It is disheartening to see that despite evidence to the contrary, the myth of the noble savage continues to surface in serious debates. Your articles ("Unbearable pursuits", "The other Brazil", November 22nd) quoted, respectively, Inuit hunters and a surgeon paying homage to the idea that indigenous people always know best about their environment. Although that notion is politically appealing, those endorsing it never seem to consider that traditional knowledge was accumulated under conditions vastly different from those that are faced today. The Inuit have no conventions to deal with situations they have yet to face, such as the complete disappearance of ice in the Arctic during the summer. And the Ticuna in the Amazon jungle are new to the benefits and perils of life on the reservation. While the Amazon is vast, it cannot indefinitely absorb a growing Ticuna population any more than it can absorb Brazil's poor farmers.
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