Ah, These Tribes Have Nothing To Teach Us...

A 'Guardian' article heaps praise on the distinguished anthropologist Jared Diamond:

Some tribal customs, such as widow-strangling, will not be missed, of course. "We should not romanticise traditional societies," he says. "There are horrible things that we want to avoid, but there (sic) wonderful things that we should emulate."

Things like being permissive with our children (aren't we already?) or respecting our elders. Well, when we aren't bumping them off, that is...

Nomad tribes, particularly those in the Arctic or deserts, faced with insufficient food will often kill old people or abandon them – or encourage them to commit suicide, a grim policy taken to extremes not just by the Kaulong but by people of the Banks Islands in the Pacific, whose old and sick would beg their friends to bury them alive to end their suffering, and the Chukchi, who live in the northeastern corner of Asia, who used to encourage their old folk to let themselves be strangled on the promise they would get preferential treatment in the next world. Yes, it sounds grim, admits Diamond, but it has a cruel logic: food supplies are limited and what else should they do when resources dry up? Let their children starve?

Actually, Jared, I think you'll find that's one of the 'horrible things we want to avoid' and we should probably not emulate it...