“It came naturally to our forebears on their long trek up river after the wreck of the Cork. Eating together helped protect them from attack, for one. It also allowed them to parcel out the food evenly so that everyone got something to eat. Once they arrived in this valley, most villagers continued to eat communally, although they could eat independently if they wished. The same remains true today.”
“If people eat freely from the communal food supply, how do you assure that an adequate supply is maintained?” asked Rick.
“We expect people to put into the system at least as much food as they take out, or to provide an equivalent amount of labor to the kitchen. This includes everyone, even those who chose to eat independently.”
“What about those who violate the rule?”
“If anyone eats food from the kitchen and ignores their obligation to contribute food, it lowers their standing in the village.”
“Yet I will be allowed to eat in the communal dining room?” asked Rick.
“Yes, you have permission from the Leader. There is plenty of food to meet your needs.”
“I don’t want to be a burden on the group.”
“Thank you for your thoughtfulness. Later, after you have learned how we hunt and gather, you should contribute food to the kitchen or even try cooking.”
“Thank you. I’ll do that. I appreciate your offer to feed me until then,” said Rick.
“You should thank the heads of the kin groups whose members contribute food and labor to the kitchen. Oh, and be sure to give the bread pudding a go.”
“I shall. John, I notice that there are rods on the ends of your larger buildings.” What are those?”
“Lightning conductors.”
As they turned to walk toward the bunker, Rick observed, “Some of the shelters around the village are larger than others. Is that a result of wealth differences?”
“It’s mainly a result of how many people live under the roof. In our society, families come in many different sizes and shapes.”
“They do?” asked Rick.
“More about that later.”
“I saw some discs in front of homes. Are they decorative?” asked Rick.
“No, they symbolize the status level of the family that lives there.”
“I would certainly like to know more about that,” said Rick.
“Later. All in due time.”
As they walked along the path to the bunker, John went ahead, looking carefully for dangers and identifying things Rick needed to know. Rick could see them once John had pointed them out, but not before. He would have to get better. When they reached the bunker, they chatted for a few minutes while the four guards remaining in the bunker moved to the other side of the room to give them privacy.
“My head is still spinning from seeing your village,” said Rick. “It’s amazing what you have built here.”
“We’re proud of our village. It was the result of sustained group effort over many years.”
“It’s remarkable,” said Rick. “I’m sure that, in the coming days, I will have many questions for you.”
“We expect that, Rick. The Leader told me to make myself available to answer your questions while you’re with us. Now, however, the sun is going down and I want to return to the village. I should to do so while I have some light. One of the reasons why humans survived as a species in this rain forest is that we didn’t go out at night wandering among animals that have much better night senses than we do. The rain forest, you will learn, remains very active throughout the night so risks do not end with nightfall. We can talk tomorrow after you’re settled into your room at the entertainment center.”
Before John left, he turned and made one final comment, “You won’t have guards from now on. Tonight, however, Philip will sleep on the other side of the room to give you some safety,” he said gesturing toward one of the guards. “He will not restrict your movements, but I remind you that, if I can’t see dangers during the night, you can’t either. My advice is to stay put until tomorrow.”
“I will.”
After John and three of the guards left, Rick exchanged a few words with Philip but then they moved to their respective sides of the bunker and began hanging up their hammocks for the night. Before Rick dozed off, he reflected on the amazing sites he had seen in the village.
Philip Johnson is a highbrow…. His house is a box of glass — not shelter. The meaning of the word shelter includes privacy.
Frank Lloyd Wright
CHAPTER 10
Contacts
Shortly after Rick awoke the next morning, he got his backpack ready for the move to the entertainment center. When John arrived at the bunker, he was accompanied by two youths pulling a wheeled cart.
“Good morning, John. I’ve been well behaved since you left last night,” he said cheerfully. “No stroll through the rain forest.”
“Good. That might be why you’re still alive this morning,” said John, with more seriousness than Rick expected.
“I appreciate your point,” said Rick.
“I imagine that you’ve been thinking about your tour of our village yesterday. What are your reactions?”
“Astonishment, mainly,” responded Rick. “I never expected to see such fine buildings and other facilities deep in the rain forest.”
“I thought you might be a touch gobsmacked this morning.”
“I am, indeed. I’m grateful to you and the Leader for showing me your village when you could have, just as easily, driven me out of your society.”
“The Leader had her reasons for letting you see it, reasons that will become clearer over time. Building and equipping the facilities took great cooperative effort over many years but we tackled it one day at a time. However, before I answer your questions about the village, let’s move you to the entertainment center. We’ll talk more there. Are you ready?”
“Yes. Everything is in my backpack,” said Rick.
