被星链改变的亚马孙部落:“通网”带来的改变和代价| 纽约时报
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The Internet’s Final Frontier: Remote Amazon Tribes
被星链改变的亚马孙部落:“通网”带来的改变和代价
As the speeches dragged on, eyes drifted to screens. Teenagers scrolled Instagram. One man texted his girlfriend. And men crowded around a phone streaming a soccer match while the group’s first female leader spoke.
随着演讲的进行,人们的目光转向屏幕。年轻人刷着Instagram。一个男人在给女朋友发短信。当该组织的第一位女性领导人讲话时,男人们围着一部手机看足球比赛直播。
Just about anywhere, a scene like this would be mundane. But this was happening in a remote Indigenous village in one of the most isolated stretches of the planet.
在任何地方,这样一幕都是很普通的。但这发生在一个偏远的土著村庄,在地球上最与世隔绝的地区之一。
The Marubo people have long lived in communal huts scattered hundreds of miles along the Ituí River deep in the Amazon rainforest. They speak their own language, take ayahuasca to connect with forest spirits and trap spider monkeys to make soup or keep as pets.
马鲁博人长期居住在亚马孙雨林深处,散布在伊图伊河沿岸数百公里的共有小屋中。他们说自己的语言,服用死藤水与森林精灵沟通,捕捉蜘蛛猴做汤或当做宠物。
They have preserved this way of life for hundreds of years through isolation — some villages can take a week to reach. But since September, the Marubo have had high-speed internet thanks to Elon Musk.
他们与世隔绝,几百年来一直保持着这种生活方式——有些村庄需要一周的时间才能到达。但自去年9月以来,由于埃隆·马斯克,马鲁博人拥有了高速互联网。
The 2,000-member tribe is one of hundreds across Brazil that are suddenly logging on with Starlink, the satellite-internet service from Space X, Mr. Musk’s private space company. Since its entry into Brazil in 2022, Starlink has swept across the world’s largest rainforest, bringing the web to one of the last offline places on Earth.
这个2000人的部落是巴西各地数百个部落中的一个,他们突然开始使用马斯克的私人太空公司SpaceX提供的卫星互联网服务星链。自2022年进入巴西以来,星链已经席卷了世界上最大的雨林,将网络带到地球上最后的离线地区之一。
The New York Times traveled deep into the Amazon to visit Marubo villages to understand what happens when a tiny, closed civilization suddenly opens to the world.
《纽约时报》深入亚马孙,走访了马鲁博村庄,试图了解一个封闭的小文明突然向世界开放时会发生什么。
“When it arrived, everyone was happy,” said Tsainama Marubo, 73, sitting on the dirt floor of her village’s maloca, a 50-foot-tall hut where the Marubo sleep, cook and eat together. The internet brought clear benefits, like video chats with faraway loved ones and calls for help in emergencies. “But now, things have gotten worse,” she said.
“当它到来的时候,每个人都很高兴,”73岁的提纳玛·马鲁博说,她坐在村中“马洛卡”的泥地板上,“马洛卡”是一种约15米高的小屋,他们一家人在这里睡觉、做饭和吃饭。互联网带来了明显的好处,比如与远方的亲人视频聊天,以及在紧急情况下寻求帮助。“但现在,情况变得更糟了,”她说。
The Marubo are struggling with the internet’s fundamental dilemma: It has become essential — at a cost.
马鲁博人正努力应对互联网的根本困境:它已经变得必不可少——但这是有代价的。
After only nine months with Starlink, the Marubo are already grappling with the same challenges that have racked American households for years: teenagers glued to phones; group chats full of gossip; addictive social networks; online strangers; violent video games; scams; misinformation; and minors watching pornography.
在与星链合作仅九个月后,马鲁博人已经开始应对困扰美国家庭多年的同样挑战:青少年沉迷手机;群聊里充满流言蜚语;社交网络让人上瘾;网上的陌生人;暴力电子游戏;诈骗;不实信息;未成年人看色情内容。
Modern society has dealt with these issues over decades as the internet continued its relentless march. The Marubo and other Indigenous tribes, who have resisted modernity for generations, are now confronting the internet’s potential and peril all at once, while debating what it will mean for their identity and culture.
