Tag: humans

“The woods gal, that’s what they called me.” Emma Dupree, 1898-1996.
Photos by Mary Anne McDonald.

Emma Dupree was a respected herbal healer in Pitt County, North Carolina: “From
the time she could walk, Emma felt drawn to the land. She would roam
the woods, plucking, sniffing, tasting weeds. She grew up that way,
collecting the leaves, stems, roots, and bark of sweet gum, white mint,
mullein, sassafras in her coattail or a tin bucket. She’d tote them back
to the farm, rinse them in well water and tie them in bunches to dry.
In the backyard, she’d raise a fire under a kettle and boil her herbs to
a bubbly froth, then pour it up in brown-necked stone jugs: a
white-mint potion for poor circulation; catnip tea for babies with
colic; tansy tea – hot or cold – for low blood sugar; mullein tea for a
stomach ache …”
— Paige Williams

Greenness around homes linked to lower mortality



Women live longer in areas with more green vegetation, according to
new research funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health
Sciences (NIEHS), part of the National Institutes of Health. Women with
the highest levels of vegetation, or greenness, near their homes had a
12 percent lower death rate compared to women with the lowest levels of
vegetation near their homes. The results were published Apr. 14, 2016 in
the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

The researchers found the biggest differences in death rates from
kidney disease, respiratory disease, and cancer. The researchers also
explored how an environment with trees, shrubs, and plants might lower
mortality rates. They showed that improved mental health and social
engagement are the strongest factors, while increased physical activity
and reduced air pollution also contribute.

“It is important to know that trees and plants provide health
benefits in our communities, as well as beauty,” said NIEHS director
Linda Birnbaum, Ph.D. “The finding of reduced mortality suggests that
vegetation may be important to health in a broad range of ways.”

Reference: James P, Hart JE, Banay RF, Laden F. Exposure to
greenness and mortality in a nationwide prospective cohort study of
women. Environmental Health Perspectives; doi:10.1289/ehp.1510363
[Online 14 Apr 2016].

Image: TreeHouse Point, Issaquah, WA

The Bajau
of southeast Asia are a nomadic, Indigenous population of people who
are primarily seaborne – meaning that they live their entire lives, from
birth to death, on the open water, venturing onto land only rarely to
sell or trade their wares. Traditionally from the Philippines, they see
themselves as a non-aggressive people, and keep close to the water by
building their houses on stilts and traveling mainly by boat. Bajau are
particularly noted for their skill in free-diving, which can be in
excess of five hours per day while they hunt for fish and valuables like
pearls and coins. A small minority of Bajau even choose to
intentionally puncture their eardrums at a young age in order to
facilitate diving.

Unlike many of the neighboring populations, Bajau are egalitarian, highly individualistic, and do not practice a caste system. (Source)

Genie was born in 1957 in California. Her father determined that
she was mentally disabled and therefore not worthy of his attention or
care. He isolated her from everybody – locking her alone inside a room
until she reached the age of 13. While inside this room, he kept her
strapped to a toilet or enclosed in a crib. Due to her isolation, she
was incapable of communicating or walking when she was finally rescued
by Los Angeles child welfare authorities on 4 November, 1970. Her father
would beat her with a plank wood each time she attempted to communicate
with her family and would bark and growl at her like a dog to
intimidate her – this instilled a severe fear of dogs which continued
after she was freed. He even grew his fingernails; the sole purpose
being so he could scratch at Genie is she ever “misbehaved.” After she
was freed, she was often used as a case study for psychologists,
linguists, and scientists. She was sent into care and while there seemed
to be a series of breakthroughs in the beginning, there were also major
setbacks – she was exploited and also abused by those who were supposed
to be caring for her – she was sent to an extremely religious foster
care home in which she retreated and in 1977, she managed to tell a
children’s hospital that her foster parents had physically punished her
when she had been sick. Following this, her speech never recovered and
nobody knows for sure what became of her other than she was sent to an
institute for the mentally undeveloped in Southern California in 2008.

Amazon Indians demand: ‘Respect our right to remain uncontacted’

image

Crossed spears, a common sign used by uncontacted Indians to warn outsiders to stay away.

Amazon Indian organizations have labeled calls by two US
anthropologists to forcibly contact uncontacted tribes as “arrogant” and
“irresponsible.”

Peru’s main Amazon Indian organization AIDESEP, as well several smaller Amazonian indigenous groups, released a statement in response to a recent editorial in Science magazine by US anthropologists Robert Walker and Kim Hill.

The anthropologists claim that uncontacted tribes
are “unviable” and that governments are violating their responsibility
to protect isolated tribes if they “refuse authorized, well-planned
contacts.” Currently, international and Peruvian laws guarantee
uncontacted tribes the right to reject contact with mainstream society.

In an open letter,
the organizations wrote, “The way of life that we as indigenous peoples
choose to live is a decision that we ourselves make, and one which the
State and society has to respect. National and international laws grant
us the right to maintain our cultures and make decisions over our
present and future lives.

“We reject any call or act that seeks to impose a way of life that is
rejected by our brothers in isolation and initial contact.”

There are more than a hundred uncontacted tribes around the world, all face catastrophe unless their land is protected. In Peru, five reserves have been created to protect the lands and
lives of uncontacted tribes. A further five areas are known to be
inhabited by uncontacted tribes, but the government has been slow to protect them.

Stephen Corry, Director of Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights, recently wrote in US journal Truth Out,
“It’s time to stand in resistance against those who just can’t abide
that there are some who choose a different path to ours, who don’t
subscribe to our values, and who don’t make us richer unless we steal
their land.”

Amazon Indians demand: ‘Respect our right to remain uncontacted’