Pretty big title, I know - I should have put, "part one of an infinite series," but you probably could guess that. But this is an interesting case representing what it is to be human - not American, or 21st century, but human, and it refers to a movie.
The movie - I did not catch the name as I was passing by the TV room on my way to a most fascinating book - more on that later; the movie was on HBO, which we were getting for free to entice us. As we had once gotten it, we would not be enticed, but my wife wanted to avail herself while we had it,and did. The movie was a recent one about John Smith and the Roanoke colony, of Pocahontas fame. In it were read pieces from Smith's diary ( I believe it was his, although it might have been from another's with him - I did not stay long for the movie) and here it quoted him - I don't know if accurately - that the Indians had "no greed and no jealousy." I made a comment, wise as I am, that indeed they did, and left the room. But it got me to thinking, as I once did when such things were my professional concern, about how the Indians had greed and jealousy - for in this, if these were like the primitives (how else best to put this for immediate understanding? This does not mean "inferior" but simple in hierarchical structures and material technology) that I have lived with or studied, there is certainly a difference between us and them.
First, the emphasis. I would make a flat statement that all humans contain the same basic set of characteristics, but that some are emphasized more than others in different cultures. Many studies between, say, the Plains Indians with their emphasis on personal experience, and the Hopi, with their emphasis on the communal, have pointed to this. Moreover, and more to my point, 'when' and 'about what' these emotions are elicited will also differ. Among the Indian groups I lived with in Southern Venezuela, greed (in the past and even now among some isolated groups in the mountains) did not center around heaps of possessions, or possessions of most kinds in general. Rather, certain people were greedy for spiritual power - the power of the sorcerer - and would kill to get that power. Of things, who cared, unless they had spiritual power?, for everyone had just about everything they needed right there for the taking and the making. But spiritual power - that got prestige, status, women - most of what greed is about.
Which brings about jealousy. Men, generally the younger, did indeed often "trade" wives. They lived close together, married young, and, one can assume, got bored. This trading was generally done with the consent of the others, among a tightly-knit family structure, which minimized jealously - but there was (and is) jealousy. There were unauthorized use of the wives, so to speak, that did not bode well - within a group, it could lead to a factioning; outside a group, it could lead to murder and war. I recall reading about a Plains Indian group that, as warriors, sought to limit the hostilities that women could bring between men by reducing the importance of women themselves. Thus, for instance, if a man enticed another's woman to a tryst and the husband found out, he was not to take it out on the man, but the woman. In the case I read, the man had his wife stand outside the tepee on a cold winter night until her feet were frozen off. Cutting off the nose to make her hideous was the norm, but there were many other ways. This might not be called jealousy, but rather saving face, but in the end they come out to be the same - the spouse is furious enough at the transgression that he (or perhaps she) is willing to kill for it.
I would say that this runs true for the whole gambit of emotions - and why culture change is so easily adopted. We are set for any man-made system, whether our ancestors devised it or not.
As this website is devoted to the weird, the unexplained and the spiritual, I can put it in context: that we, all of us, are capable of the kind of spiritual and shamanistic life that others in different times and places have had. It is for us to pursue them if we wish - and, given the right process, for us to succeed.
The movie - I did not catch the name as I was passing by the TV room on my way to a most fascinating book - more on that later; the movie was on HBO, which we were getting for free to entice us. As we had once gotten it, we would not be enticed, but my wife wanted to avail herself while we had it,and did. The movie was a recent one about John Smith and the Roanoke colony, of Pocahontas fame. In it were read pieces from Smith's diary ( I believe it was his, although it might have been from another's with him - I did not stay long for the movie) and here it quoted him - I don't know if accurately - that the Indians had "no greed and no jealousy." I made a comment, wise as I am, that indeed they did, and left the room. But it got me to thinking, as I once did when such things were my professional concern, about how the Indians had greed and jealousy - for in this, if these were like the primitives (how else best to put this for immediate understanding? This does not mean "inferior" but simple in hierarchical structures and material technology) that I have lived with or studied, there is certainly a difference between us and them.
First, the emphasis. I would make a flat statement that all humans contain the same basic set of characteristics, but that some are emphasized more than others in different cultures. Many studies between, say, the Plains Indians with their emphasis on personal experience, and the Hopi, with their emphasis on the communal, have pointed to this. Moreover, and more to my point, 'when' and 'about what' these emotions are elicited will also differ. Among the Indian groups I lived with in Southern Venezuela, greed (in the past and even now among some isolated groups in the mountains) did not center around heaps of possessions, or possessions of most kinds in general. Rather, certain people were greedy for spiritual power - the power of the sorcerer - and would kill to get that power. Of things, who cared, unless they had spiritual power?, for everyone had just about everything they needed right there for the taking and the making. But spiritual power - that got prestige, status, women - most of what greed is about.
Which brings about jealousy. Men, generally the younger, did indeed often "trade" wives. They lived close together, married young, and, one can assume, got bored. This trading was generally done with the consent of the others, among a tightly-knit family structure, which minimized jealously - but there was (and is) jealousy. There were unauthorized use of the wives, so to speak, that did not bode well - within a group, it could lead to a factioning; outside a group, it could lead to murder and war. I recall reading about a Plains Indian group that, as warriors, sought to limit the hostilities that women could bring between men by reducing the importance of women themselves. Thus, for instance, if a man enticed another's woman to a tryst and the husband found out, he was not to take it out on the man, but the woman. In the case I read, the man had his wife stand outside the tepee on a cold winter night until her feet were frozen off. Cutting off the nose to make her hideous was the norm, but there were many other ways. This might not be called jealousy, but rather saving face, but in the end they come out to be the same - the spouse is furious enough at the transgression that he (or perhaps she) is willing to kill for it.
I would say that this runs true for the whole gambit of emotions - and why culture change is so easily adopted. We are set for any man-made system, whether our ancestors devised it or not.
As this website is devoted to the weird, the unexplained and the spiritual, I can put it in context: that we, all of us, are capable of the kind of spiritual and shamanistic life that others in different times and places have had. It is for us to pursue them if we wish - and, given the right process, for us to succeed.
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