the yir-yoront
The Yir-Yoront are a stone-age, Aboriginal people group. Tribal power hierarchies were based around a stone ax which the elders kept and lent out to members of the community on a merit-basis. Unaware, settlers equipped women and children with steel axes and effectively liquidated the Yir-Yoront’s power structure. In a meeting last Wednesday, Oneal Tankersly referenced this story as an example of unintended consequences. While the Holtons and Cauldwells haven’t suggested that video equipment will corrode the Yao culture (if anything it will supplement it), this article is still chastening, to say the least.
Here’s an article with the gritty details: Steel Axes for Stone-Age Australians
