From: jimruttshow8596
Tyson Yunkaporta, an academic, art critic, and researcher, and a member of the Apalech Clan of Australian Aboriginal people, offers a unique perspective on reality and civilization through the lens of Indigenous knowledge. He is also a senior lecturer in Indigenous Knowledge at Deakin University in Melbourne and the author of the book “Sand Talk” [00:00:44]. His work is notable for its approach, which is described as “looking back out at the wider world using an indigenous lenz” [00:02:16], a form of “reverse anthropology” [00:04:45].
Complexity as a Core Lens
Yunkaporta explicitly connects Indigenous ways of knowing to complexity science [00:02:30]. He views complexity theory as a “really good metaphor” that aligns well with the Indigenous perspective [00:02:34]. The term “complex” or “complexity” appears 77 times in his book, “Sand Talk” [00:03:03].
To illustrate this shift in perspective, he uses the framework of “two hands”:
- A “closed hand that’s like reading a book” represents the Western, reductionist scientific perspective [00:04:09].
- A “spread open hand”, like the rock hand stencil paintings seen in caves, represents the Indigenous lens [00:04:09].
Instead of viewing Indigenous cultures through the “closed hand” of Western thought, turning it around and looking at the “closed hand” through the “open hand” provides “a lot more clarity and interesting perspective” [00:04:31].
Indigenous Identity and Living Culture
Yunkaporta’s personal journey reflects this evolving understanding of identity. Initially defined by racist ideas of “genetic inheritance,” he later saw his identity tied to material culture in a performative way [00:08:17]. However, for the last 15-20 years, his identity has been understood as a knowledge system – focusing on “ways of thinking and patterns of thinking and… systems of logic” [00:09:27].
This perspective treats Indigenous culture as “alive rather than as a museum artifact” [00:10:09]. It is interpreted as “live and adaptive and interacting with the world” [00:10:28]. An example of this adaptability is the integration of modern technology like cell phones into contemporary Aboriginal culture. While they improved adult literacy, they also had “a lot of really negative consequences” on cognition and connection to the world [00:11:10].
Indigenous languages are deeply “embedded in the landscape” and perfectly describe the bioregion [00:28:37]. The social system is not separate from the land, and there are no distinct words for “society” and “nature” [00:28:47]. This contrasts with English, which is “famously poor in its pronouns,” highlighting the nuance and importance of relationships in Indigenous languages [00:29:18]. Studies show that language and culture affect cognition, sequencing of thoughts, and focus, with Indigenous cultures tending to focus on the “context first” rather than the foreground figure [00:31:56]. This cognitive difference is observed in communities maintaining their languages and cultures, such as the Sami people [00:34:40].
Critique of “Civilization”
Yunkaporta defines “civilization” negatively as “a community that must be constantly growing or it will collapse” and therefore “relies on the importation of resources” [00:15:08]. This “growth based imperative” is seen as a “denial of reality,” physics, and mathematics, leading to an unsustainable “pyramid scheme” [00:15:31].
In contrast, Aboriginal culture operates on an “increase paradigm” [00:16:17]. Annual “increase ceremonies” organize behaviors to encourage “increase” in the ecosystem, not in size, but in the “relationships within system” and “exchange within the system” [00:16:50]. This is likened to the brain not growing larger but making more neural connections to get smarter [00:17:10]. This “micro growth” allows for infinite enrichment of aspects like poetry or relationships, without disrupting the “outer envelope” of the world [00:18:22].
Civilizations are characterized by the building of cities, a concept absent from traditional Aboriginal life [00:18:52]. Aboriginal people managed large estates defined by bioregions, moving seasonally to care for different parts of the country [00:19:04]. While some communities experimented with sedentary lifestyles, the lesson learned was the need to “move with” the earth, as forgetting this led to near extinction [00:19:37]. Ancient oral histories still contain “maps” of land now submerged due to post-Ice Age inundations [00:21:50].
The Great Filter and Narcissism
Yunkaporta posits a connection between the unsustainability of civilizations and the Fermi Paradox: “Maybe the reason all the powerful instruments pointed the sky have not yet been able to detect high-tech alien civilizations of these unsustainable societies don’t last long enough to leave a cosmic trace” [00:45:01]. This aligns with the “Great Filter” argument, suggesting a potential barrier to long-term galactic civilization [00:45:32].
