On Tue, 4 Jan 2005 12:37, Jim Swayze wrote:

>That is a wonderful story, Craig.  I had no idea these people existed.
>I'd like to learn more about them.

[Please indulge me while I remain off-topic as this is a very important issue and it is not totally
irrelevant to a Paleo view of the world and will be of interest to many Paleofood subscribers.]

There are four groups working to help tribal peoples maintain their culture.  The one that seems
to have the best coverage is Survival International.  Here's a link to the tribes they are actively
working with:

http://www.survival-international.org/world.htm

Survival International is based in the UK (its activities focus on advocacy on behalf of tribals)

You might also find one of these groups have the information you are after:

http://www.minorityrights.org/ (Based in the UK, reaches wider than tribals)

http://www.iwgia.org/sw617.asp (Based in Denmark, concerned to support the 'right to
development' and other rights which, I feel, derive from a Western, not an indigenous worldview)

http://www.culturalsurvival.org/ (Based in the USA - more inclined to support slotting indigenous
peoples into the world economy and supports, for example, movies made by indigenous peoples.)

The dilemma these groups all face is how far to go in supporting the short-term welfare of the
individual members of the tribal groups (for example by distributing anti-malarials, opposing
gender inequality, generating income for tribal individuals) and the long-term welfare of their
societies which will be destroyed by anti-malarials, Western notions of human rights, links to the
global economy and ALL the trappings of 'civilization'.  If these support groups sell artefacts made
by the tribals, they are chanelling the tribals into a commodity-based view of the world, quite
alien to their cultures.  Even more demeaning is that the tribals' traditional production (of clothing,
art and artefacts generally), all has, primarily, a cultural rather than an economic meaning.  Being
trade commodities with people across the planet is not a traditional cultural meaning!  It shows
how deep the reach of globalization is when the indigenous products are produced for the world
market by people below the poverty line to sell to us in the West for whom the same products are
optional trinkets - we can flippantly decide to buy an iPod or a tribal rug. And we can feel
manipulated into buying the rug, even though it will contribute to the death of the Paleo tribal
culture.

Keith