The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies? (81 page)

Plate 15.
Traditional dispute resolution, in a Ugandan village. Disputants who have already known one another personally gather to settle their dispute, in a way that will permit them to resolve their feelings and continue to encounter each other peacefully for the rest of their lives. (
Chapter 2
)

Plate 16.
Modern dispute resolution, in an American courtroom. A defense attorney (left) and a criminal prosecutor (right) argue a point before a judge (middle). The alleged criminal, the victim, and the victim’s family did not know each other before the alleged crime and will probably never encounter each other again. (
Chapter 2
)

Plate 17.
Traditional toys: Mozambique boys with toy cars that they have made themselves, thereby learning how axles and other car components are designed. Traditional toys are few, simple, made by the child or its parents, and thus educational. (
Pages 205
and
459
)

Plate 18.
Modern toys: an American girl surrounded by her dozens of manufactured toys bought in stores, thereby depriving her of the educational value that traditional children gain from designing and making their own toys. (
Page 204
)

Plate 19.
Traditional child autonomy: Pume Indian baby playing with a large sharp knife. Children in many traditional societies are permitted to make their own decisions, including whether to do dangerous things that most modern parents would never permit a child to do. (
Page 198
)

Plate 20.
Traditional toy: an Aka baby carrying a home-made toy basket on his head, similar to the head-held baskets that Aka adults carry. (
Page 204
)

Plate 21.
A Hadza grandmother foraging while carrying her grandchild. One reason old people are considered valuable in traditional societies is that they serve as care-givers and food-producers to their grandchildren. (
Pages 185
,
188
, and
218
)

Plate 22.
An older Pume Indian man making arrow points. Another reason older people are considered valuable in traditional societies is that they serve as the best makers of tools, weapons, baskets, pots, and textiles. (
Page 218
)

Plate 23.
A Chinese advertisement for Coca-Cola. The American cult of youth and the low status of the elderly, now spreading to China, are reflected even in the choice of models for ads. Old as well as young people drink soft drinks, but who ever saw an ad depicting old people exuberantly drinking Coca-Cola? (
Page 226
)

Plate 24.
Advertisement for a consulting service specializing in senior living. Instead of older people appearing in ads to sell drinks, clothes, and new cars, they appear in ads for retirement homes, arthritis drugs, and adult diapers. (
Page 226
)

Plate 25.
Ancient religion?: the famous rock wall paintings deep inside France’s Lascaux cave still inspire awe in modern visitors. They suggest that human religion dates back at least to the Ice Age 15,000 years ago. (
Page 340
)

Plate 26.
Traditional feasting among Dani people in the Baliem Valley of the New Guinea Highlands. Traditional feasting is very infrequent, the food consumed is not fattening (low-fat sweet potatoes in this case), and the feasters do not become obese or end up with diabetes. (
Chapter 11
)