Re: OT: Doubting Thomas: was "Introducing Myself

Hi!

Dan Sulani <dansulani@...> writes:
> Hi all!
>     These recent threads have been very fascinating!
> I just _have_  to get out of lurk-mode, delay real-world
> chores and jump right in! (Say, if I doubt all my
> real-world obligations hard enough, will they go away?
> What's that I hear --- my wife knocking at my door ---
> reminding me yet again!!? --- no, I don't think my chores
> will go away! :-P  )
Haha! :-) Withstand the Real World (tm)!

>     Another strange thing: he states that they all were
> afraid of being cheated in their dealings with traders.
> I fail to see how the concept of "cheated" can occur without
> any framework to measure what's fair! If they can't count
> the bags of nuts one way or another, (ok, it may not be how _we_
> do it in our langs, but then using some other [more interesting] :-)  way)
> how do they know that this time they might be getting
> the same bartered goods for fewer or more sackfuls given over
> to the traders. How do they know how much "more" or "less"
> they are giving/getting this time as opposed to other times?
Well, he states that they know how to judge 'much'.  They have words
for that.  I suppose cheating is then determined by the vague amounts
that are exchanged.  And by daily mood, since exactness does not seem
to be a feature.

>     I don't know about hoaxes, but I _have_ read enough accounts
> about how tribal people have later been found out to have given
> misleading or absolutely wrong answers to "nosey" anthropologists,
> especially if their history with outsiders has not been very pleasant!
>     Admittedly I only (so far) skimmed the material, but I haven't
> seen where he says in what lang he talked to the people.
>     Did he ask questions in Portugese and stop there?
No.  He says he lived there for quite some time and started to learn
the language, which was very difficult since the verbal affixation
system, he says, is the most complex one he had ever encountered.

**Henrik

Reply