The Nomadic Alternative – Page 158

Is the man who first spots a stranded whale. The owner then acts as master of ceremonies, who supervises the division of the meat. An Aboriginal hunter methodically dismembers a kangaroo and has the right to keep the tail for himself. Nobody can refuse what is offered to him. A stranger from outside has a moral obligation to accept and eat his share, and his refusal is a declaration of unfriend-liness.

Hoarding and storage not only militate against mobility. They are a sin. They cause social disruption and resentments. The very idea of hoarding meat to eat it alone horrifies the :Kung. "Lions could do that. Not men", they say. In these six words I think the Bushman cuts through a turmoil of futile speculation on the nature of man, and draws a clear categorical line between him and the brute.

The 'best' and strongest animal snatches the best food. It is the mark of our humanity that we can at least decide whether to grab like an animal or share like a man.

If all food is shared, portable possessions are private property. They belong to the individual and no one else (Theft is an outrageous reversion to animality.). However the point of owning a thing is not to treasure and gloat over it, but to use it, then pass it on to a friend or relative, even to an enemy. Jan Yoors writes of an old gipsy called "The Millionaire", who had nothing. His millions were calculated by what he had given away, not by what he had saved.

The passing of a gift established a bond between the giver and receiver, and the latter is bound to return a gift of equivalent value at some unspecified time in the future. In an ideal world the movement of things should resemble the game of "Hot Potato", the receivers divesting themselves of all their possessions as fast as they can.

White settlers in Australia issued trousers to their Blackfellow sheephands and were startled to learn that a pair would circulate all a man's relations and end up as a cult object in a tree. Albeit in a half hearted way the Western World continues this 'primitive' exchange system at Christmas - our feast which replaces the Saturnalia