Do Look Now: There's a Hunter-Gatherer Inside You

As a previously uncontacted indigenous tribe is forced from their forest home, we're getting a glimpse at our former selves.

Jul 18, 2024

“A rarely seen Amazon tribe emerges from rainforest as loggers move in.”

Seeing this headline in The Washington Post yesterday and reading about a previously uncontacted Amazonian tribe — the Mashco Piro indigenous people of Madre de Dios (Peru) — I had a flood of conflicting feelings.

First, I felt a sort of “OMG, OMG!” excitement at seeing beautiful, present-day video of these self-sufficient people who’ve been living isolated from modern society in much the same way that most of our human ancestors lived for well over a million of years.

This was followed by a sort of “OH NO, OH NO!” dread for what I fear is about to befall these people as they come face to face with the horrors of commercial deforestation — and with the rapacious grind of Unhealthy Default Reality (UDR).

If you saw Avatar, you have some sense of what is happening all around the Mashco Piro right now. You can probably imagine the sort of ecological destruction and disruption that is driving them from their secluded home and out into public view.

I’ll leave it to you to read the full story for yourself (if you’ve used up your free previews for the The Washington Post, please consider subscribing). I’ve posted just a few short clips and images from their public story under fair-use guidelines as an encouragement for you to go deeper.

But let’s assume you don’t. Because you are busy. Because you are distracted. Because you have your own problems to deal with.

If these images are all you ever see of this story, there are still a few things I hope you’ll take away.

First, miracle of miracles, behold that there are still people living successfully and sustainably (if it weren’t for industrial interference) in accordance with the same sorts of hunter-gatherer norms and traditions established over 2.5 million years of human history.
Next, notice how healthy and strong these people look. Notice how easily and gracefully they are moving in their bodies and in relation to their environment. Notice how they are connected and working collaboratively in a human-scale group. Look at the calmness and sense of center they seem to possess, even under stressful circumstances.
Next, take stock of what these healthy looking people do not have: Gym memberships, biometric devices, mindfulness apps, Peletons, bathroom scales, diet food, barefoot shoes, grocery-delivery service, Spanx, collagen powder, Ozempic.

Rather obviously, they do not need them. Because all of these things were invented as “solutions” to the very problems the Unhealthy Default Reality introduced. Remember this Vicious Cycle I introduced way back in my “Seeing the Unseeable” post?

Finally, and most regrettably, I hope you will witness that these people are being driven from their homes, from their ancestral hunting-and-gathering grounds, from all their sacred spaces, by the forces of Unhealthy Default Reality — ostensibly in the pursuit of “progress.”

As a result, the Mashco Piro people are now being exposed to a great many modern perils.

The incursions of the UDR have already displaced them, and UDR’s insatiable appetites are rapidly turning their environment (the source of all their food, shelter, and medicine) into pulp.

Scene from James Cameron’s 2009 film, *Avatar*.

You probably know from history how things tend to go from here.

Here in the U.S., where our own indigenous populations and ecosystems suffered a similar sort of contact-turned-genocide, we have an all-too-brutal set of reminders of what happens when the UDR arrives and cranks its machinery into gear.

First the UDR takes or destroys what is required for humans to meet their own basic daily needs. Then it introduces all manner of painful problems for which it — the UDR — will then propose a variety of convenient, ineffective, highly profitable, and just barely affordable “solutions.”

Those solutions, of course, will be designed to offer comfort while quietly extracting the few remaining resources of this new “consumer audience,” including their energy, time, attention, imagination, and hope.

This is pretty much what has happened to all of us over the past few hundred years.

What you are seeing here — in this story of the Mashco Piro — is the "before" shot in a rather disturbing before-and-after profile of post-industrial humanity.

This was us, folks, before the UDR got its hands on us. Before we lost track of our basic needs and self-sustaining skills. Before we lost hold of our true nature and wound up as stressed-out "Apes in the Arcade," buying our food from UDR-supplied concession stands and numbing out on pain pills from UDR-supplied vending machines. (See illustration from my book below; I’ll cover this concept in more depth next week).

