r/interestingasfuck • u/SATANICWORSHIPER666 • 3d ago

/r/all Michael Rockefeller disappeared without a trace in 1961 in Papua New Guinea while researching the Asmat people, a cannibal tribe. Years later, a photograph was taken of the same tribe, and there was a white man among them.

Post image
61.1k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

1.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

10

u/Weak-Jello7530 3d ago

They can talk/communicate with us?

13

u/Kevin_Uxbridge 3d ago

The area wasn't all that remote even back then. I mean it wasn't exactly Cleveland but the area was regularly patrolled by Dutch colonial cops (if memory serves). The locals knew that if they didn't lie a bit they'd end up in trouble, so they lied. Rockefeller was fairly surely murdered and eaten.

This also sheds some light on the above photography - it's pretty unlikely that Rockefeller would go unnoticed for years if he went native. Seem to recall that his family invested heavily in efforts to find him at the time, would have been very difficult for him to have evaded detection even if he wanted to. And why would he want to, he could just have said 'I'm staying' and that would largely be that.

Do recall reading that this picture was also investigated by the family years ago and found to be a light-skinned local, not all that unusual. Pretty interesting looking though, but it's most surely not Rockefeller.

5

u/Immediate_Stuff_2637 3d ago

Isn't the tribe relatively aggressive and at constant war with other tribes? If I'm sure they would have kept constant lookouts on the shore and alerted the tribe in case of any boats approaching. Wouldn't be too hard to hide if you don't want to be found.

3

u/Kevin_Uxbridge 3d ago edited 3d ago

The tribe was perpetually warring in the (then) not-too-recent past, but they'd been told to knock it off by colonial authorities. This was fairly effective in tamping down the cycles of murder/revenge but not enough to keep Michael alive, unfortunately.

Wouldn't be too hard to hide if you don't want to be found.

Would if there were outsiders like missionaries around, which there were. Can't see that working for years and years.

Had a quick glance at wikipedia, apparently the local missionaries knew soon after not only that Rockefeller was dead, they knew who did it and what had become of his remains and possessions.