Journeys to the Edge: In the Footsteps of an Anthropologist

Utopia in a Thorn Forest

Utopia in a Thorn Forest Before getting to the exciting highlights of my time with the Paliyans and in their jungle, I must spend a few pages on something that trumped all the other experiences. It startled me. Paliyans treat fellow humans so considerately that my year and a half with them was unforgettable. They were quieter, more peaceful, more respectful, more egalitarian, and more individualistic than any people I had ever met or read about. Being extreme in all these dimensions, Paliyans were“on the edge”in behavior as well as in geography. Forty-two years later I have yet to see a society approximating theirs in individualism, not even in the proudly individualistic United States. Portraying Paliyans this way makes them sound like those hypothetical, ideal people social philosophers and political theorists love to write about. It also gives the impression that it would be easy to live and work in their utopia. Both matters deserve a closer look, my work situation first. Initial Obstacles Far from being easy, getting to know Paliyans was the most difficult task I have undertaken in my professional career. It was slow, too. There was near general acceptance of my setting up a small tent at the end of a row of tribal residences, facing directly onto a small open area in which much of Shenbagatoppu’s morning and evening social activity took place. That was helpful, because I could observe a great deal of what went on, 30 and do so discreetly. But the Paliyans initially made it hard for me to use many of the other important means of collecting data I had learned in graduate school. My teachers drummed it into us that we should make a point of interviewing experts.Yet,when I sat cross-legged on the ground in front of their houses talking with them, Paliyans looked straight at me and denied flatly that particular individuals knew more than others about their social structure, foods, medicines, or anything else. They denied it so strongly that I soon suspected they were doing it on principle. In addition they acted as if they were offended by the very questions I asked about expertise. This was a crucial lesson for me about values and about the social dimensions of knowledge. In time, I appreciated their view that having specialists and turning to them for advice would create the very kinds of dependency that Paliyans found repugnant. Selfreliance was proper for adults. While some did turn out to be more knowledgeable than others, if I made the mistake of commenting to them about their unusual competence, they at once denied it and dropped into confused embarrassment. Another problem with my techniques was that interviewing anyone at all, on any subject except genealogy, evidently entailed more intense speaking than Paliyans found comfortable. They became restless immediately , and one or two declined further sessions. I could not afford that. Being taciturn by choice, they would have to be won over slowly to my means of data collecting. Modest chatting was fine, but the initial interviews made clear that I should not attempt deep or lengthy discussions right away. When I lessened both my own talk and my requests that others speak, the Paliyans grew more at ease with me. Two things I certainly could do were to limit my talking to brief conversations or pleasantries and increase the time I spent casually sitting around observing. My eyes became an invaluable tool during the first two months. By simply watching, I learned a considerable amount about ways they cooked, tended their hair, and fashioned hardwood sticks for digging yams, for example, and still more about their quiet, low-key style of interaction. Already knowing each individual’s name, I made systematic notes all day on who did what with whom, to find out how friendship and family relationships functioned. It was also possible to keep track of everything that could be interpreted as evidence of social friction. More about that later. In addition, I examined all I could of adults interacting with infants and children. Although mothers talked quietly to their babies and toddlers when showing them things, it Utopia in a Thorn Forest 31 eventually became clear that much of a child’s learning was done by observation , a technique specialists call “social learning.” I mainly saw youngsters just watching others, rather than listening to verbal instructions , as they...