Kulwanotes
Member
- Nov 3, 2021
- 22
- 55
A traditional border between tribes, guarded by a Dani man on a watchtower, from the Baliem Valley of the New Guinea Highlands.
A modern border between nations, guarded by remote-controlled cameras on a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol watchtower, at the border between the United States and Mexico.
Traditional dispute resolution, in a Ugandan village. Disputants who have already known one another personally gather to settle their dispute, in a way that will permit them to resolve their feelings and continue to encounter each other peacefully for the rest of their lives.
Modern dispute resolution, in an American courtroom. A defense attorney (left) and a criminal prosecutor (right) argue a point before a judge (middle). The alleged criminal, the victim, and the victim’s family did not know each other before the alleged crime and will probably never encounter each other again.
Traditional toys: Mozambique boys with toy cars that they have made themselves, thereby learning how axles and other car components are designed. Traditional toys are few, simple, made by the child or its parents, and thus educational.
Modern toys: an American girl surrounded by her dozens of manufactured toys bought in stores, thereby depriving her of the educational value that traditional children gain from designing and making their own toys.
Traditional feasting among Dani people in the Baliem Valley of the New Guinea Highlands. Traditional feasting is very infrequent, the food consumed is not fattening (low-fat sweet potatoes in this case), and the feasters do not become obese or end up with diabetes.
Modern feasting. Americans and members of other affluent modern societies “feast” (i.e., consume in excess of their daily needs) three times every day, eat fattening foods (fried chicken in this case), become obese, and may end up with diabetes.
Traditional warfare: Dani tribesmen fighting with spears in the Baliem Valley of the New Guinea Highlands. The highest one-day death toll in those wars occurred on June 4, 1966, when northern Dani killed face-to-face 125 southern Dani, many of whom the attackers would personally have known (or known of). The death toll constituted 5% of the southerners’ population.
Modern warfare: the Hiroshima atomic bomb cloud of August 6, 1945. The American soldiers who dropped the bomb did not personally know their victims and did not look them in the face as they were killing them. The 100,000 Japanese killed at Hiroshima represent the highest one-day death toll in modern warfare, and constituted 0.1% of Japan’s population at that time. That is, large modern populations are associated with high absolute death tolls in modern warfare, but the methods of traditional warfare can result in much higher proportional death tolls.
Traditional transport of children commonly places the child in immediate physical contact with the care-giver, vertically erect, looking forward, and thus seeing the same field of view as the caregiver. This is a Pume Indian baby from Venezuela being carried by an older sister.
Modern transport of children often removes the child from physical contact with the care-giver, and places the child looking backwards and reclining horizontally rather than vertically erect. This is an American baby being pushed in a baby carriage by its mother
Traditional dangers: a man climbing a tree to harvest açaí berries in Brazil. Falling out of a tree, or being struck by a falling tree, is a major hazard in many traditional societies.
Traditional dangers: a large crocodile that was killed after it had killed people in Indonesia. Wild animals are major hazards in most traditional societies.
Modern dangers: car crashes are a major hazard of modern life.
Traditional trade: a canoe of New Guinea traders, carrying goods to be given to traditional trade partners in return for other goods.
Modern trade: a professional store-keeper, selling manufactured goods to anyone who enters the store, in return for the government’s money.
📸—Penguin Publishers.