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[Clinton Huxley]

That's not always true. Many societies have had social constraints that encourage them to protect their natural resources. I've read about lots of different 'primitive' cultures and they show a very broad range of approaches to the word they inhabit (from culturally acceptable robbery and murder, to very careful use and reuse of resources and intelligent and careful intergroup interactions to avoid conflict. The "Myth of the Noble Savage" is as much a myth as the myth its trying to mythologise.

Well there is a huge difference between a culture that relies on the resources surrounding it for its sustenance and driving whales into a bay to slaughter them as some kind of "fun family event".. or a thousanda of other things the (apprently) less "savage" parts of the world have done with complete disregard for the environment or non-human (or indeed human) life

I think that some of the remaining stone age societies WOULD drive a pod of whales into a bay and butcher them, if that rather unlikely opportunity arose. Restraint can be a byproduct of a lack of opportunity as much as it can morality.

Not condoning whale butcherers, naturally. They should set the Navy on 'em.

[Clinton Huxley]

I have a book called "The Jivaro" (nowadays they're called the Shuar). At the time (50s-60s) they were still headshrinking. I think every member of the community lived in a perpetual state of fear. They could be murdered at any moment and they only people they could trust were their immediate nuclear family and perhaps their trading 'brother'.

Makes Leigh on a FRiday night sound not so bad....

[Elessarina]

Don't remember anyone saying it did....

I thought your implication was that everyone abuses their environment regardless of their technological development.

[Clinton Huxley]

Don't remember anyone saying it did....

I thought your implication was that everyone abuses their environment regardless of their technological development.

Well, that is probably true, as no group of humans would be able to exist without having some environmental impact, but I wasn't making that generalisation. I was merely pointing out that the opposite generalisation, that of the "Noble Savage" was by no means universally true.

[Clinton Huxley]

Boris Johnson (!), with his two pennorth on the Avatar behemoth....

http://www.boris-johnson.com/2010/01/25 ... tar-gloom/

[Elessarina]

Well, that is probably true, as no group of humans would be able to exist without having some environmental impact, but I wasn't making that generalisation. I was merely pointing out that the opposite generalisation, that of the "Noble Savage" was by no means universally true.

Except perhaps in the Avatar universe...

[Animavore]

Was I the only one rooting for humans and the advancement of technology?

[Clinton Huxley]

Well, that is probably true, as no group of humans would be able to exist without having some environmental impact, but I wasn't making that generalisation. I was merely pointing out that the opposite generalisation, that of the "Noble Savage" was by no means universally true.

Except perhaps in the Avatar universe...

Aargh, this thread stands in great danger of another derail into the carbon cycle, the Gaia hypothesis and stuff

[Elessarina]

Aargh, this thread stands in great danger of another derail into the carbon cycle, the Gaia hypothesis and stuff

This thread has been going on and off for ages. But that subject is completely relevant given the subject of the film.

[devogue]

I would love to ride one of those big blue aliens.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I would love to ride one of those big blue aliens.

Did you see the nipple shots?

[Animavore]

I would love to ride one of those big blue aliens.

You'd be too small for them.

[devogue]

I would love to ride one of those big blue aliens.

Did you see the nipple shots?

It was the one time I wish I had 3D. Also saw a bit of fanny - in between the thigh and the crack.

[devogue]

I would love to ride one of those big blue aliens.

You'd be too small for them.

I reckon they're quite tight under those tails.

[Elessarina]

I reckon they're quite tight under those tails.

Someone sent me a couple of Avatar porn pictures