The Nomadic Alternative – Page 156

by the cultural diffusionists, suggests that the hunters are stagnant relics of Mesolithic or Palaeolithic man, who, for reasons of geographical obscurity, managed to avoid contact with agriculture. But this is surely a half-truth.

We are forced to conclude that the hunters do not need advances in culture. They would certainly have been better off without them. But how can we account both for their carefree insouciance and the universality of their beliefs and habits? To my mind the only explanation will assume that the hunters have the spare time and the inclination to listen more carefully to our programme of innate [illegible] instructions than we do. this programe transmits virtually identical information to hunters scattered from Alaska and Tierra del Fuego to the Congo or Kalahari, it must be sending the same set of instructions out to every civilized man, though his receiving equipment is sadly in need of retuning. And if one believes that, the whole rearing edifice of civilization, far from having any human relevance, is a compensation for lost freedom - a ziggurat of deprivation substitutes without point, purpose or direction except to greater misery. The demolition work has hardly begun.

V

Travel well, travel light. The hunter's disregard for possessions is no spiritual asceticism. He is an arch-materialist. But his materialism differs from ours in that he knows his needs and we do not. Unencumbered freedom of movement is the principle around which his life revolves. This in itself dictates his policy of "freedom from the mania of owning things". In a world without tiresome vehicles that need servicing or pack animals that need feeding, a man must rely on his own two legs and nothing more. Thus the value of a material object increases with its portability. A wandering man owns what he can carry and cannot own anything else. An insulting nickname of the Andaman Islanders is Renya Cope, which means "Much Baggage" -

whanatu man tacharuat
[marginalia in cursive handwriting]