26.
The Civilized Savage
And The Uncivilized Civilization
Wisdom From The Primitive People
In December 2004, a disastrous tidal wave struck several countries in Indian ocean. Thousands died and many thousands went missing in the massive tidal wave, called Tsunami. But the indigenous people on the Andaman and Nicobar islands are thought to have escaped the calamity, thanks to traditional warning systems that interpret bird and marine animal behaviour.
According to the director of the Anthropological Survey of India, V. R. Rao, no casualties were reported among five tribes - the Jarwas, Onges, Shompens, Sentenelese and Great Andamanese. He believes this is because the tribal people fled for safety at the first indications such as changes in bird calls that something was wrong.
According to a related BBC Online news story, wildlife officials in Sri Lanka reported that despite the large loss of human life, there were no reported animal deaths. It is thought that animals moved to safer ground having sensed vibrations or changes in air pressure in advance of the waves’ arrival. In contrast to all this, modern civilized man suffered most in the hands of furious waves. So in a survival test, we are scoring rather low.
According to the director of the Anthropological Survey of India, V. R. Rao, no casualties were reported among five tribes - the Jarwas, Onges, Shompens, Sentenelese and Great Andamanese. He believes this is because the tribal people fled for safety at the first indications such as changes in bird calls that something was wrong.
According to a related BBC Online news story, wildlife officials in Sri Lanka reported that despite the large loss of human life, there were no reported animal deaths. It is thought that animals moved to safer ground having sensed vibrations or changes in air pressure in advance of the waves’ arrival. In contrast to all this, modern civilized man suffered most in the hands of furious waves. So in a survival test, we are scoring rather low.
Another Island Survives The Tsunami
It is another remarkable story of how an entire population survives the 2004 tsunami.
Simeulue Island lies off the western coast of Sumatra in Indonesia. It is considered a backward place compared to the surrounding islands.
Most of the the people of Simeulue Island, just 40 miles from the epicenter of the earthquake, survived the 2004 tsunami.
Banda Aceh, the nearest city on another island lost over 100,000 people but most people on this island survived. These people have been taught a simple lesson by their grandmothers, “If an earthquake comes, we must always go and look at the beach. If we see a low tide, we must run for the hills.”
In 2004, the locals new a “smong” was coming. On Simeulue island in the Defayan language the word for tsunami is smong. And when they felt the earthquake and saw the low tide, they ran. And their lives were saved. Most of the 83,000 people survived.
Even the buffalos knew something was wrong when the earthquake happened. They too ran for the hills.
Human tradition, coming down since time immemorial, has a lot to offer us and has answers to many a predicaments we face today.
Primitive races have avoided certain life problems and their life wisdom can be of great help to us.
As we study the primitives we find that they had an entirely different conception of the nature and origin of the controlling forces which have molded individuals and races.
After one has lived among the primitive racial stocks in different parts of the world and studied them in their isolation, few impressions can be more vivid than that of the absence of prisons and asylums. Few, if any, of the problems which confront modern civilization are more serious and disturbing than the progressive
increase in the percentage of individuals with unsocial traits and irresponsible behaviour.
Simeulue Island lies off the western coast of Sumatra in Indonesia. It is considered a backward place compared to the surrounding islands.
Most of the the people of Simeulue Island, just 40 miles from the epicenter of the earthquake, survived the 2004 tsunami.
Banda Aceh, the nearest city on another island lost over 100,000 people but most people on this island survived. These people have been taught a simple lesson by their grandmothers, “If an earthquake comes, we must always go and look at the beach. If we see a low tide, we must run for the hills.”
In 2004, the locals new a “smong” was coming. On Simeulue island in the Defayan language the word for tsunami is smong. And when they felt the earthquake and saw the low tide, they ran. And their lives were saved. Most of the 83,000 people survived.
Even the buffalos knew something was wrong when the earthquake happened. They too ran for the hills.
Human tradition, coming down since time immemorial, has a lot to offer us and has answers to many a predicaments we face today.
Primitive races have avoided certain life problems and their life wisdom can be of great help to us.
As we study the primitives we find that they had an entirely different conception of the nature and origin of the controlling forces which have molded individuals and races.
After one has lived among the primitive racial stocks in different parts of the world and studied them in their isolation, few impressions can be more vivid than that of the absence of prisons and asylums. Few, if any, of the problems which confront modern civilization are more serious and disturbing than the progressive
increase in the percentage of individuals with unsocial traits and irresponsible behaviour.
Criminal tendencies in isolated primitives are so slight that no prisons are required. There were hundreds of isolated tribes in different parts of the world and for the thousands of their inhabitants, there was no necessity of prisons. In Uganda, the Ruanda tribes estimated to number two and a half millions, had no prisons.
Much ancient wisdom, however, has been rejected and lost because of prejudice against the wisdom of so-called savages.
