In this blog post, we explore how traditional ways of life—which prioritize community bonds and ecological balance over material abundance—can provide lessons and insights for modern society.
We tend to assume that all human societies throughout history have pursued the value of material abundance. Since basic human needs and the essentials for survival depend on material resources, most societies are believed to prioritize them. However, this conventional wisdom does not apply to the Kung, a hunter-gatherer tribe in the Kalahari Desert who place a high value on community bonds and peace. Once their basic hunger is satisfied, they strive to maintain spiritual joy and harmonious social relationships through various games and ritual activities. This attitude of the Kung people stems from wisdom gained through experience in the savanna ecosystem.
The Kung way of life prioritizes ecological stability and emphasizes living in harmony with the rhythms of nature. In other words, they allocate labor based on knowledge of ecological changes during the dry and wet seasons, the migration routes of prey, and edible plants. This knowledge has been passed down through generations and is deeply intertwined with their identity, rather than serving merely as a means of survival. Furthermore, they have developed an adaptive system that minimizes hardship by sharing produce and hunting tools with members of their clan. This spirit of sharing is a crucial factor enabling the Kung people to maintain a close-knit community. While humans must eat to survive, how much they eat and how they eat varies by culture.
In contrast, an example of how the indiscriminate pursuit of wealth can completely destroy a culture can be found among the Sahol, a nomadic group in Africa. The Sahel people began to suffer gradually from the 1920s onward due to population growth. As the population increased, more resources were needed, leading to changes in their way of life. In the mid-1960s, when rainfall exceeded the average and pastures became abundant, the Sahel people began to competitively increase their herds significantly to gain personal profit. Later, as the weather became drier, they responded by grazing even more livestock in an attempt to maintain their quality of life. As a result, the grasslands that served as their livelihood gradually turned into a desert, making survival impossible. This incident can be seen as the result of the principle of harmony with the ecosystem—embodied in traditional cultural adaptation—being replaced by the pursuit of personal desires.
The case of the Sahel people vividly illustrates the disasters that can ensue when the balance with nature is disrupted. As the pursuit of material wealth degenerated into the fulfillment of personal desires that went beyond mere survival, they were unable to preserve their traditional way of life and environment. Such changes led not merely to an ecological disaster but to the collapse of the community and the loss of cultural identity.
Many anthropologists have reported instances where the accumulation of wealth is used not to secure material comfort and convenience, but as a means to achieve other ends. The Kwakuutl Indians of North America practiced a festival called the potlatch, characterized by wasteful consumption, until the early 20th century. To gain higher prestige and authority, they competitively invited guests, bestowed lavish gifts, destroyed valuable goods in front of large crowds, and even set their own homes ablaze. While this festival may appear wasteful and destructive to modern eyes, it was rooted in a context of abundant natural resources and a fluid social hierarchy. Furthermore, through a culture that regarded the acquisition of political prestige and authority as the highest value, they achieved the effect of a natural distribution of wealth. Such festivals played a crucial role in reaffirming social relationships and strengthening bonds between individuals, going beyond mere consumption.
The large-scale pig slaughter festival of the Maring people in New Guinea is a similar example. The Maring people believe that the number of pigs they raise directly reflects their social status and political authority. Therefore, they carefully tend to their pigs throughout the year and do not serve pork at their tables. This taboo is broken during a festival known as Kaikora. This festival takes place at a time when the pig population has grown so large that food becomes scarce and labor is insufficient to care for them. When the festival begins, they feast on pork—which is rarely eaten otherwise—and generously gift pigs to members of allied tribes. Through this, they secure allies for war, free up labor resources, and restore the balance of the ecosystem. For the Maring people, this festival is not merely an act of consuming surplus resources, but an important means of managing ecological crises and strengthening social solidarity.
The examples above demonstrate that the pursuit of material wealth may not be the central value of a culture and can instead be utilized as a means to achieve other objectives. This diversity arises because the institutions and customs of each culture develop based on their own historical, economic, and ecological conditions. Therefore, it is difficult to judge the superiority of one culture over another based on a single standard, or to discuss the merits or demerits of specific cultural elements. Instead, it is important to understand and evaluate each culture within the environment and context to which it belongs.
