The Old Hunting Routes of Endangered Indian Tribes

By Liu Yan

There are many tribes of indigenous people in South America. Like many primitive tribes, these native peoples live as they have for a millennium. Every day, the strong young men go out hunting and all come back to the tribe at night and share their game from the hunt for daily sustenance.

However, densely grown rain forests have begun shrinking due to invasion and development,and with them, the availability of game animals. As a result, the Indian population has started to diminish, with only a few tribes surviving after just a few short years.

A scientist, interested in Indian history, ventured to the rain forests to exchange ideas,and do research on their life and history. Gradually he seemed to identify the general patterns of the extinction of these tribes.

Through comparing the history of several populous tribes, he discovered that each tribe had different hunting habits. Some were led by experienced hunters,capable of finding places teeming with fauna. While some other tribes depended totally on luck,essentially, letting the gods decide their hunting routes. Before going out, they would decide their course based on the divinations of their oracle.

Contrary to reason, the former tribes who trusted experienced hunters died out while the latter survived and some of them have even become prosperous.

The scientist was at a loss to explain it. One day, while hunting with them, the answer hit him immediately, though the experienced hunters knew where to find more animals, the animals themselves had caught on,making the hunt more difficult.

From this we learn that,experience can teach us to avoid some detours, but sometimes it can also be the worst teacher in practice.◆

(From Life Times, October 13,2017. Translation: Xu Chaolan)

在南美，有很多印第安部落。跟很多原始部落一樣，這些印第安人保留著非常傳統的生活方式。他們每天都會派出部落中最孔武有力的年輕人外出打獵，到了晚上，再將獵獲的獵物放在一起食用。一直以來，印第安部落都過著這樣的生活。

漸漸地，由于外來文明的入侵和開發，原先茂盛的雨林范圍開始縮小。雨林縮小后，林中可供捕獲的獵物也變少。慢慢地，有些印第安部落的人數開始變少。很多年后，雨林里僅存少數幾個印第安部落的人。

后來，一位科學家對印第安人的歷史產生興趣，他深入雨林與印第安人交流，并記錄印第安人的生活和歷史。在研究中，科學家漸漸發現，印第安部落的消亡是有規律可循的。

通過對比幾個較大的印第安部落的歷史，科學家發現，各個印第安部落的狩獵習慣是不一樣的。有些印第安部落每次外出打獵時，都是由經驗最豐富的獵人帶路，由獵人決定狩獵路線。在他們看來，經驗豐富的獵人才知道哪里的獵物最多，自然可以憑經驗獲得更多獵物。而有些部落呢，則聽天由命。他們信奉神明，每次外出狩獵時，都要讓祭司先占卜，由占卜結果來決定狩獵路線。

奇怪的是，那些依靠經驗豐富的獵人決定路線的印第安部落最終都滅亡了，而一直沿用占卜方式決定狩獵路線的部落反而存活下來，有些還逐漸壯大。

這樣的研究結果讓科學家百思不得其解，然而，當他跟隨印第安人去打過一次獵之后，就明白了。科學家發現，經驗豐富的獵人固然知道哪條路線的獵物最多，但是，再多的獵物也經不住再三狩獵。

豐富的經驗固然讓人有規律可循，少走彎路，但在實際生活中，經驗有時卻是最壞的老師。◆