[expatguy]

LOL good think he chose to visit the Punan and not the Dayaks or Iban.

I've spent a lot of time over there as well, but on the north side (Sarawak and Sabah)

I wrote recently about things over there if anyone is interested.

Moral Relativism in the Rainforest of Diversity

[riverrunner]

Researchers who want to get primitive tribes to stay primitive are just living out their own fantasies of living in the woods.

IF this life was so great how come we are not living it now. Because it is not great. We have found a better way then living hand to mouth.

Given the chance most humans well gladly improve their life style. What holds them back a lot of times is laws and government interference.

[marktwain]

When I lived in Panama, I met a young couple who was subsisting on the edge of civilization by doing odd jobs. I asked if they wanted to move back to their village in the jungle. Oh no! They said. In the village, they make you work. If you don't work (dawn to dusk back breaking labor of subsistence farming) you don't eat!

[sergeantdave]

I much prefer finding my snacks on the grocery shelf rather than crawling on the forest floor.

Now, venison jerky, that's another matter.

[True Capitalist]

Interestingly, the "hunter-gatherers" in Borneo are so free-spirited and open minded that they don't discriminate by limiting their hunting to animals of other species.

See link below for clip of a Borneo headhunter.

http://www.shutterpoint.com/Photos-ViewPhoto.cfm?id=115064

[bert]

So it seems Thoreau was right.

It's better to live in a cabin by the pond.

[speedy]

Yes yes, the primitives are so colorful and amusing. They provide such lovely living laboratories, it would be a shame to have them become just a few more boring workers with aspirations for a better life. Better they should die in their twenties and play host to rare parasites so we can study their rich cultural heritage.

[tet68]

Their tradition of eating regular snacks found in the undergrowth is replaced by consuming unhealthy pre-packaged food such as potato chips or fat-laden cakes, leading some young Punan to develop weight problems.

The last time a "regular snack found in the undergrowth"
wriggled it's many legs at me, I suddenly found I was not
THAT hungry.