> when they boarded the plane back to PNG, we were the ones racked with envy – envious of their joyously interdependent community, their clear understanding of

> when they boarded the plane back to PNG, we were the ones racked with envy – envious of their joyously interdependent community, their clear understanding of what mattered in life, their rock-solid roles, simple pleasures and ample leisure time, their lack of mortgages and debts, their indisputable “goodness.” I call BS. This is not an honest appraisal but just a good line to spew forth at cocktail parties. Anyone who really believed this stuff would find it relatively easy to join one of these hunter gatherer tribes. (For instance, Napoleon Chagnon lived for decades amidst one of the fiercer tribes [1]. Read the first pages of his book and you'll see he wasn't much prepared for it, either. But a few iron utensils go a long way towards acquiring tribal goodwill.) Any relocation inconvenience would certainly be over-compensated by the very fundamental benefits described. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_Chagnon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_Chagnon