“Good. Let’s get cracking. Load it in the cart and we’ll pull it up the slope to the village. It’ll be easy with all of us contributing.”
When they reached the broad central path of the village, Rick was struck, once again, by its beauty. The exotic flowers along either side of the path burst in a full spectrum of colors. Most of them were new to him and unlike anything he had ever seen. Soon, they arrived at Rick’s room in the entertainment center.
“Here we are,” said John.
“My thanks again to the Leader for letting me stay here. It’ll be a great base for my research,” Rick said.
“You’ll see a lot from this location because the entertainment center is the hub of village life. As far as noise is concerned, the village is typically quiet so we don’t impinge on the privacy of others.”
“I’m so anxious to begin my research that I can live with less privacy,” offered Rick.
“Be careful. Privacy is a precious commodity. We shall respect yours, and we expect you to respect ours. Should you wish to be left alone, you should hang this blue disc on the peg on the doorframe outside. Every residence in the village has one.”
The disc was ceramic and about four inches across with a rich medium blue glaze. Stamped into its face, in dark-blue block letters, was “PRIVACY.” The disc had a hole near one edge for hanging on the door peg.
“When a blue disc is displayed, it’s very bad manners to disturb the privacy of those inside or to ask later about what went on while the disc was displayed. Therefore, when you visit in the village, you should always check the doorframes for blue discs. Do this without fail. We treasure our individual privacy just as we treasure our group’s privacy from outside society.”
“I understand,” said Rick.
“Good. Now that you’re moved in, I can answer your questions about what you’ve seen thus far.”
“Great.”
“Let’s have a seat and get started.”
“It’s hard to know where to begin, but I’ve been curious about how you make the scre
w lids for your medicine jars.”
“I feared you might start with that question. Making jar lids is too complex to be done here.”
“I suspected it might be. So you get them from outside society, maybe La Puerta?” Rick pressed.
“Yes, we do.”
“I’m going to have lots of questions about this, John.”
“I’m not surprised.”
“Can you give me some background?”
“Yes, I suppose. We transport our products to La Puerta in two-gallon stainless steel containers where they’re put in jars, labeled, and shipped.”
“But if you process in La Puerta, how do you maintain your privacy?”
“When we began shipping our products to La Puerta in the nineteenth century, we arranged with a business in the city to do the packaging and labeling for us. We told them that we were a company that specializes in rain forest products and that our identity must remain confidential at the request of our investors. Initially, they probably suspected we were dealing in contraband but we quickly won them over because our business dealings were aboveboard. Over the years, we secured an ownership stake in the business then steadily increased our stake until we controlled the business. Thereafter, we could rotate our young people into the facility as their staff retired. We now provide most of its employees. It’s given many of us a sample of life outside the rain forest in an environment over which we have some control. The processing facility is the conduit for our trade with the outside world.”
“You transport people and products to the coast and back frequently?” asked Rick.
“Yes, we do. We’re fortunate that most of our products are effective in small amounts so we don’t have to transport large bulk quantities like farmers who grow wheat, maize, or cotton in outside society have to. Another advantage we have is that we don’t need a large sales volume. We can meet our survival needs quite well from what we obtain locally by hunting, gathering, and swidden farming, so we don’t have to make much money from our sales in La Puerta to buy the things we want.”
“Your contact with the coast comes as a complete surprise,” offered Rick. “You want to preserve your privacy, yet you go to La Puerta on a regular basis. You’re certainly not sealing yourself off from the outside world.”
“That’s correct. We’re not isolationists, but we are very careful.”
“Even though you don’t need to transport large volumes, the trips to the coast must be challenging,” said Rick. “It was difficult for me to get to your valley.”
“The trips to the coast were difficult when we began them in 1825, but by the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, we had made them easier and safer. Also, remember that you experienced the tougher trip coming up river. Down river isn’t as difficult.”
“What about those who staff the boats that make the trips? And those who go to work for a time in your facility? Once they are in La Puerta, aren’t you concerned they’ll stay on the coast and not return?”
“A few decide to stay in La Puerta and that saddens us for personal reasons; however, it’s to be expected. They were probably not happy here anyway and people should live where they wish.”
“There’s a lot in outside society that can lure people and tempt them to stay,” commented Rick.
“No doubt about it. However, if any Euromamo decides to live his or her life there—for love of stuff or for any other reason—they can do so.”
“You don’t try to indoctrinate them before they go to the city?”
“Certainly not. Our goal is the opposite of what you’re suggesting. We encourage them to learn as much as they can about outside society and what it has to offer. We even encourage our young people to live in La Puerta for a while to experience life in outside society. It’s similar to your practice of sending your young people to college to expose them to a broad range of ideas and experiences, an exposure that helps them develop.”
