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。跟很多原始部落一样，这些印第安人保留着非常传统的生活方式。他们每天都会派出部落中最孔武有力的年轻人外出打猎，到了晚上，再将猎获的猎物放在一起食用。一直以来，印第安部落都过着这样的生活。

渐渐地，由于外来文明的入侵和开发，原先茂盛的雨林范围开始缩小。雨林缩小后，林中可供捕获的猎物也变少。慢慢地，有些印第安部落的人数开始变少。很多年后，雨林里仅存少数几个印第安部落的人。

后来，一位科学家对印第安人的历史产生兴趣，他深入雨林与印第安人交流，并记录印第安人的生活和历史。在研究中，科学家渐渐发现，印第安部落的消亡是有规律可循的。

通过对比几个较大的印第安部落的历史，科学家发现，各个印第安部落的狩猎习惯是不一样的。有些印第安部落每次外出打猎时，都是由经验最丰富的猎人带路，由猎人决定狩猎路线。在他们看来，经验丰富的猎人才知道哪里的猎物最多，自然可以凭经验获得更多猎物。而有些部落呢，则听天由命。他们信奉神明，每次外出狩猎时，都要让祭司先占卜，由占卜结果来决定狩猎路线。

奇怪的是，那些依靠经验丰富的猎人决定路线的印第安部落最终都灭亡了，而一直沿用占卜方式决定狩猎路线的部落反而存活下来，有些还逐渐壮大。

这样的研究结果让科学家百思不得其解，然而，当他跟随印第安人去打过一次猎之后，就明白了。科学家发现，经验丰富的猎人固然知道哪条路线的猎物最多，但是，再多的猎物也经不住再三狩猎。

丰富的经验固然让人有规律可循，少走弯路，但在实际生活中，经验有时却是最坏的老师。◆