It's NOT a Small World After All

This evening, I refrained from watching the Emmy Awards because, let's be honest, it's a joke. Anyway, instead, I watched two episodes of the show "Tribal Odyssey" on the Travel Channel. I highly recommend it, but only if you are mature enough not to giggle at some mild tribal nudity. Anyway, it gives an attentive watcher an interesting perspective. Take for instance the Wasoni tribe in Papua New Guinea (Large country southeast of Indonesia and north of Australia, for those who don't know, or don't care). Two clans went to the brink of war: The Chief of Clan A was killed by his teenage bride from Clan B. As retribution for the murder, Clan A demanded a number of Cowrie shells, which are highly prized for their beauty, which makes them equivalent to currency. However, Clan B's representative in talks as been told by the government not to use cowrie shells as payment. But, money is not useful for the Wasoni. Eventually, the two tribes agree to a half-shells, half-money agreement. But just ponder the fact that there are still tribes which cannot "take the money and run."

Boys of the Himba Tribe of the dry areas of Africa (I did not catch the country in which they reside) are circumsized at the age of eight, to symbolize their passage into manhood. At eight years old, they begin to be given tasks performed by adults. Ponder that a moment. At this time, the clan slaughters a cow, and in addition to cooking it up for their feast, the head of the clan must read the entrails of the cow in an attempt to foretell future events. If you think that this is nonsense, consider that this time, the reader saw that the appearance of a particular vein symboized death, but more specifically, someone's knees getting broken or badly injured in the near future. Pretty intricate, no?

I watched only the very beginning of another episode, this time about the Zo'e tribe, who live deep in the Amazon. Heck, their presence was only detected in the last few years. They live in a part of Brazil which the Brazilian government has forbidden the public from entering, because it is virtually unexplored and unknown. These people are as close as we can come to time-travel. They live as humans lived 30,000 years ago in principle. They have no TV, no cell phones, no People Magazine.

Watch "Tribal Odyssey" once in a while. It gives one a bit of a different perspective.