weemba@brahms.BERKELEY.EDU (Matthew P. Wiener) (04/15/86)
I just read in today's paper that the famous Tasaday Stone Age tribe of cave dwellers was a hoax. The article said that Manuel Elizalde, Ferdinand Marcos' assistant for tribal minorities had taught some local tribes people--24 to be exact--to live extra primitively for National Geographic and others. Under Marcos' rule, armed guards kept strangers away. With the fall of Marcos, the guards were left unpaid, so they quit. Oswald Iten, a reporter for the Neue Zuercher Zeitung, visited Mindanao and discovered the true situation. A National Geo- graphic Society spokesman said the society was "concerned and looking into the matter." ucbvax!brahms!weemba Matthew P Wiener/UCB Math Dept/Berkeley CA 94720