I witnessed a curious relation in Papua New Guinea that feeds into my "CULTURE" is everything narrative. So in the history of human beings moving enmasse and 'visiting' others there have been 2 big moves that really radically changed the culture of civilizations that were visited - these are
1) the obvious mzungu who visited everywhere and changed stuff, game changing stuff
2) the austronesian people (Maoris e.t.c.) who changed the cultures in the places they landed in the pacific and made it as far as madagascar (these people are tough!!)
So we have always perceived that white people and people of their heritage to be better placed than the rest - right? well I found a curious case hapa PNG, the place has like 800 ethnic groups that range from people like these
these have the heritage of the austronesian movements around the pacific... only that they live in places like this
to their highlander compatriots who were 'discovered' less than 70 years ago and have now 'come out' into the modern world.
these are people who were in the stone age 70 years ago but are running circles around the coastal people... by hook or by crook (mostly by crook)! they are hard workers that don't give a f*ck!! you cross them... you go to makueni pap! hawacheki na watu... (some times literally... I have found myself laughing alone in conversations as they look curiously at me.... stern MOFOs) As one of the coastals person here once said, All PNG people use witchcraft to protect themselves, only that the highlander's witchcraft is the machete!! Hao wengine nikutafuna tu betel nut na kupiga ma-story! My opinion is that the highlanders joined the world when it was saner and their self image was not damaged by other cultures... self image is very much the starting point.
All Mushrooms are edible! Some Mushroom are only edible ONCE!