- Most anthropologists recognise that what is standard for one culture is quite exotic in another. Standard in terms of habits, activities etc. This we can observe particularly in the preconquest and post-conquest era. - Epistemology and anthropology are closely intertwined with one another. Epistemology is an anthropological problem and likewise anthropology is an epistemological problem. We clearly need truths that are not associated with any one particular culture. - The preconquest era is only possible in small populations surrounded by lots of open territory which anyone can go to. This gives everyone the ability to do as they please without having to infringe on anyone else's ability to do so. Such a world is one of extensive rapport. It hardly requires formal rules and there's a strong degree of integrated trust and high efficiency. - There are few tracts of such places that still exist in the world today and in these we observe how there is no private property and everything is shared for the common good. There is no forcing someone to do something either since it's just disruptive. No subjugation and hierarchies existed. - However, things change drastically the moment there is even the slightest idea of conquest. The trust disappears and soon ideas of space, boundary and group-ism prevails. - It's hard to perceive and understand preconquest societies for us. Liminal consciousness is what most preconquest societies had compared to the subliminal and supraliminal ones that we have. - In preconquest societies the point-blank, at the moment, sensory experience is to be all and end all. There is no processing it or sugarcoating it. The preconquest rapport gets built up through this integrative, collaborative sharing of thoughts an idea with no hidden agenda. - It is only in post conquest worlds that abstract ideas like value, recognition, rules, right and wrong exist. - One feature of preconquest society is the nurture of infants. The infants are constantly in contact with the mother or a mother's friend. Even when the situation is difficult, or the group is moving, the infant is a priority that is in constant physical contact. Babies in response never whined or cried, they developed a way of tactile communication. - As babies grew, they were also given incredible freedom to explore their whims and interests. The child moved out of their mother on their own with some just gentle encouragement if at all. Babies joined the activities of elders and not the other way around. The adults were simply present as a safety anchor that the babies could return to. The author even observed babies playing with knives, axes and fire and yet no injuries ever occurred. The adults and older children in the lives of babies were sources of gratification rather than obstruction. - Play was spontaneous, without any formal rules or skills to measure. The play was improvised and exploratory. The enthusiasm of younger children was a source of pleasure for older children, and they were welcomed with delight. Any negative feeling which emerged quickly faded away within the collective empathy. - The author observed a type of unity and oneness that they felt they didn't have words to describe. It seems as though the cultures are so different that we don't have good words to express this type of relationship. - The author notes how the typical Western ways of understanding don't work very well to understand preconquest cultures. - For example, even the idea of names weren't binding in some preconquest cultures. Names were improvised and varied according to time and setting. Names were nicknames until another one came along. - The preconquest societies didn't have a way to separate lands, measure time or distance. It's hard to imagine a society like that, but the idea of boundaries and regions itself was unknown. Places were associated with feelings, and the groups moved based on feelings. - Similarly, numbers and counting was not valuable either. Only few could count above five without great effort, and they didn't even have names for numbers above it. It was mostly just many after a certain point. Quantity was simply how much collective joy produced. - The idea of lying and deception as well was something absent in these societies, since they had no reason to. Babies got better responses by being open and truthful, so that just became the default. - When shown images of anger, the societies responded very dramatically, often perspiring and fearful. They weren't accustomed to negative emotions. In their mind, getting angry at someone was like one hand getting angry at the other. They even noticed subtle traces of anger in pictures that would appear normal to us. - This whole exercise shows us how an integrative human mental development was destroyed by the emergence of an adversarial, conquistadorial one. - Everything about how we live has its roots in this type of development. Even the dialectic form and rationality that we value so highly has its roots in this type of conquistadorial development. - There are a few problems when observing a different culture from our own - people from one culture can be grossly unaware of the transformational impact they have on people from a different culture - people from one culture struggle to see the fundamental dynamics of another culture when they fall outside the observer’s own cultural experience - people tend to avoid noticing major features of another culture when they are taboos by one’s own culture - preconquest peoples, indeed any empathetically oriented people, will suppress even major behavioural traits to avoid discomforting others --- Sorenson, E. Richard. Preconquest consciousness_. na, 1998. - [Link](https://lancasterdialogue.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/preconquestconsciousness.pdf)