Stone Age Tribe Walks Out Of Jungle To Civilization

A Nukak man hunting for monkeys outside San José, using a blowgun and darts tipped with curare. Luca Zanetti for The New York Times.

A fascinating report from the New York Times: A stone age tribe (actually, a band) walks out of the Amazon jungle to civilization. These people subsisted on monkeys (hunted with blow guns), nuts and seeds. Every day was another desperate hunt for food. This was what life was like for most humans until approximately 7500 years ago.

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Comments

[Marc Gottlieb]

So much for pre-societal Emersonian existence. Then again, they were displaced by Marxist guerrillas, a sure sign of the encroachment of civilization. Thoughts?

[Marc Gottlieb]

So much for pre-societal Emersonian existence. Then again, they were displaced by Marxist guerrillas, a sure sign of the encroachment of civilization.

I hear a lot of talk about the superiority of nomadic existence, and the unsustainable nature of civilization. Thoughts?

[Marc Gottlieb]

whoops. My edits revealed. Feel free to delete that first one.

[Yochanan Lavie]

The noble savage has been deconstructed as a Romantic myth of the west. "Spengler," a columnist in the Asia Times, states that it is condescending to imprison people in traditional cultures that limit their freedom. See:

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/HD25Ad01.html

That being said, I can't help but root for traditional cultures. Our world has become too homogenized. I have very mixed feelings.