随着互联网的不断发展,现代社会几十年来一直在应对这些问题。在马鲁博和其他土著部落,几代人以来,人们一直抵制现代化,现在他们同时面对互联网的潜力和危险,还要它对他们的身份和文化来说意味着什么。
That debate has arrived now because of Starlink, which has quickly dominated the satellite-internet market worldwide by providing service once unthinkable in such remote areas. SpaceX has done so by launching 6,000 low-orbiting Starlink satellites — roughly 60 percent of all active spacecraft — to deliver speeds faster than many home internet connections to just about anywhere on Earth, including the Sahara, the Mongolian grasslands and tiny Pacific islands.
由于星链的出现,这场争论现在已经到来。通过在如此偏远的地区提供曾经无法想象的服务,星链迅速主导了全球卫星互联网市场。SpaceX已经发射了6000颗低轨道星链卫星(约占所有在运行的航天器的60%),为地球上几乎任何地方提供比许多家庭互联网更快的速度,包括在撒哈拉沙漠、蒙古草原和太平洋小岛。
But perhaps Starlink’s most transformative effect is in areas once largely out of the internet’s reach, like the Amazon. There are now 66,000 active contracts in the Brazilian Amazon, touching 93 percent of the region’s legal municipalities. That has opened new job and education opportunities for those who live in the forest. It has also given illegal loggers and miners in the Amazon a new tool to communicate and evade authorities.
但是,也许星链最具变革性的影响发生在那些曾经基本上不在互联网覆盖范围之内的地区,比如亚马孙。目前,巴西亚马孙地区有6.6万份有效合同,涉及该地区93%的法定市镇。这为那些生活在森林里的人提供了新的工作和教育机会。它还为亚马孙地区的非法伐木者和采矿者提供了一种通讯和逃避当局的新工具。
One Marubo leader, Enoque Marubo (all Marubo use the same surname), 40, said he immediately saw Starlink’s potential. After spending years outside the forest, he said he believed the internet could give his people new autonomy. With it, they could communicate better, inform themselves and tell their own stories.
马鲁博的一位首领、40岁的伊诺克·马鲁博(所有马鲁博人都使用同一个姓)说,他立即看到了星链的潜力。在离开丛林多年后,他说他相信互联网可以给他的人民带来新的自主权。有了它,他们可以更好地沟通,了解自己,讲述自己的故事。
Last year, he and a Brazilian activist recorded a 50-second video seeking help getting Starlink from potential benefactors. He wore his traditional Marubo headdress and sat in the maloca. A toddler wearing a necklace of animal teeth sat nearby.
去年,他和一名巴西活动人士录制了一段50秒的视频,寻求潜在捐助者帮助他们获得星链的连接。视频中他戴着传统的马鲁博头饰,坐在马洛卡里。一个戴着动物牙齿项链的小孩坐在他旁边。
They sent it off. Days later, they heard back from a woman in Oklahoma.
他们把视频发了出去。几天后,他们收到了俄克拉荷马州一位女士的回复。
The Tribe
部落
The Javari Valley Indigenous Territory is one of the most isolated places on Earth, a dense stretch of rainforest the size of Portugal with no roads and a maze of waterways. Nineteen of the 26 tribes in the Javari Valley live in full isolation, the highest concentration in the world.
哈瓦里河谷原住民领地是地球上最为与世隔绝的地方之一,这片茂密的雨林面积与葡萄牙相当,没有道路,只有迷宫般的水道。哈瓦里山谷有26个部落,是世界上最密集的部落群,其中有19个完全与外界隔绝。
The Marubo were once uncontacted, too, roaming the forest for hundreds of years, until rubber tappers arrived near the end of the 19th century. That led to decades of violence and disease — and the arrival of new customs and technology. The Marubo began wearing clothes. Some learned Portuguese. They swapped bows for firearms to hunt wild boar, and machetes for chain saws to clear plots for cassava.
