An Ode to the "Savage"

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One book that I have been reading and really enjoying is Ina May Gaskin's book: Guide to Childbirth. It talks about the natural childbirth process and what's been lost in modern days as things shift to hospitals and doctors and forceps and vacuums, etc. vs what has been gained.

One annoying thing about that book is nothing that Ina May herself says, but alot of the quotes that I find from various doctors. For instance, one doctor is quoted as saying:

"We are, indeed, fully prepared to believe that the bearing of children may and ought to become as free from danger and long debility to the civilized woman as it is to the savage."

--Thomas Huxley

Savage?! Why call people savage? Because they don't have running water in their homes? Because they did not fall prey to the greed of expanding forever more a business into a corporation with shares and stockholders and hostile takeovers and whatnots? We all know who they are referring to. Either Native American Indian (even in modern times, I bet), Africans, or possibly some Asian in a non-highly industrialized society.

Another time, my sister who's very much into healthy eating told me she read a book about diets and eating right. In that book, the author reported that a certain tribe in Africa had absolutely NO CAVITY as opposed to America with its 70% rate.

And finally, in alternative medicine, I sat in a class which taught metamorphosis. The teacher explained how if someone wanted a business, a well balanced person would open their business and sell what they want to sell and that would be that. Someone suffering from various mental blocks, however, would zone in on the need to make a "big" business. Thus they forget the reason for having the business in the first place and really concentrate on expanding and expanding and forever expanding. Greed takes over basically.

It all made me think. Is this world coming around full circle? I have heard so many people make fun of others who didn't seem to have great, gigantic ambitions. The simplicity of their lives was the scorn of those considered "very civilized". However, I do notice that as things take a turn back to its natural roots; as alternative medicine gain popularity, natural childbirth with a midwife is fighting for a comeback, healthy eating is being promoted -everyone is looking back. Not to the "very civilized" for a role model, but to the "savages" and "small people".

Kudos to them for not losing their own value system in the face of modernity. While I am not knocking modernity -I think a good balance can and ought to be had, I don't appreciate the type of reference being made towards others.

Also, I don't want that we go over board. Example of overboard:

Meet Joe!

beep beep!




He's our success story. First his heart failed. But we quickly replaced it with our high tech pace maker machine. Then his teeth became a problem, they were all replaced. Then he started having trouble with his back and instead of waiting for more trouble, we simple transplanted his whole brain onto this vehicle. Now all he needs is a tune up every two years!!!

Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating. And again, I'm not knocking modern technology. But I do think that (1) when it gets tainted by greed -as alot of the food industry, medical industry have become, it becomes a tricky line between what's really beneficial vs what will hurt us in the long run. And (2), Somehow a compromise needs to be made, with the natural way of doing things vs stripping away nature so completely out of a process.


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