From: jimruttshow8596
Traditionally, cultural anthropology has studied global peoples and cultures from a Western, reductionist, scientific perspective, focusing on aspects like kinship rules or energy extraction from a system [01:51:53].
Reverse Anthropology: An Indigenous Lens
Tyson Yunkaporta, a member of the Apalech clan of Australian Aboriginal people, describes his work as “reverse anthropology” [04:45:06]. Instead of viewing indigenous cultures through a Western lens, he looks back at the wider world using an indigenous lens [02:16:00]. This approach aims to provide greater clarity and an interesting perspective by reversing the usual view [04:31:00].
Yunkaporta likens this to looking at a “closed hand” (representing Western knowledge, like a book) through an “open hand” (representing indigenous knowledge, like a hand stencil painting), rather than the other way around [04:09:00]. This perspective is inherently a complexity lens [02:30:00].
Core Distinctions and Critiques
Civilization and Growth vs. Increase
Yunkaporta defines “civilization” as a community that must constantly grow or it will collapse, relying on the importation of resources [15:08:00]. This growth-based paradigm is considered a “denial of reality” and “denial of physics” [15:31:00].
In contrast, Aboriginal Australia operates on an “increase paradigm” [16:17:00]. Annual increase ceremonies are performed to organize behaviors and model the ecosystem for increase [16:25:00]. This differs from growth in that it doesn’t seek to increase the size of the system, but rather the relationships and exchange within the system, which can increase infinitely [16:56:00]. An example is increasing neural connections for intelligence, rather than brain size [17:10:00]. This is akin to being interested in the velocity of money, not just the size of the economy [17:27:00]. This “micro growth” allows life to become richer without disrupting the world’s outer envelope [17:59:00].
Civilizations also typically build cities, which Aboriginal people historically did not [18:52:00]. Their communities managed large estates defined by bioregions, moving seasonally to care for different parts of the country [19:04:00]. An ancient story tells of the Barker G mob who experimented with a sedentary lifestyle, forgot how to “move with” the Earth, and were nearly wiped out when the Earth shifted [19:34:00].
Language and Cognition
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis suggests that language influences cognition [31:52:00]. Yunkaporta states that culture and language affect how one sequences things and what one focuses on [31:56:00]. Non-Western and indigenous languages tend to focus on the context and background first, rather than just the foreground figure [31:14:00]. For example, indigenous people might align objects with cardinal directions (north, south, east, west) rather than the corners of a table, demonstrating a “contextual place-based cognition” [32:59:00]. Indigenous languages are deeply embedded in the landscape and perfectly describe it, linking the social system to the natural system [28:37:00].
The “Race Swindle” and Cultural Identity
The concept of “race” is seen as an economic classification, originally used to define who could be enslaved [37:38:00]. Identity is fundamentally tied to culture, not race [36:44:00]. An example is the Sami people of Northern Europe, who, despite being “white,” share fundamental ways of thinking and relating with indigenous Australians due to their maintained cultures and reindeer herding traditions [34:40:00]. This highlights that “indigenous is just human baseline, human who you are” [01:30:17].
Narcissism and Societal Breakdown
The Western “stories” of good vs. evil are seen as metaphors for the demand to impose simplicity and order on the complexity of creation, stemming from an ancient seed of narcissism [46:41:00]. Indigenous cultures are largely designed to hold narcissism in check, as its imbalance leads to societal breakdown, damaged ecologies, and a rise in defectors, freeloaders, and sociopaths [48:22:00].
In Aboriginal culture, individuals undergo multiple “ordeals” throughout their lives, starting around ages 14-15, which are rites of passage involving terror and pain [53:51:00]. The most important lesson learned is “I’m not special” [54:16:00]. This devastating realization leads to cascading insights: no one else is special either, and together, “we belong to something special” as a “custodial species” of the land [54:31:00]. This crushes narcissism while maintaining a strong individualistic identity that is profoundly interconnected and related [55:09:00]. Elders and wisdom keepers will withdraw if they sense narcissism [52:22:25].
Justice and Stigmatization
Indigenous justice systems emphasize transformation through ordeal and punishment, after which the “crime is done,” and the individual’s reputation is not permanently damaged [53:09:00]. This contrasts with Western systems that permanently stigmatize individuals with criminal records [58:47:00].
Safety vs. Protection and the Agency of Violence
Aboriginal languages have no word for “safety,” but they do have words for “protection” [01:02:26]. Protection implies agency and responsibility: one is responsible for their own protection and the “active protection” (not passive safety) of others [01:02:38]. This distributed agency of violence provides group protection [01:03:01].
Violence, though acculturated, has a place and demands expression [01:08:39]. Within indigenous cultures, fights are public and transparent, governed by strict rules to prevent serious harm and collateral damage [01:09:09]. Women are not prohibited from participating as combatants, unlike in many “civilized” contexts where they are denied access to the agency of violence [01:11:36]. This “overly domesticated” state, particularly for women in many civilizations, is seen as a “crime against nature” [01:13:54].
The “fight or flight” response is not a natural condition for human nature in a fully integrated system [01:15:20]. If one is an integral part of the landscape and ecosystem, they are “never surprised by a tiger” or crocodile, as they have a “profound knowingness” of their environment [01:15:52].
The Art of Yarning
Yarning is a modality that arises from distributed governance and cognition [01:22:33]. It involves an aggregate of stories, where every person’s story must be heard, and the truth lies in that aggregate [01:23:00]. Outliers in these stories are important [01:23:41]. Yarning is a ritualized, dynamic, overlapping conversation, often involving acting things out or drawing, with the goal of arriving at a loose consensus of reality for making decisions [01:23:52]. It is not a linear “talking stick” exercise, but a complex, fluid interaction [01:25:20].
Yunkaporta states that indigenous ways are humanity’s “factory settings” or “human baseline” [01:30:17]. If one looks within, they can find “fragments” of this indigenous wisdom, with each fragment containing the pattern of the whole [01:31:09].