A core issue driving this unsustainability is identified as “narcissism,” described as “an ancient seed of narcissism that has flourished due to a new imbalance in human societies” [00:47:04]. This is linked to the “relatively recent demand that simplicity and order be imposed upon the complexity of creation” [00:46:56], leading to monocultures and an “arrogance” that fosters the thought “I am greater than” [00:48:18].
Indigenous cultures are fundamentally designed as a “response to narcissism,” aiming to “hold narcissism in check” [00:48:26]. When narcissism becomes unbalanced, society breaks down, systems fail, and ecology is damaged [00:49:01]. This allows for a rise in “defectors,” “freeloaders,” “sociopaths,” and “predators” [00:49:16].
A crucial aspect of Indigenous wisdom is the lesson of “I’m not special” [00:54:20], learned through rites of passage and ordeals from a young age [00:53:51]. While initially devastating, this realization leads to the understanding that “no one else is special either,” fostering a “heterotic imperative” [00:54:36]. Ultimately, it reveals that “we belong to something special,” a collective “custodial species” profoundly interconnected and interdependent [00:54:57].
Justice, Safety, and Violence
The Indigenous approach to justice emphasizes transformation over permanent stigmatization. After punishment or an “ordeal” for a transgression, “the crimes done you don’t you don’t carry that around in your reputation forever it’s finished everyone forgets it” [00:53:27]. This contrasts sharply with Western systems where a criminal record can permanently disable an individual, hindering reintegration into society [00:58:50].
Indigenous languages typically have no word for “safety,” but they do have words for “protection” [01:02:26]. “Protection” implies agency and responsibility, not just for one’s own protection but for the “active protection… of all the people around you” [01:02:42]. This collective responsibility fosters power and reduces anxiety [01:03:04].
Violence, though often taboo in Western discourse, is acknowledged as having a place in Indigenous cultures, but it needs to be “acculturated” and guided by codes [01:08:33]. Negative emotions, like anger, must be given “expression immediately” [01:08:55]. If a “big transgression” occurs, a public and transparent fight may ensue, with strict rules enforced by the community, such as “not kicking,” “not hitting already anybody when they’re on the ground,” or “not pulling hair” [01:09:09]. Unlike some observations of Western street fights, Indigenous fights often involve waiting for an opponent to get up if they fall [01:09:34].
This contrasts with Western “settler violence” where “governance is almost non-existent,” leading to “horribly violent” and “terribly damaging” outcomes, often with collateral damage to bystanders [01:11:01]. Furthermore, in settler contexts, women are often “absolutely prohibited from participating as combatants” [01:11:28], whereas Indigenous women actively participate in fights [01:11:38]. The “domestication” of women in civilized societies, seen in practices like foot-binding or the concept of “Western femininity,” is seen as a “crime against nature,” producing “weak and soft little things” at the mercy of others [01:13:54].
The Art of “Yarning”
The “yarn” in Indigenous culture is a “modality that arises from” distributed governance and cognition [01:22:33]. It is a process where “every different story every person’s story must be heard” to form an “aggregate of stories” [01:23:17]. The “truth lies in that aggregate of all those stories,” including outliers that don’t conform to consensus [01:23:23]. Yarning is often a “ritualized conversation” involving dynamic, overlapping discussions, acting things out, and drawing images, with the goal of “arriving at a loose consensus of what the reality is” [01:23:52]. Decisions and plans emerge from this collective knowledge [01:24:15].
This communal method contrasts with superficial “talking circles” that become a linear queue, focusing on individuals being “heard” rather than true collective wisdom [01:24:33]. In a true yarn, knowledge and wisdom are “held by the entire group and all the stories” [01:28:46]. This resonates with activities like hunting where deep knowledge of place and animal behavior is collectively built and shared, leading to adaptive outcomes [01:26:18].
Yunkaporta suggests that these Indigenous ways of knowing are “factory settings” or “human baseline” – a “wild state” from which humans are often twisted and domesticated by civilization [01:30:15]. This domestication has led to reduced cognitive capacities, with “domesticated human” brains being about 10% smaller than Cro-Magnon man [01:29:29]. By “mining the margins for indigenous wisdom,” individuals can find fragments of this inherent wisdom within themselves and their own activities, leading to a richer and more “real” human experience [01:30:57].