Elon Musk's Starlink connects and divides Brazil's Marubo people
As the speeches dragged on, eyes turned to the screens. Teenagers scrolled through Instagram. A man texted his girlfriend. And men crowded around a telephone broadcasting a football match while the group's first female leader spoke.
Just about anywhere, a scene how banal this would be. But this was happening in an isolated indigenous village in one of the most isolated regions on the planet.
The Marubo people have long lived in communal huts scattered across hundreds of kilometers along the river. Ituí River in the heart of 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.
They have preserved this way of life for hundreds of years. years due to isolation – some villages can take a week to reach. But since September, the Marubo have had high-speed Internet access thanks to Elon Musk.
The tribe of 2,000 members is one of hundreds across Brazil who suddenly connect with Starlink. , the satellite Internet service of Space X, Mr. Musk's private space company. Since entering Brazil in 2022, Starlink has swept through the world's largest rainforest, bringing the web to one of the last offline places on Earth.
The New York Times traveled deep into the Amazon to visit Marubo villages and understand what happens when a small, closed civilization suddenly opens up to the world.
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As the speeches dragged on, eyes turned to the screens. Teenagers scrolled through Instagram. A man texted his girlfriend. And men crowded around a telephone broadcasting a football match while the group's first female leader spoke.
Just about anywhere, a scene how banal this would be. But this was happening in an isolated indigenous village in one of the most isolated regions on the planet.
The Marubo people have long lived in communal huts scattered across hundreds of kilometers along the river. Ituí River in the heart of 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.
They have preserved this way of life for hundreds of years. years due to isolation – some villages can take a week to reach. But since September, the Marubo have had high-speed Internet access thanks to Elon Musk.
The tribe of 2,000 members is one of hundreds across Brazil who suddenly connect with Starlink. , the satellite Internet service of Space X, Mr. Musk's private space company. Since entering Brazil in 2022, Starlink has swept through the world's largest rainforest, bringing the web to one of the last offline places on Earth.
The New York Times traveled deep into the Amazon to visit Marubo villages and understand what happens when a small, closed civilization suddenly opens up to the world.
We are having difficulty retrieving the article content.
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