Ingenuity.

There is an often held belief that indigenous people, especially those who have traditionally lived off the land are simple. My background is in Anthropology and this is a concept that I have come across many times. It is know as the myth of the noble savage. I don't particularly care for the term but that is what I know it as. It is the idea that traditional values were noble, simple. That the people who lived in this way would be natural stewards of the land and environment. I think the reason that this is such a popular concept is that it is a lovely ideal to hold up and in someways aspire to. Yet it is an idea that has very little basis in truth. Indigenous peoples were/are certainly less destructive to the environment than modern society, and at first glance, they seem to live very simple lives off the land.

However the lives of indigenous people is anything but simple. It is in fact, every bit as complex and sophisticated as the modern life we lead. I was reminded of this today by an elderly lady that came across our path as we sat and contemplated the first half of the ride that has just taken place. Just past where we were sitting, she bent over and began cutting something off of a tree that was growing near the path. I went over to see what she was collecting and found that she was cutting the tree open and removing some of the wood. The part that she was taking wood looked as if it was part of a different plant that was a parasite of the main tree. She handed us a piece of the wood, making the hand to mouth motion. The taste was almost exactly that of cinnamon toast crunch minus some of the sweetness.

Returning to the point, we tend to think that our modern lives are more complex and sophisticated than those of people who live off the land. For example, I know how to use a computer while this elderly lady who clearly lives part of her life off what she can find in the forest or can grow herself likely does not. Yet sitting there, watching her harvest the wood from this tree brought me to thinking that while I have one highly specialized skill set, she has another that I lack. She was not just wondering the forest, looking for something that might suit her needs, she had a very specific idea where to find it, how long it had been since it had been harvested last, the use of the plant that she was harvesting and likely a word to describe exactly what it is. I on the other hand have none of this knowledge. Is there a value judgment to be made here? I am I a better person because I can operate a computer? Her because of her knowledge of plants and animals that are useful? Is it truly a case of the noble savage, pitted against the modern world that seeks to harness the earth to our own means while in the meantime destroying that what supports us? Or are we all the same, with a very specific set of skills, handed to us by the culture we have been raised in?