Nothing could have prepared us for the reality we are living now.

Up until the Agricultural Revolution of a mere 10,000 years or so ago, there was no UDR. And it is really only in the past 200 years (since the Industrial Revolution) that the UDR has become so dominant.

Prior that that, the hunter-gatherer existence that the Mashco Piro are still living was how virtually all humans lived — and in most cases, if archaeology is any indication — thrived.

I'm not saying we should try to go back to that existence, or even if we wanted to, that it would be possible. Nor am I arguing that everything about modern society is bad.

What I'm saying is that some part of our ancient human history and knowledge base lives still inside each of us — engrained in our DNA, in our anatomy, our metabolism, our neurology, our collective unconscious, our cellular memory.

Biologically, that — not “The Arcade” of our current society — is the reality we are wired for.

I also firmly believe that some part of the instinct and wisdom required to discern and meet our own basic daily needs still resides within us. We just have to reawaken the parts of our selves that remember.

Ultimately, if we want to thrive, we have to shake ourselves free from the mass-hallucination the UDR has used to shake us down.

Okay, I know I’ve given you a lot to contemplate. So here’s the most basic thing I hope you will take away from this little wake-up call:

Whatever you are thinking about right now as your health problems, your weight problems, your mood problems, your focus problems, your debt problems — these are not YOU problems. They are US problems.

They are the product not of your personal weaknesses or failings, but of the industrial society we all live in. And these are, in many cases, programmed-in features of the UDR, not accidental bugs.

These problems simply do not exist in the world of the Mashco Piro. Because the cultural and environmental conditions of the UDR mostly do not exist in the deepest reaches of the Amazonian forest. Yet.

Sadly, most likely, unless we somehow rein in the profit-driven powers driving modern industry, they very soon will.

At present, nobody on this planet is safe from the UDR, not even in the depths of the jungle or at the apex of the tallest mountains. The effects of post-agricultural human greed, avarice, and appetites for power have too dramatically disrupted our planet’s climate, ecosystems, gene pool for anyone to avoid their impact.

There is simply no longer anywhere to hide. There is nowhere to escape to.

But we can learn from history and from the example of those indigenous cultures that produced our forbears, and eventually us. We can find ways to create a better, more livable, more regenerative world for ourselves and each other.

That, in essence, is what Healthy Deviance is all about.

We will be talking more about this at our next Healthy Deviant Live Session (Sunday, July 28th at 3PM Central — I’ll send an invite and reminder out next week). Meanwhile, feel free to share your thoughts.

THIS WEEK’S TIDBITS

Encouragements to notice, learn, and deviate from the Unhealthy Default Reality in whatever ways feel good to you.

Revolutionary Act of the Week
(via my “101 Revolutionary Ways to Be Healthy”):

If you are a human being, you need sunshine, natural darkness, fresh air, and time in nature. Daily.

Grab a few minutes in the morning, a few more during breaks from work, and a few more as soon as your active day is done.

It could be as simple as sitting outside on the steps or taking a walk around the block. And if you can get yourself to a park, waterway, or wooded hiking trail, so much the better. Listen to birds, watch trees sway, look up at the starry night sky (if you can see it).

Time spent in nature a powerful antidote to the disregulatory damage done by the Unhealthy Default Reality. And it is a valuable reminder of how we humans used to spend almost all our time.

Weirdly, time spent outdoors has now become the exception rather than the rule for most of us. But according to the code of the Healthy Deviant, a lot of the Unhealthy Default Reality’s rules were made to be broken.

PRO TIP: Whenever possible, make your forays outside unplugged experiences by simply leaving your devices at home (or at least turned off).

Podcast: The Living Experiment “Seasons”

Another great way to get in closer touch with your own human roots is to reconnect with the cycle of the seasons. In this episode of The Living Experiment podcast, we dig into how you can do that — daily, all year round.

Okay, onward. Don’t let the UDR get you down.

P.S. Want to connect? Need some support in getting back to your own humanity? Join my free Healthy Deviant Facebook Group. I’m in there most days, sharing insights and suggestions, and always happy to be of help however I can.