“How do you prepare them before they go?” asked Rick.
“We educate them about dangers in La Puerta.”
“Dangers?”
“It’s not that La Puerta is a particularly dangerous place, but our young people have no experience living in that environment. Therefore, they need some preparation for their safety. I think it’s much like your situation having traveled from outside society to here. It’s hard for you to see the dangers in your new environment.”
“Stated that way, I understand your point,” added Rick.
“It’s the only sensible thing to do.”
“They can also bring outside stuff back to the village when they return, can’t they? What are your rules regarding that?”
“They bring back stuff from time to time, but not large amounts of it. After all, they are not merchants. Given that just a few items come in, villagers get to see them and form an opinion about them. That results in a more informed discussion later if we consider bringing in more of those items.”
“But it’s not only physical stuff that Euromamo travelers bring back from La Puerta, is it?” asked Rick. “They also bring back outside ideas, different ways of thinking that are not Euromamo ways. Those ideas could have an even greater influence on your society than physical items.”
“I agree with you that ideas can be very powerful. However, we don’t seal ourselves off from them or otherwise restrict them. To the contrary, we embrace exposure to ideas. We hope that our travelers to La Puerta will bring back new ways of looking at things.”
“Hmmm. So there are no limits on them,” Rick mused to himself.
“None. The worst thing a society can do is limit the number of ideas it considers. That would be ill-advised and ultimately counterproductive. As we say, ‘We can’t improve our society by limiting our minds.’ The only way toward social betterment is to find good ideas that address our needs and then adopt the best of them for our use. So, far from censoring new ideas, we welcome learning whatever we can from others. As we say, ‘it’s easier to steal ideas from others than to think them up on our own’.” He added as an aside, “Of course, it’s not stealing in the usual sense because after we’ve stolen an idea, they still have it. Copying the idea is a better description, but we still use the word ‘steal’ in the saying.”
“Has this practice benefitted you?”
“Immensely. For example, during our early years here, we stole important knowledge about food and plant-based medicines from neighboring groups; initially, it was mostly from the Islamamo, then from our other neighbors as our contacts developed. Getting that information was essential for our survival.”
“I can appreciate that, I think. If you value new ideas so much, do you take steps to make sure that you continue to get them? Your library is part of that, I assume.”
“The library is invaluable. Irreplaceable. In addition, we work constantly to expand our exposure to other cultures. For example, we’ve established a custom of meeting annually with each of our neighboring groups so we can exchange information about what we’ve learned since our last meeting. During the meetings, we remind ourselves to listen with receptive minds. As another example, we require young adult males to live for a year in a surrounding village. They keep detailed notes of what they observe, notes which are kept in our library after their return. Their experiences give us a depth of knowledge that we can’t get any other way.”
“I’d certainly like to know more about that,” Rick suggested.
“I’m sure it’ll turn up in our conversations later.”
“And the goal of all this contact is…?”
“…to discover the best ideas we can find. Over time, we think we’ve done well choosing the ideas we’ve adopted but, of course, you’ll make your own judgment about that. It’s only through creating a well-thought-out society—a society built on the best ideas—that we can get our people to live their lives here. Viewed this way, new ideas are vital to our survival.”
“Do you have a formal procedure for adopting new ideas?”
“So it’s done by consensus rather than by fiat.”
“Yes, by consensus after discussion. I understand that Amish leaders in the United States decide what they wish to incorporate into their society from outside. Their decision-making is more male-dominated and binding than ours is but, beyond those differences, there are fundamental similarities. They’ve done well in preserving themselves in the midst of your billboards, television ads, junk mail, and shopping centers. We have high regard for them.”
“Indeed, the Amish have done well,” responded Rick, noting that John was surprisingly well-informed about them.
“Given your ongoing contacts with your neighbors and outside society,” interjected Rick, “it’s amazing that you’ve preserved your privacy this long.”
“Preserving our privacy is a constant concern, but less so regarding contacts with the societies near us in the rain forest because they lack modern technology. We cultivate regular contacts with them to gather more knowledge about this environment, but we know their cultures will not overwhelm us. The real risk to our privacy is the societies outside the rain forest with their massive amounts of stuff and their massive amounts of advertisements for that stuff. They’ve highly developed means of communication and travel. They’ve magazines, billboards, musical recordings, and movies.” Looking Rick directly in the eyes, he continued, “They even have printing presses that anthropologists use to publicize the groups they’ve studied.”
He paused a moment to let his last comment sink in.
“All told, modern society might overwhelm our small society if we became known, despite the distance and difficulty of the trip from here to La Puerta.”
The Blue Disc Page 12
