Today is STILL Saturday, July 10th, 2010 and it is NOW 951PM and I am STILL in Sagada, Luzon, Philippines.
Recap: I was blathering on about the tribes in Sagada and modern versus primitive in terms of collisions between cultures (such a lofty synopsis).
The entry: I hate to see my name with 4 or 5 entries all in a neat row. Verbosity is alright if one couches it with worthwhile thoughts. Myself though? It is that Tristram Shandy thing over and over and...fucking over.
I don't even like to post once a day but then it ends up sliding to the opposite extreme. With my BL Journal I had to actually write notes to myself to manage posting once a month, and this at a time when I had absolutely nothing to do in my offline life (having just retired and moved to the jungle). It is interesting, these small neuroses we gather about us as we move through life but there it is, another Rachamim "moment," enjoy.
As I had been saying in my last entry...The juxtapositioning of modern and primitive has always been an interesting consideration for me. One example I find quite interesting is the "expeditions" outfitted by this American bloke named Kelly something or other, over on Bali.
Bali, sadly, has become one of the most touristy places in the Pacific Rim. As is always the case, expat hucksters are drawn to the place and the most troubling of things tend to develop (I have to note that I have a bit of a bias against Bali because my comptitors in the wholesale Kratom business operate on that island). This Kelly fellow is one such expat.
American, Midwestern by accent, ponytailed and seemingly laid back, our American abroad charges (last time I heard) 10,000 US for a 10 day trip to Irin Jaya (New Guinea) for a "1st Contact Expedition."
He is selling a trip deep into the bush where he says you will have the greatest of chances to run across tribesmen who have never seen a modern human, and certainly have never seen a non-Melanesian, etc.
A while back that wonderful invention, "Youtube," had a several part series of a documentary taken on 1 such "expedition." The producers were on a trip that I believe was being sponsored by "Outdoor Magazine," an American publication. I had been hearing about Kelly for about 3 years, during seasonal trips to the region and his cache had been exponentially building. Indeed, I would not at all be phased if he was still running about and charging 25,000 US or more.
On the trip in question they arrive in-country and meet Kelly's local contacts, "civilised" tribesmen who have "heard" about an uncontacted tribe about a day up river and a day treking inland. Off they go.
Then, setting up camp deep in the jungle they supposedly run across an "elder" (younger than me because in truth, primitive man rarely lives past 40) and a 3 acolytes going through a puberty ceremony.
Night falls and the documentarian is in his tent when the 4 "uncontacted" tribesmen literally run through the camp shrieking at the top of their lungs.
Needless to say the narrator feels it is a hoax but cannot be certain. Indeed he asks whether Kelly himself is being played by his "contacts" who obviously depend on being well paid for these trips.
The point, basically, is that in today's world it is highly improbable that there is a tribe in existence that isn't fairly aware of the modern world. There are indeed tribes choosing to live their traditional ways of life, with a minimum of modern disruption and influence, but they CHOOSE to be "Uncontacted."
One very, very interesting tribe within this dynamic is the "Tasaday," of Mindanao. In 1971 President (Dictator) Marcos declared Martial Law.The world was closely watching, and criticising what took place in this country, especially on Mindanao where the Islamic insurgency had become a cause celebre among Muslims the world over, and there are a whole lot of Muslims.
Magicians are adept at sleight of hand, and even more so at "directed inattention." Get the audience to look at 1 thing while you do another, more important thing. Enter stage left a very intelligent Marcos crony who hatched a marvelous scheme, or so they say...
In 1971 a local hunter from S.Cotabato Province told the local world that he had "found" a stone age tribe living deep in the bush of Mindanao. The small band, living in a cave, had no words for to signify possesion, jealousy, strife, or personal violence. They lived in harmony with their environment, which in this case meant eating tadpoles and crickets and had only limited interaction with a similar band they said they hadn't seen for "many seasons," despite noone in Mindanao ever hearing of another similar group.
Marcos sent his crony, in a copter, to visit with the tribe, after which he literally fenced them in on a sort of human game reserve, and strictly controlled their interaction with the outside world.
To speed up the story a bit, this tribe, the Tasaday, were visited years later and found to be living modern lives, with all its modern putfalls and none had succumbed to diseases that should have killed them. They had "inter married" with a much more modern Hilltribe and so the accepted narrative was that the whole thing had been a Marcos hoax, to deflect criticism for atrocities committed against local Muslims.
The interesting thing I think, is that still later, scientists supposedly concluded that the tribe actually did exist, did adapt successfully, and hadn't been part of any hoax at any time.
So what about the tribes here in Northern Luzon? Very interesting groups, certainly, and perhaps best known to foreigners for the work having been done with them by American anthropologist William H.Scott, a man I believe I would have despised had I ever met him. I would love to bore you with THAT bit of "Rachamim" mystique but alas, it is time for a bit of chocolate hashish and a talk with the attractive Swiss woman also staying at this pension (shhhhh, don't tell Jackie!).
