Anthropology corner: the endangered, tree hugging primitive.

While I was writing the previous article on Agta fashion, trying to say something witty about the archetypal tribal man or women in modern-day conception, I realised that stereotypes are an interesting and reflective topic itself.

What is the image of a hunter-gatherer for most people? I think in part it is based on the native American's we learn about in school and watch in the movies. This is the reason for the 'tree-hugging' title; the message often is that foraging people are at one with nature, in-tune with their environment, friendly with all living creatures because this is what they rely on as their daily bread.   I don't know about all the different groups in the world (and it really is important not to make assumptions) but certainly, the Agta do not conform to this image. They may rely on the surrounding environment for fish, birds, pigs, rice, fruits, and yams etc. but this doesn't mean they won't extract these items with force.  

For instance, birds are kept alive for a long time once they are caught, handed around as playthings for all the children to interact with. This is actually very hard to watch...and you find yourself wondering why are they not more sentimental to the creatures they rely on. My best explanation is that they can't afford to be; food is constrained, meat is limited and takes a great time and energy to procure. Imagine walking for 3 hours to Tesco's only to come back with enough for one day so you will have to hear right back tomorrow. I guess then no part of the animal can be wasted, you can't see the bird as a friend, or be a fussy eater cause it looks too much like the thing it is (most westerners, including me I think suffer from this problem - mash it, process it so we can disassociate from it).  So maybe, this heavy handling of animals is wrapped up in the idea that animals are food, to be dominated by humans.

Collection of hunted wild pig jaws

Of course, this doesn't mean that the Agta don't want to protect their food sources. They dislike non-Agta overexploitation of the environment (which is often illegal in the national park, such as electric or poison fishing) as it heavily reduces their yields. But the Agta are also sometimes living on the knife-edge with no food stored facing unpredictable conditions. Therefore, their first concern is survival and increasing their food intake however they can. 



So, why endangered? Recently there was a photography booķ called "Before They Pass Away" which featured different hunter-gatherer populations from all around the world. The premise is here that it is important to visually document these cultures before they are lost forever in the mists of globalisation and acculturation.   The tagline itself states "Jimmy Nelson forces us to see, to understand and to remember before they pass away" referring to these peoples as "the last resorts of natural authenticity".  

It's true that the world is smaller, increasing levels of education and globalisation mean you can find coke everywhere and the similarity between peoples is increasing. However, the concept that it is only the extremely exotic which is authentic, seems to me problematic. It is a form of Orientalism, or the creation of the strange 'other', which removes the actual people from view.  

Bonding over football

The Agta, like parents worldwide, want their children to have better chances and lives than their own. For them, this means education and integration with the rest of Philippine society.  These two things drastically increase key development measures such as life expectancy and health and wellbeing, so not such a bad choice right.  So in part, the people beneath these endangered exotic layers are actively seeking to become more like their farming neighbors because simply put, their life chances are better.  However, this doesn't mean the Agta will be lost forever except for an appearance in a few bits of obscure anthropological texts.  Our project is titled 'resilience' for just this reason; populations are dynamic and change is continuous but change doesn't mean extinction.  The conversation about endangered peoples often lacks this perceptive, the idea that people actively are able to integrate into society, change with the times but continue to differentiate themselves, and take pride in their own history and diversity.   Just because they don't continue to plaster themselves with paint or mount war raids on neighboring groups doesn't mean the peoples will be lost forever.  The work of a fellow anthropologist, Tessa Minter, with the Agta argues this point extremely well and demonstrates the importance of removal of such stereotypes as they have real impact on future development, health, and land right policies in the real world. 

Homework

So to the last stereotype - the primitive. Western culture has been built upon ideals of natural, innate progression. We started as stupid cavemen, made some fire and some wheels, then some tools and a few more things now deep underground, til one day we got intelligent enough to realize that the best way to live is within societies so we created modern day civilization, in the form of nation states and so forth. The implication of all this is the concept of the primitive, individuals who simply aren't advanced or intelligent enough to create a 'higher culture', thus are separated from the rest of humanity.  

Such perspectives are horrible and lead to foraging people's like the Agta to be referred to as 'not people' but more animal.   My field of study specifically examines how people adapt in and function in different environments. The one essential point here is that there is no natural progression - evolution doesn't necessarily make things more complex or civilized. Rather evolution simply optimizes the best solution which is wholly dependent on the environmental context.   

Family from Canaipan

So it is never appropriate to refer to groups such as the Agta as primitive, rather their social systems and their behavior is simply a product of the environment they live in.  For example, I study childcare and how this is shared with the whole community. Children spent their younger years being looked after by a whole array of individuals, from close family members to just older kids in camp. This is interesting as families in the west are isolated and are not so reliant on social networks for child support. We have wealth, infrastructure and a state instead. My point here is that it is the environment and the needs which arise from which dictate our behavior; an Agta moving to England other than being very cold, would be lively to change how they raise their children.  The difference that exists between people is in part a result of such influences. 

For me, these are the three key stereotypes which living with the Agta has completely dispelled in my mind. Living with the Agta creates a sense of normality, of people sharing life with people which are often lost or ignored. 

That's all folks,

Wasabi