Milton Public Library

The Blue Disc, a Rain Forest Dilemma, William B. Waits

eng

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fiction

The Blue Disc

electronic resource

dictionaries

William B. Waits

a Rain Forest Dilemma

RICK JOHNSON is an anthropology graduate student at Yale who has only his field work and dissertation remaining to get his doctorate and begin his career. His tough-minded graduate Committee sends him to Imaginación in the wild South American rain forest to do his research. Although he is risking his life to live in the jungle for a year, he journeys up river to a secluded valley deep in the interior where he is captured by a previously unknown group, the Euromamo, and held captive in an isolated bunker. Although at first the Euromamo speak an unintelligible language, Rick discovers soon, to his great surprise, that they speak English. In the Euromamo Origins Ceremony the next day, he learns that their forebears were survivors of a 1750 English shipwreck who fought their way up river to the valley where the tribe has been living in privacy ever since. The Ceremony is a prelude to the battle with a neighboring group the next day, a battle fought with paint darts according to rules that take the violence out of warfare. With some reluctance, the tribe's Leader, Mary Olive-White, decides Rick may tour the Euromamo village and tells villager John Eel Hunter to accompany Rick and answer any questions he might have. The village is amazingly advanced, containing very fine public facilities: fountains, flower lined pathways, and large well-maintained buildings. There is a clothing factory, a foundry, a medicines lab and a medical treatment facility, a large library, recreational facilities, an entertainment center with auditorium and meeting rooms, and a large communal kitchen with an attached dining room. The key to Euromamo prosperity, Rick learns, is their focus on building social wealth (that is, public facilities open to all) rather than on accumulating individual wealth. Consequently, all Euromamos are born well off as they automatically have equal access to the village's considerable public facilities. Rather than pursue individual wealth, villagers seek to improve their social status which is symbolized by bright enameled buttons pinned to special status vests. Although the Euromamo make regular trips to the coast to process and sell their plant-based medicines, they use a processing plant that keeps their existence secret. They use the proceeds from their sales to buy books and other items they don't make themselves. The key to Euromamo success is controlling what they incorporate from the outside world, that is, in maintaining their privacy. For example, in a village meeting on whether to admit pornographic VCR tapes and bullhorns for advertising, they admit the tapes (which are viewed privately) but reject the bullhorns because they would disrupt the public peace. During his year with the Euromamo, Rick travels to several neighboring groups with different approaches than the Euromamo. For example, the Nihilamamo believe that life has no meaning, the Hedomamo believe that the purpose of life is the pursuit of pleasure, the Mexamamo have allowed their priests to make up rules prohibiting birth control, the Islamamo think others must change their religious beliefs to accommodate their own, the Soumamo focus on one economic activity rather than diversifying their economy, and the Adamamo put on elaborate sporting events for neighboring groups for the purpose making sales during the games. The visits highlight how the Euromamo live differently. Rick attends several irreverent services of the two Euromamo religious denominations. The Church of World Religion thinks that all religious leaders, whether within the rain forest or outside, are Witch Doctors who make up their religious doctrine. Because doctrine is merely made up, the congregants require that they make it up to benefit society

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