Indigenous Peoples Issues & Resources

[MJ Hardman]

I have found this thread lovely, interesting and thought provoking.

Nothing fancy or high-tech? ‹ the pictures you sent showed an enormous
amount of technology, as well as artistry and basic patterns elaborated.  I
remember once when my son wanted to go back to live in the town of his
father and farm the steep terraced slopes of the Andes.  One of his many
aunts took him aside and explained that he could have others farm his land
and give him some of the product, he could be school teacher, but that he
did not have the knowledge necessary to farm, to handle the animals, he did
not know the technological knowledge.  And it is technology.  If engineers
had laid the pipes to bring the water from high up and allow it to come down
the mountain in a controlled fashion to water all the terraces that cove two
sides of the mountain over miles and thousand of feet of altitude we would
call it Œhigh-tech¹; that it be in ditches does not make it less so. And to
know this system well enough to use it, to maintain it, to create festivals
around it, to compose music for it, well., not high-tech?

And simple?  Buttons (as in remotes) are simple.  For the user.  Think of
the difference of technological knowledge on the individual basis.

The spirals are so beautiful.  And so complex/simple and can be done in so
many ways.  And they work in stone, in wood, in anything of fabric or
thread, in the wind.  And the look is, indeed, profoundly Œfancy¹ even if I
also agree that it is a Œbasic¹ pattern.

Recognition of repetition in patterned complex ways is also language, basic
to humanity.

Thanks for all your insights.  MJ

On 7/5/10 11:30 PM, "Richard Zane Smith" <rzs at WILDBLUE.NET> wrote:

>>> Maybe as an artist/craftsman
>>> I like to see simple basic patterns in things.... nothing fancy or
>>> high-tech...
>>> 
>>> ske:noh
>>> Richard

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