马鲁博人也曾经与世隔绝,在丛林里游荡了几百年,直到19世纪末采集橡胶的人来到这里。由此而来的是数十年的暴力和疾病,同时也带来了新的习俗和技术。马鲁博人开始穿衣服。一些人学习葡萄牙语。他们把弓箭换成了猎枪来猎杀野猪,把砍刀换成了链锯来清理木薯地。
One family in particular pushed this change. In the 1960s, Sebastião Marubo was one of the first Marubo to live outside the forest. When he returned, he brought another new technology: the boat motor. It cut trips from weeks to days.
有一个家庭尤其在推动这一变化。在20世纪60年代,塞巴斯蒂昂·马鲁博是第一批在丛林之外生活的马鲁博之一。他回来时带来了另一项新技术:船舶发动机。它可以把几周的行程缩短到几天。
His son Enoque emerged as a leader of the next generation, eager to pull his tribe into the future. Enoque has split his life between the forest and the city, working at one point as a graphic designer for Coca-Cola. So when Marubo leaders became interested in getting internet connections, they went to him to ask how.
他的儿子伊诺克成为了下一代领袖,渴望带领部落走向未来。伊诺克辗转于丛林和城市,曾经做过可口可乐的平面设计师。所以当马鲁博人的首领对接入互联网感兴趣时,他们就去找他询问。
Enoque got his answer when Mr. Musk came to Brazil. In 2022, the SpaceX owner and Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s president at the time, announced Starlink’s arrival in front of a screen that said, “Connecting the Amazon.”
马斯克来到巴西后,伊诺克有了答案。2022年,这位SpaceX的所有者和时任巴西总统雅伊尔·博尔索纳罗在写着“连接亚马孙”的屏幕前宣布了星链的到来。
Enoque and Flora Dutra, a Brazilian activist who works with Indigenous tribes, sent letters to more than 100 members of Congress asking for Starlink. None responded.
伊诺克和与原住民部落合作的巴西活动人士弗洛拉·杜特拉向100多名国会议员致信,要求获得星链,但没有回应。
Then early last year, Ms. Dutra saw an American woman speak at a space conference. Ms. Dutra checked the woman’s Facebook page and saw her posing outside SpaceX’s headquarters. “I knew she was the one,” she said.
去年年初,杜特拉看到一位美国女性在一个太空会议上发言。杜特拉查看了她的Facebook页面,看到她在SpaceX总部外拍照。“我知道她就是我要找的人,”她说。
The Benefactor
捐赠者
Allyson Reneau’s LinkedIn page describes her as a space consultant, keynote speaker, author, pilot, equestrian, humanitarian, chief executive, board director and mother of 11 biological children. In person, she says she makes most of her money coaching gymnastics and renting houses near Norman, Okla.
艾莉森·勒诺在领英页面上的描述是太空顾问、主题讲者、作家、飞行员、马术运动员、人道主义者、首席执行官、董事和11个亲生子女的母亲。她说,她本人的大部分收入都来自在俄克拉荷马州诺曼附近做体操教练和出租房屋。
Ms. Reneau said she did not try to help people for fame. “Otherwise, I’d be telling you about all the projects I do all over the world,” she said in an interview. “It’s the look on the face, it’s the hope in the eyes. That’s the trophy.”
勒诺说,她并不是为了出名而帮助别人。“否则,我会告诉你我在世界各地开展的所有项目,”她在接受采访时说。“那是为了脸上的表情,是为了眼睛里的希望。这些就是奖杯。”
She said she had that perspective when she received a video from a stranger last year asking to help connect a remote Amazon tribe.
她说,去年,她从一个陌生人那里收到了一段视频,请求帮助为一个偏远的亚马孙部落建立网络连接,当时她就有了这样的想法。
She had never been to Brazil but thought the return on investment was high. Enoque was asking for 20 Starlink antennas, which would cost roughly $15,000, to transform life for his tribe.
她从未去过巴西,但认为投资回报会很高。伊诺克想要20部星链天线来改变他的部落的生活,大约需要1.5万美元。
Ms. Reneau said she bought the antennas with her own money and donations from her children. Then she booked a flight to go help deliver them.
勒诺说,她用自己的钱和孩子们的捐款买了这些天线。然后她订了机票去帮忙送货。
The Connection
连接
The internet arrived on the backs of men. They trudged miles through the forest, barefoot or in flip-flops, carrying two antennas each.
