Sorry about this guys - but this is about the only Forum on the Internet and this is about the only Sub-Forum that this fits into.

A couple of years ago, I had a piece of research that found a tribe of people who had no concept of greed. The tribe worked basically on a principle of:

We need:
X Water
Y Food.
Z Clothes
1 New Hut built.

And so on and so fourth, and these jobs were then filled accordingly. However the piece of research is now lost to me, unfortunetly the disk was broken when some of my boxes got transported and I can not access the file whatsoever.

I was wondering if anyone else has seen this report or knows the name of it? I really need it as I am in the process of writing a book (over 200 pages down) and I'm stuck without it or a similar piece of research...

Do you mean the kalihari (sp) bushmen? I seem to remember an African tribe that had no concept of ownership/greed/jealousy.

Originally posted by mojo4sale
Do you mean the kalihari (sp) bushmen? I seem to remember an African tribe that had no concept of ownership/greed/jealousy.

I could marry you.

That is it.

I've spent two weeks looking for it and for the life of me I couldn't think of who tehy were. Thanks a lot.

So that is two tribes now...

Amazing isn't it - no concept of greed.

Does anyone else know of any others?

Originally posted by Odium

I could marry you.

I hope your female, otherwise we'd have to move to San Francisco.

Originally posted by mojo4sale

Originally posted by Odium

I could marry you.

I hope your female, otherwise we'd have to move to San Francisco.

San Fran it is.

Thiss really helps me, if you visit PTS - I am a socialist and the arguement often used is: Human Nature and Greed go hand in hand. Tribes like this help me so much, I wish I could describe it.

If anyone else knows any others please let me know.

I think a lot of the primative tribes survival is based on sharing. If they were greedy they couldnt survive. There are a lot of them that live without greed.
Lets form a tribe.

Originally posted by Odium

Thiss really helps me, if you visit PTS - I am a socialist and the arguement often used is: Human Nature and Greed go hand in hand. Tribes like this help me so much, I wish I could describe it.

Glad to help. There was a movie based on the Bushmen, the coke bottle thrown from a plane lands were a bushman finds it and the tribe goes nuts over it as it is the only one of its kind in their tribe, and he goes on a journey to get rid of it, really funny in parts and quite poignant in its message.

Ah hah, just remembered the name of it, "The Gods Must Be Crazy".

mojo.

Originally posted by Marduk
whens the wedding ?


[edit on 6-6-2007 by Marduk]

Soon as i can find someone to give me away Marduk. Btw i wont be able to wear white.

As stated, almost all "tribes" who are distanced enough from the modern day civilization are without greed. I'd be much more suprised if you can name one that isn't!

And yes, that absolutely hilarious movie trilogy -- "The gods must be crazy" is one of my all time favourites. It was based on the Kalahari tribe and the main bushman is an actual Kalahari bushman. Fantastic movie, watch if you haven't.

Originally posted by Navieko
As stated, almost all "tribes" who are distanced enough from the modern day civilization are without greed. I'd be much more surprised if you can name one that isn't!

And yes, that absolutely hilarious movie trilogy -- "The gods must be crazy" is one of my all time favourites. It was based on the Kalahari tribe and the main bushman is an actual Kalahari bushman. Fantastic movie, watch if you haven't.

That is true.
Those tribes are good people and they are the opposite of British people. The British are most greedy people in the world who robbed Africa, Asia, America, Asia and Australia.
They couldn't stand a day without robbing. They worship Robin Hood.

Originally posted by earth2
I think a lot of the primative tribes survival is based on sharing. If they were greedy they couldnt survive. There are a lot of them that live without greed.

Exactly!

Let me qualify things a bit, though. In this case, the "tribes" are more accurately what can be called "bands" -- a group of 4 to 10 families that move around together in a semi-nomadic lifestyle. They have little and in order to survive, they have a cooperative society. In general there is not a formal leadership structure. The oldest or most experienced is the leader and if folks don't like what the leader's doing, they just don't follow them.

When people settle down in one area and the group becomes larger, issues of property begin to arise ("that's MY basket!" or "that's MY spear!") although much of the work can be done communally. Fishing and hunting rights may be assigned and there's a more formal social structure arises.

Byrd - Hopefully you'll get a chance to see this.

In your research, is there any reason as to why there's a shift as soon as we begin to move into large groups? To me it seems odd that you can have thousands of people (all these bands) able to happily move around, share power, status, etcetera, but when they get into a situation where they are together things differ.

Does anyone know of an example where a large tribe - in the hundreds - did this? Am I wrong in thinking this is how the Iroquois Confederacy worked?

The Iroquis Confederacy was simply a treaty group of the Iroquois. It was formed to decrease the state of war that existed between the different tribes of the Iroquois. It didn't stop raiding or tribal fighting, but made it more difficult for an individual tribe to go to war and exterminate another Iroquois tribe. But it didn't save the Huron, Neutral or Mohican tribes. They were all wiped out by Iroquois tribal warfare.
And contrary to popular beleif, the tribes of North America were as greedy and violent as any other human on the planet. Be careful in researching the tribes, or you could fall victim to the whitewashed politically correct new history of North America.

Originally posted by Odium
Byrd - Hopefully you'll get a chance to see this.

In your research, is there any reason as to why there's a shift as soon as we begin to move into large groups? To me it seems odd that you can have thousands of people (all these bands) able to happily move around, share power, status, etcetera, but when they get into a situation where they are together things differ.

In some sense they do have a notion of property. For instance, they don't hand around necklaces... those are the property of a person. Ditto underwear (as an example) or made to fit items. Baskets and pots are both individually owned and community owned.

Does anyone know of an example where a large tribe - in the hundreds - did this? Am I wrong in thinking this is how the Iroquois Confederacy worked?

Not really. Once you start making things and you're in a large group, certain items become scarcer (you take good care of your sleeping mat but That Person just doesn't care... and it's aggravating when they take your good mat and mess it up or expect you to make more.) Scarcity breeds need (we can't all sleep on the same mat) and a system of haves and have nots. It starts with things like "my shelter" and "my blanket" and moves from there.