he
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: has has left us um abandoned camp sites. This was
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: the fifty third thatch hut that he had built at
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: least over the past twenty six years. Holes everywhere, holes
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: inside these huts. Uh. So they're getting little clues on
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: how he lived his life a little bit now that
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: he's passed. Yeah, he was not just a hunter gather.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: He was also a farmer too. He farmed corn, manioc root, papaya, bananas, um.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: And he also is a great hunter, apparently with his
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: bow and arrow. And also those holes that he put
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: stakes in what they called like tiger tiger traps. No no no, no,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: that sounds that sounds good. But he used those to
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: like catch wild bore. Um. So this is how this
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: guy was living um again by himself for twenty six years.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: He did not, as far as we know, have any
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: contact with anybody, despite um Fu and I trying to
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: make contact with him after he became the last surviving
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: member of his tribe um because when they tried to
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: initiate contact, they brought him some gifts and they basically
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: went and visited him at his home and he apparently
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: flipped out. They said he was terrified and very aggressive
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: and was clearly not at all happy that they were there.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: So from that moment, on Fu and I said, we're
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: never contacting this man again. We're gonna track him, we're
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: going to make sure that he's okay, but we're going
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: to keep our distance, both for um his own comfort,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: but also for his safety too, because one of the
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: problems is people from outside of the Amazon coming into
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: contact with an uncontacted tribe bring a lot of germs
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: that the uncontacted tribe has no defenses against whatsoever. Yeah,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: and that sort of brings up a little bit of
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: what I mentioned before, which is what what do you
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: do in a situation like this? Do you go in
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: and try and um vaccinate people to try and keep
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: them safe? Do you try and completely leave them alone.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: Do you give them these gifts like they would? They
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: would give them seeds apparently, and small tools occasionally, which
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: apparently he rejected. He never or at least rarely took
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: the gifts. Um. You know, it is sort of a
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: moral question that I don't think it's super easily answered. Um.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: I think leaving someone alone like that is for sure
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: probably the best route. But what does leave someone alone
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: really mean? Like does is even spying in and tracking
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: them too much? Well? So, yeah, you could definitely argue that,
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: like his his privacy was being invaded, whether he was
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: aware of it or not, in that in and of
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: itself like robs him of some of his dignity. But
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: the reason Fu and I was doing this wasn't just
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: for their you know, own jollies or anything like that.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: The way that Brazil's government set up protection of indigenous
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: lands was you had to verify through a sighting, uh
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: that an uncontacted tribe existed, And I guess they through
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: And I think there's about a hundred undred and fourteen
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: uncontacted tribes living in the Amazon still, but they're only
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: aware of something like twenty three They've only confirmed twenty three,
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: so only twenty three are protected, and that protection is
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: only continued. Uh when there's a sighting within a certain
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: amount of time, every like say three years, they have
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: to be cited. So that's why they were tracking him
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: like that. Yeah, and you know, the idea of protection
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: is not just here, take this vaccine to help protect
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: you from sickness. UM. One of the articles I read
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: was talking about the fact that these parts of the
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: jungle are not just free of people. They're bad people
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: in there. Their drug dealers and poachers and people use
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: this place for cover. So it's not like they're completely alone.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: They're just living, uh, you know, their indigenous lifestyle, ideally
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: away from the bad people. Yeah. So those bad people
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: apparently are the reason why he was living alone for
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: twenty six years. UM and fun I pieced together probably
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: what happened to his tribe from um local residents in
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: the area around where he lived, and they said that
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: in the seventies they believed that most of the tribe
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: was killed because they were given poison sugar, probably by
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: ranching interests that were invading the area. UM, which would
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: explain why he would accept zero gifts from anybody. UM.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: When they tried to give him to him in the nineties,
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: and then in the other six I think he was
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: um one of seven survivors, and in or six the
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: six others were gunned down, and from that moment on
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: for the next any six years, he lived by himself. Yeah,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: it kind of cracks me up when I think of
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: I love all the survival shows alone and all the
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: shows where they're like, we made it a hundred days,
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: What an experience, even with our modern duels, and this
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: guy's like, what a hundred days I've been That's what
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: he said. He went, but I've been out here for
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: twenty six years. Right, you cracked the code. His language
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: was not lost after all. Um. So the thing is,
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: Chuck is, in addition to those tools, not just making
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: it being alone, having no one to talk to, no
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: one to interact with, Like, how would you not crack
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: up in that sense? Even though you have an area
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: that's almost as big as the entire Disney World resort,
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: bigger than the entire island of Manhattan to wander around,
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: you're still wandering around it by yourself, on your own.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: That would be the hardest thing of all, I think. Yeah,
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: And you know, as far as leaving people alone, like
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: as a curious individual, part of my brain says, oh,
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: I would love to have seen a documentary on this
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: guy's day to day life because it's so fascinating to me.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: But the other part of my brain says, no, chuck,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: that's the wrong instinct, like leave him alone. So Brazil
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: officially did say we will leave these people alone. When
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: we discover an unkind contacted tribe, we will cordon off
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: their um indigenous lands and just leave them alone. Um.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: The problem is they have a president right now called Bolsonaro,
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: President Bolsonaro UM, and he has done everything he can
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: to roll back every protection that he can find that
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: protect indigenous lands and indigenous people and instead open the
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: Amazon up to ranchers and loggers and miners and just
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: basically chew through the Amazon and an even even faster
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: rate that it was being chewed through before. So they
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: think that I should say fu, and I believes that, Um,
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: probably more and more uncontacted tribes are going to go extinct,
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: include some that we will have never confirmed and never
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: even knew about. And by extinct, we're saying like they're
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: being massacred. Their genocides that are being carried out day
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: to day, um year to year in the Amazon, so
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: that people can grow plants or um graze their cattle
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: there instead for progress. That's what makes this whole thing
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: so heartbreaking to me. Yeah. Absolutely, Um, hats off to you, sir,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: man of the whole not you, Josh I. My hats
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: always off to you. But R I P and just
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: very interesting story. I want Does that mean this twenty
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: acres is now a progress so the protection runs out.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: It's not clear whether they'll try to roll it back
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: before then, but fu and I was trying to say, no,
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: let's just make this particular preserve permanently protected. And who
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: knows what will happen depends on whose president I think. Alright, well, good,
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: good yet sad follow up to this story Creed Chuck
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: good idea, uh and I guess that ain't short. Stuff
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: is out. Radio Stuff You Should Know is a production
• 12:04
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• 12:07
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• 12:11
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