Noble Savages

I first head about the Moken people of Burma and Thailand (also called Sea Gypsies or Amphibious People) after the Southeast Asian tsunami of 2004. This primitive group lived in ground-zero of the tsunami destruction, but they all managed to avoid the storm. Just like the many animals in India, Burma, and other countries, they knew the storm was coming well before it hit and moved to higher ground. It’s been almost four years since the tsunami, but I frequently find myself thinking about the Moken culture and instincts of animals that prevented their demise. I know for a fact that I am not in tune to my surroundings in this regard, although it’s an ability that interests me greatly.

Moken children learn to swim before they learn to walk. Given their location and lifestyle, swimming is just more important. They are pescatarians, like me :), and dive in the sea to catch their food (adults can go up to 200 feet!). They also are a nomadic group and travel from island to island throughout their lives. They live on simple boats for a portion of each year and homes built in the intertidal zone the rest of the year. I definitely think the Moken would be categorized as “noble savages,” which is probably one of the reasons I find them so fascinating. My trip to Vanuatu in 1999 introduced me to a more modern version of the noble savage, with which I fell in love and sometimes daydream about assimilating with.

Back to the Mokens. They obviously KNOW the ocean. So before the tsunami hit, the Mokens either travelled to higher ground or went out to deeper water. What is fascinating is that Burmese fisherman working in the same area were not in tune to the strange clues the ocean gave them, and ended up suffering through the tsunami. In contrast, I’ve read that large land mammals stampeded to higher ground and ocean mammals swam to deeper water. On the island of Sumatra in Indonesia, no dead animals were found, but there were tens of thousands of human fatalities. Elsewhere in Asia, tribal groups were also reported as seeking higher ground after observing the fleeting animals.

Animals have of course been known to act strangely before earthquakes, avalanches, and other disasters. It amazes me that even the most domesticated dogs and cats can pick up on the warning signs and react, but unfortunately many humans don’t even pick up on their pets’ strange behavior. I’ve read that most of us non-savage humans have completely lost a part of our hearing spectrum due to the overabundance of constant noise in our surroundings. As we continue to spend hours with headphones in our ears and loud entertainment media surrounding us, it seems plausible that each generation could lose a little more of its hearing ability. But I digress.

If you like the Moken photos above, check out the rest of the Mother Jones Photo Essay:
Mother Jones' Sea Change