Simple Minds - Book of Brilliant Things

As I mentioned some way back I think along with Asperger's I also have ADHD, which I prefer to call cognitive meandering, apparently the two traits occur together remarkably frequently.

 Which leads me into the topic of tonight's post, two National Geographic articles on the Yupno People of Papua New Guinea.

The Point of Pointing

Having read the first article, the method the Yupno use to point seems to have some of the brightest minds in America stumped so I thought I'd give a plastic Cockney's take on it.

As far as I can work out Papua New Guinea was first settled by modern humans around 45,000 years ago during the Pleistocene (Ice Age). Now the Yupno are few in number and live in the centre surrounded by mountains. Obviously to get there, they would have had to climb these mountains and descend again once they reached the summit. 

Presumably this would have been done by a small band of men and women following the same route for safety. The only way to really climb a mountain is to hang on with both hands, except when reaching for a new handhold. The band would have to be constantly searching for the easiest, safest route up so when the way didn't seem obvious or was tricky they would probably pause and all look around to find it. This may have involved scanning the landscape for some time and long pauses to consider certain features in the landscape. 

So how then to convey to each other that they are all in agreement with the way forward? By scrunching the face up first and then pointing the head in the direction to go, it would hopefully minimise confusion within the band as to what one of them considered the best route to go. It would be interesting to know how the Yupno signal yes/no but it almost certainly will be with a head movement in my opinion.

On another point in the article, that of the tendency of the Yupno to whisper, I'm no expert but is it such a wise idea to shout your mouth off half way up a snowy mountain given the unpredictable nature of avalanches?

Moving on to the second article These People Have a Mind-Bending Way to Navigate

Putting the points discussed in the two articles together my theory is that essentially the Yupno words for uphill/downhill mean exactly the same as forward/backward. Think about the manner in which they would have had to ascend and then descend terrain often too difficult to stand up on.

If anyone wants to test this, ask a Yupno to stand at the door of a house facing outwards and then ask him to walk backwards towards the fire: if he describes this as going downhill I reckon I'm on to something.

Romford Rob Jackson 27/07/2024


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