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Old 07-10-2007, 12:44 PM   #1353
Cady Goldfield
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 1,035
United_States
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Re: Baseline skillset

Quote:
Mike Sigman wrote: View Post
I notice that when I carry loads, like for instance flagstones for the patio I'm building, I just trigger my ki strength (of course jin/kokyu is there, too) almost automatically and it strikes me that long ago someone discovered this same thing..... and the ONLY reason I know it is because his discovery got passed down for many generations. I would never have even known where to look nor would I have imagined it, so I don't think it's one that just anyone is going to stumble into.
But, Mike, have you been carrying flagstones since you were a child in Nepal? Seriously, this is my posit -- people in labor-intensive cultures use their bodies in ways that post-industrial peoples have rarely, if ever, done. An occasional hardscape project in your yard is not akin to daily tasks over a lifetime. Girls start load-bearing when they are 6 years old, in countries such as Nepal (although it's hard to tell how old a child by looking at them in such a place...the lack of nourishment can stunt grown, and a 12-year-old can look like an 8-year-old). I saw unsupervised children carrying loads up steep mountain trails, for long distances (deforestation forces villagers to walk farther for firewood, and outside of the valley areas in Kathmandu and Pokhara, trails to and from villages are all up-and-down, for miles. Often, the girls would be carrying an infant sibling in a sling, too!

One thing I observed, is that occasionally an elder woman would add sticks to the child's load. I don't know whether they were just seeing how much they could pack on to save another trip, or whether they were testing to see how much more the child could carry. Probably the former, but you never know.

Your trip to Home Despot was likely in a pickup truck, and your engagement with flagstones, brief. But if you had grown up in Kenya, carrying water jugs on your head for 5 miles to and from the river, maybe you would have had to discover the "skills" for yourself.

It would be interesting to research as to whether village elderwomen have a codified oral teaching tradition for load-bearing, or whether they start their daughters with small containers and let them gradually teach themselves with increasing loads.

Last edited by Cady Goldfield : 07-10-2007 at 12:57 PM.
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