Nature must be obeyed, it is not an option. Apparently many primitive races have understood her language better than has our modern civilization.
While many of the primitive races have continued to thrive on the same soil through thousands of years, our modern human stock has declined rapidly within a few decades, as we saw in preceding chapters.
No era in the long journey of mankind reveals such a terrible degeneration of health as this brief modern period records. The alternative seems to be a complete readjustment in accordance with the controlling forces of nature.
Much ancient wisdom, however, has been rejected and lost because of prejudice against the wisdom of so-called savages.
Nature must be obeyed, it is not an option. Apparently many primitive races have understood her language better than has our modern civilization.
While many of the primitive races have continued to thrive on the same soil through thousands of years, our modern human stock has declined rapidly within a few decades, as we saw in preceding chapters.
No era in the long journey of mankind reveals such a terrible degeneration of health as this brief modern period records. The alternative seems to be a complete readjustment in accordance with the controlling forces of nature.
The members of the various primitive races that I have studied, are rapidly declining in health and numbers at their point of contact with our modern civilization. Since they have so much accumulated wisdom that is passing with them, it has seemed important that the elements in the modern contacts that are so destructive to them should be discovered and removed.
A critical examination of these groups revealed a high immunity to many of our serious affections so long as they were sufficiently isolated from our modern civilization and living in accordance with the nutritional programs which were directed by the accumulated wisdom of the group.
In every instance where individuals of the same racial stocks who had lost this isolation and who had adopted the foods and food habits of our modern civilization were examined, there was an early loss of the high immunity characteristics of the isolated group. These studies have included a chemical analysis of foods of the isolated groups and also of the displacing foods of our modern civilization.
~Dr. Weston A. Price
Modern science boasts the discovery of vitamin C. Thousands of white mariners died from scurvy due to lack of vitamin C. For centuries, its scourge continued.
But the native Indians in remote parts of Canada always knew how to avoid scurvy and many other dreaded diseases. When the British soldiers were dying in large numbers, the Indians taught them to use a tea made from the steeped tips of the spruce shoots. Over the centuries, not a single case of scurvy was ever detected in these natives.
Dr. Weston A. Price records his experience in the following words:
“As I have sojourned among members of primitive racial stocks in several parts of the world, I have been deeply impressed with their fine personalities, and strong characters. I have never felt the slightest fear in being among them; I have never found that my trust in them was misplaced. As soon as they had learned that I was visiting them in their interest, their kindness and devotion was very remarkable. Fundamentally they are spiritual and have a devout reverence for an all-powerful, all-pervading power which not only protects and provides for them, but accepts them as a part of that great encompassing soul if they obey Nature’s laws.”
Ernest Thompson Seton has beautifully expressed the spirit of the Red Indians in the opening paragraph of his book ‘The Gospel of the Red Man’:
The culture and civilization of the White man are essentially material; his measure of success is, “How much property have I acquired for myself?” The culture of the Red man is fundamentally spiritual; his measure of success is, “How much service have I rendered to my people?”
The civilization of the White man is a failure; it is visibly crumbling around us. It has failed at every crucial test. No one who measures things by results can question this fundamental statement.
The faith of the primitive in the all-pervading power of which he is a part includes a belief in immortality. He lives in communion with the great unseen Spirit, of which he is a part, always in humility and reverence.
But the native Indians in remote parts of Canada always knew how to avoid scurvy and many other dreaded diseases. When the British soldiers were dying in large numbers, the Indians taught them to use a tea made from the steeped tips of the spruce shoots. Over the centuries, not a single case of scurvy was ever detected in these natives.
Dr. Weston A. Price records his experience in the following words:
“As I have sojourned among members of primitive racial stocks in several parts of the world, I have been deeply impressed with their fine personalities, and strong characters. I have never felt the slightest fear in being among them; I have never found that my trust in them was misplaced. As soon as they had learned that I was visiting them in their interest, their kindness and devotion was very remarkable. Fundamentally they are spiritual and have a devout reverence for an all-powerful, all-pervading power which not only protects and provides for them, but accepts them as a part of that great encompassing soul if they obey Nature’s laws.”
Ernest Thompson Seton has beautifully expressed the spirit of the Red Indians in the opening paragraph of his book ‘The Gospel of the Red Man’:
The culture and civilization of the White man are essentially material; his measure of success is, “How much property have I acquired for myself?” The culture of the Red man is fundamentally spiritual; his measure of success is, “How much service have I rendered to my people?”
The civilization of the White man is a failure; it is visibly crumbling around us. It has failed at every crucial test. No one who measures things by results can question this fundamental statement.
The faith of the primitive in the all-pervading power of which he is a part includes a belief in immortality. He lives in communion with the great unseen Spirit, of which he is a part, always in humility and reverence.