Sensuality and Consciousness V: Emergence of the "Savage Savage" The Study of Child Behavior and Human Development in Cultural Isolates
Anthropology of Consciousness March 1, 1997 E. Richard Sorenson
This paper describes a type of consciousness characteristic of a preconquest era, which survives today only in isolated enclaves. This consciousness focuses liminally on direct sensory experience, producing a continuous, non-discrete cognition that cannot be managed by syntax and logic. It generates a way of life that is simultaneously individualistic and collective, and a spontaneous group rapport alien to modern beings. The authors argue that this type of consciousness collapses when seized by hostile or domineering cultures. They pose questions about the reconcilability of truth across eras and whether today's type of consciousness reflects a positive or negative turning in mental evolution. The paper also addresses the contradictory accounts of "untouched" peoples by early explorers versus their conquerors.