Wild thing

DEEP in the Amazonian rainforest, a man is being whipped, having stinging sap dripped into his eyes and his system purged with frog poison.

This may sound like an extreme version of a bushtucker trial in I'm A Celebrity... Get My Out Of Here!, but followers of intrepid traveller Bruce Parry might just guess that he's undergoing a ritual - a strengthening process before he can go hunting - in the new series of Tribe.

The adventurer begins the first of six visits to the remotest tribes on Earth with the Matis people, whose first contact with Westerners was as recent as the 1970s. The first "outside" sound they heard was a radio, which sounded just like a monkey's call.

Contact has given them things they didn't have before - like football - but the Matis still live in the traditional way, hunting wild pigs called peccary and stalking monkeys for food with huge blowpipes.

Toughening up Parry for hunting leads to one of those scenes that followers of Tribe love, one in which he's subjected to a painful ritual that's both tough to endure and to watch. This one is no exception, and made worse as the frog poison purging makes him ill.

He recovers sufficiently to take part in the Matis's first-ever disco as another Western way is introduced into traditional life. The six tribes he meets and stays with in this third series all have knowledge of the outside world.

He insists many of the tribal people have seen it, tried it and think the Western world is not as great as it's cracked up to be. "I travelled with the Nenets in Siberia, living in their 'chums' (tents) and herding reindeer," he says.

"Every other day we had to take down the chum, pack up everything, catch the reindeer and harness them - all of which would take around four hours. Then we'd travel and spend four hours unpacking on the other end. It was exhausting, just a complete chore from my perspective, and often the temperature was minus 40 degrees C.

"They don't have to live this way. Some of the Nenet have houses with gas cookers and TVs, and they hate it. They'd rather live on the tundra with their reindeer because the freedom it gives them is worth it."

He talks to a student from the Matis tribe who studies in town, then returns to live in a hut in the village where the community gathers together in a long house and undergoes those rituals to make them better hunters. The student despises the violence of the so-called civilised town where taking cocaine and other drugs is rife.

Parry believes that the tribes he's visited should be allowed to find their own way in the world at their own pace. When he arrives, the Matis are suspicious because they've been filmed before by crews who wanted them to discard their clothes to make them look more tribal.

"Obviously, there are some people who think the changes that are going on are wrong," he says. "When the Matis were first contacted, only about 30 years ago, many of them were wiped out by Western diseases they hadn't been exposed to before. Being contacted hasn't made them happier, but they can never go back, they have bitten the apple.

"To me, it's wrong to deny people like the Akie (of Tanzania) a mill to grind corn just because we want there to be hunter-gatherers still left in the world. That's nothing more than patronising."

For the Anuta people, who live way out in the Pacific Ocean, sharing - or aropa as they call it - has always been a way of life. They even want to share Parry when he comes visiting. "They wanted me to stay with a different family every night, all 24 of them, so they could all have a piece of me. They just wanted to share me around, which is lovely," he recalls.

But the notion of sharing is beginning to change. It's one of the themes emerging from this latest series of tribal stays as he explores how some of the remotest tribes are finding their place in a rapidly changing world.

"The Anutans are an extremely self-sufficient, very gentle people. But if someone's crops fail, instead of just sharing what they have in the traditional manner, one or two of their neighbours are starting to say they will sell them some food. It's not quite at that stage yet, the chief has stopped it, but this notion of trade is creeping in."

Parry's only ever been interested in accepting the tribes for what they are, he doesn't want to change them. He's not interested in the processes of how they hunt or fish. The biggest thing for him is their society, and reflecting that on his society. "I'm always changing because being with all these different people means I'm always learning something new about life," he explains.

In the past, that's included running over the backs of bulls, learning to stick fight and how to hunt a crocodile. There have been piercings and scratchings and something, I seem to remember, involving his manhood that makes me wince every time I think about.

His challenges this time include mastering the four-metre long blowpipe and facing his demons as he has to put his hand into a bees' nest to collect honey.

A more emotional challenge is trying to contain himself as the Anutans sob and wail at his parting. Being so isolated and with no way of contacting the outside world means it's unlikely they'll be in contact with their visitor again. The thought makes for an emotional farewell.

He also finds out what might happen when he's gone for good, when he dies. The community astrologer of the Layap people in the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan reckons his best chance is reincarnation as a monkey.

There's a catch - that'll only happen if he manages to make 10,000 yak butter candles to atone for his sins so far.

Tribe returns to BBC2 on August 21