互联网设备是男人们背进来的,有人光着脚,有人穿着人字拖,在丛林里跋涉数公里,每人背着两部天线。
Just behind were Enoque, Ms. Dutra, Ms. Reneau and a cameraman documenting her journey.
紧随其后的是伊诺克、杜特拉、勒诺和一名记录她这次旅程的摄影师。
The internet was an immediate sensation. “It changed the routine so much that it was detrimental,” Enoque admitted. “In the village, if you don’t hunt, fish and plant, you don’t eat.”
互联网的到来立刻引起了轰动。“这极大地改变了我们的日常生活,以至于产生了有害影响,”伊诺克承认。“在村里,如果你不打猎、不捕鱼、不种菜,就没有饭吃。”
Leaders realized they needed limits. The internet would be switched on for only two hours in the morning, five hours in the evening, and all day Sunday.
部落首领意识到需要限制。他们决定,互联网将只在早上开放两小时,晚上开放五小时,周日全天开放。
辩论
Alfredo Marubo, leader of a Marubo association of villages, has emerged as the tribe’s most vocal critic of the internet. The Marubo pass down their history and culture orally, and he worries that knowledge will be lost. “Everyone is so connected that sometimes they don’t even talk to their own family,” he said.
阿尔弗雷多·马鲁博是一个马鲁博村庄联合会的领导人,他已成为部落中对互联网最直言不讳的批评者。马鲁博人以口头方式传承历史和文化,他担心这些知识会流失。“所有人都泡在网上,有时他们甚至不和自己的家人说话,”他说。
He is most unsettled by the pornography. He said young men were sharing explicit videos in group chats, a stunning development for a culture that frowns on kissing in public.
色情内容最令他不安。他说,年轻人在群聊中分享露骨视频,这对于一个不赞成在公共场合接吻的文化来说是一个惊人的变化。
未来
In April, Ms. Reneau traveled back to the forest. At Enoque’s request, she bought four more antennas. Two were headed to the Korubo, a tribe of less than 150 people that was first contacted in 1996 and still has some members in full isolation.
今年4月,勒诺回到了丛林。在伊诺克的要求下,她又买了四部天线。其中两个被送往科鲁博部落,那是一个人口不到150人的部落,1996年首次与外界接触,至今仍有一些成员完全与世隔绝。
Sitting on a log, eating dried beef and boiled cassava served on the maloca’s dirt floor, Ms. Reneau said she recognized the internet was “a double-edged sword.” So when she posts on Facebook about bringing the Marubo internet, she said, she always stresses that a leader requested it.
勒诺坐在一根原木上,吃着放在马洛卡泥土地面上的干牛肉和煮木薯,她说她意识到互联网是“一把双刃剑”。因此,她说,当她在Facebook上发布给马鲁博带来互联网的消息时,她总是强调,这是应一位当地首领的要求。
“I don’t want people to think I’m bringing this in to force it on them,” she said. She added that she hoped they could “preserve the purity of this incredible culture because once it’s gone, it’s gone.”
“我不想让人们认为我把这些东西带进来是为了强加给他们。”她说。她还说,她希望他们能够“保护这种令人难以置信的文化的纯洁性,因为一旦它消失了,那就是真的消失了”。
Later at that same meal, Enoque’s father, Sebastião, said the tribe’s journey with the internet had been foretold.
饭后,伊诺克的父亲塞巴斯蒂安说,关于部落的互联网之旅,已经有过预言。
Decades ago, the most respected Marubo shaman had visions of a hand-held device that could connect with the entire world. “It would be for the good of the people,” he said. “But in the end, it wouldn’t be.”
几十年前,一位最受尊敬的马鲁博人巫师设想了一种可以连接整个世界的手持设备。“这将造福人民,”他说。“但最终却并非如此。”
Regardless, he added, going back was no longer an option.
无论如何,他补充说,已经没有办法回到过去。
“The leaders have been clear,” he said. “We can’t live without the internet.”
“首领们已经说得很清楚了,”他说。“我们不能没有互联网。”
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