It became commonplace to quote the anthropologist Carleton S. Coon, "we and our ancestors are the same people". It sounds nice, but what he meant at the time is very different from what bushcrafters suppose it means. I agree that we and the ancient man are the same. We are (or can be) trackers, hunters, medicine men, storytellers, teachers, explorers.
But Coon held the position that the "races" evolved independently into homo sapiens. He claimed that the european "race" was the pinnacle of human evolution. His ideas helped to provide strenght for racism in the US, even being used to suggest that the US Black population was inferior, and thus shouldn't participate in the political life of the country.
So what he meant by "we and our ancestors are the same people" implied that some ancestors are better than others, more than it implied what is understood in the bushcraft context (i.e., that we share what we are, our being, with the ancient man).
For the curious at heart, a little more can be learnt about Coon on wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carleton_S._Coon
It is a shame. I really like the quote.
All the best,
Luciano
But Coon held the position that the "races" evolved independently into homo sapiens. He claimed that the european "race" was the pinnacle of human evolution. His ideas helped to provide strenght for racism in the US, even being used to suggest that the US Black population was inferior, and thus shouldn't participate in the political life of the country.
So what he meant by "we and our ancestors are the same people" implied that some ancestors are better than others, more than it implied what is understood in the bushcraft context (i.e., that we share what we are, our being, with the ancient man).
For the curious at heart, a little more can be learnt about Coon on wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carleton_S._Coon
It is a shame. I really like the quote.
All the best,
Luciano
