Rethinking Universality

As a peace activist for most of my life, I've held the steadfast belief that war and societal conflict is not inevitable. It's merely an easy out that people throughout history have chosen. Critics almost always counter that this illustrates naivety at its best. They'll say, "People have been war-like since Day One. It's part and parcel of being human".

As I continue reading "Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes", it has caused me to rethink the very concept of universality. There are a number of principles and social mores that modern humans -- including scientists and anthropologists -- would consider basic to the human experience; things that span history and civilizations. If a human has lived within the bounds of a given society, he or she will practice and believe certain things. Such concepts will, undoubtedly, be expressed in different ways or rely on different frameworks, but the underlying principles will be the same.

So, is making war a universal human principle? Not according to the Pirahãs! The author points out that there is no evidence the Pirahãs have ever been involved in a war with anyone. While they do have bows and arrows for hunting, there is no evidence to suggest these implements are used for societal offense or defense. And there are no other implements that suggest that they're used for any other purpose than for eking out a subsistence lifestyle.

Another commonly held belief is that all societies have a form of numbers and counting. Numbers are important for economic reasons, if nothing else. A society needs some methodology to quantify goods to be traded and received. While the Pirahã do, in fact, engage in trade, they concurrently employ neither numbers nor counting.

In 1980, at the Pirahãs urging, Keren and I began a series of evening classes in counting and literacy...Each evening for eight months we tried to teach Pirahã men and women to count to ten in Portugese...After eight months of daily efforts...the people concluded that they could not learn this material and classes were abandoned. Not one Pirahã learned to count to ten in eight months.

Not only do the Pirahãs not utilize numbers, but they also have no written language. It would seem they've gotten by quite well without either!

There is one other supposedly universal concept I will touch on in this entry -- the taboo against incest. As a former social worker, I must admit that I thought this taboo was universal! To be certain, I knew that certain segments within a few societies broke the taboo, but, in general, the taboo was widely held.

Not so for the Pirahã! Children, in their society, aren't viewed differently than adults in terms of respect and independence. As the author points out more than once, children are not physically scolded. They are allowed to engage in the same trials and errors as their adult counterparts.

Children are just human beings in Pirahã society. They are not seen as in need of coddling and special protections. They are treated fairly and allowance is made for their size and relative physical weakness, but by and large they are not considered qualitatively different from adults. This can lead to scenes that to Western eyes can seem strange or even harsh.

So, it later came as not really a surprise when the author wrote, "So long as children are not forced or hurt, there is no prohibition against their participating in sex with adults." A paragraph or two later he provided a specific example.

Wow! That certainly shocks my western sensibilities!

I'm only at the halfway point of this wonderful book. I'm certain there will be more eye-popping revelations. It is not only well written, but it's causing me to reevaluate many long held beliefs and suppositions on what it means to be human.