Recap: I was blathering on about the tribes in Sagada and modern versus primitive in terms of collisions between cultures (such a lofty synopsis).
The entry: I hate to see my name with 4 or 5 entries all in a neat row. Verbosity is alright if one couches it with worthwhile thoughts. Myself though? It is that Tristram Shandy thing over and over and...fucking over.
I don't even like to post once a day but then it ends up sliding to the opposite extreme. With my BL Journal I had to actually write notes to myself to manage posting once a month, and this at a time when I had absolutely nothing to do in my offline life (having just retired and moved to the jungle). It is interesting, these small neuroses we gather about us as we move through life but there it is, another Rachamim "moment," enjoy.
As I had been saying in my last entry...The juxtapositioning of modern and primitive has always been an interesting consideration for me. One example I find quite interesting is the "expeditions" outfitted by this American bloke named Kelly something or other, over on Bali.
Bali, sadly, has become one of the most touristy places in the Pacific Rim. As is always the case, expat hucksters are drawn to the place and the most troubling of things tend to develop (I have to note that I have a bit of a bias against Bali because my comptitors in the wholesale Kratom business operate on that island). This Kelly fellow is one such expat.
American, Midwestern by accent, ponytailed and seemingly laid back, our American abroad charges (last time I heard) 10,000 US for a 10 day trip to Irin Jaya (New Guinea) for a "1st Contact Expedition."
He is selling a trip deep into the bush where he says you will have the greatest of chances to run across tribesmen who have never seen a modern human, and certainly have never seen a non-Melanesian, etc.
A while back that wonderful invention, "Youtube," had a several part series of a documentary taken on 1 such "expedition." The producers were on a trip that I believe was being sponsored by "Outdoor Magazine," an American publication. I had been hearing about Kelly for about 3 years, during seasonal trips to the region and his cache had been exponentially building. Indeed, I would not at all be phased if he was still running about and charging 25,000 US or more.
On the trip in question they arrive in-country and meet Kelly's local contacts, "civilised" tribesmen who have "heard" about an uncontacted tribe about a day up river and a day treking inland. Off they go.
Then, setting up camp deep in the jungle they supposedly run across an "elder" (younger than me because in truth, primitive man rarely lives past 40) and a 3 acolytes going through a puberty ceremony.
Night falls and the documentarian is in his tent when the 4 "uncontacted" tribesmen literally run through the camp shrieking at the top of their lungs.
Needless to say the narrator feels it is a hoax but cannot be certain. Indeed he asks whether Kelly himself is being played by his "contacts" who obviously depend on being well paid for these trips.
The point, basically, is that in today's world it is highly improbable that there is a tribe in existence that isn't fairly aware of the modern world. There are indeed tribes choosing to live their traditional ways of life, with a minimum of modern disruption and influence, but they CHOOSE to be "Uncontacted."
One very, very interesting tribe within this dynamic is the "Tasaday," of Mindanao. In 1971 President (Dictator) Marcos declared Martial Law.The world was closely watching, and criticising what took place in this country, especially on Mindanao where the Islamic insurgency had become a cause celebre among Muslims the world over, and there are a whole lot of Muslims.
Magicians are adept at sleight of hand, and even more so at "directed inattention." Get the audience to look at 1 thing while you do another, more important thing. Enter stage left a very intelligent Marcos crony who hatched a marvelous scheme, or so they say...
In 1971 a local hunter from S.Cotabato Province told the local world that he had "found" a stone age tribe living deep in the bush of Mindanao. The small band, living in a cave, had no words for to signify possesion, jealousy, strife, or personal violence. They lived in harmony with their environment, which in this case meant eating tadpoles and crickets and had only limited interaction with a similar band they said they hadn't seen for "many seasons," despite noone in Mindanao ever hearing of another similar group.
Marcos sent his crony, in a copter, to visit with the tribe, after which he literally fenced them in on a sort of human game reserve, and strictly controlled their interaction with the outside world.
To speed up the story a bit, this tribe, the Tasaday, were visited years later and found to be living modern lives, with all its modern putfalls and none had succumbed to diseases that should have killed them. They had "inter married" with a much more modern Hilltribe and so the accepted narrative was that the whole thing had been a Marcos hoax, to deflect criticism for atrocities committed against local Muslims.
The interesting thing I think, is that still later, scientists supposedly concluded that the tribe actually did exist, did adapt successfully, and hadn't been part of any hoax at any time.
So what about the tribes here in Northern Luzon? Very interesting groups, certainly, and perhaps best known to foreigners for the work having been done with them by American anthropologist William H.Scott, a man I believe I would have despised had I ever met him. I would love to bore you with THAT bit of "Rachamim" mystique but alas, it is time for a bit of chocolate hashish and a talk with the attractive Swiss woman also staying at this pension (shhhhh, don't tell Jackie!).
