0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
On Puzzling Wavelengths
Before they had guns, steel traps, and snare wire, Dene used a vari-
ety of dead falls and nooses to procure game, enormous ones being
needed for moose. Knowledge of how to construct this traditional
equipment persisted, even among young adults who eagerly built and
demonstrated it for me.
The Writer
I have been a rambler most of my life, growing up in various parts
of England, western Canada, an isolated Maori community in New
Zealand, and the United States of America. And, by the 1970 s, my re-
search in anthropology had already taken me to the jungles and cit-
ies of India and to Japan as well. Personal and professional experi-
ence had taught me that the options for human living are many and
diverse. This surely contributes to the relaxed, open stance I take in
life. And it seems to have fed my appetite for enquiry and for yet more
encounters with new peoples and places.
But, there is an equally strong and altogether different side of me.
From early boyhood, I was certain my life was going to be that of a
scientist. The rigor of science had a profound appeal to me. I was a
physics major at the outset, then veered off after two years into scien-
tific study of a yet more intriguing subject—people. Given what you
are about to read, it is important to know from the outset that I not
only have a deep trust of my senses in professional matters but am a
committed empiricist in private matters, too. Bear this in mind.
Our Study
What had taken a colleague (Jane Christian), me, and our two fami-
lies to the Subarctic was a problem having to do with thought, indi-
vidualized thought. Toward the end of an earlier project, among hunt-
ers and gatherers in south India’s dry, forested hills, I saw strong hints
throughout my notebooks that those individuals I knew best differed
even from other family members in the way they categorized and la-
beled essential items, such as food species and the woods from which
they made their basic tools for subsistence. But, was that really so, or
had I been sloppy in my research? If I was right about the interper-
