So, let’s say you’re a renowned archeologist
and Egyptologist. What sort of thing[s] would you need to know to be aces in
your chosen field?
You make your list and I’ll make my own uninformed
list.
My list includes such things as…
·
A degree or apprenticeship in the ways and means
of archeology.
·
A facile ability to read hieroglyphics, both hieratic
and demotic.
·
A good knowledge of pyramid and tomb construction.
·
A deep understanding of ancient Egyptian history
and culture.
·
I’d wager a fair bit of knowledge about how
mummies were preserved would also be on the table.
Your list and mine likely share a few items,
you may have a few I don’t and vice versa.
Oh, here’s something I didn’t include, but
maybe you did…
·
Spend vacations visiting “wet markets” and butchers
in third world locales so I can stand side-by-side with them as they dress
animals for market.
Did you have that one on your list? I didn’t.
Renowned Egyptologist, Salima
Ikram, does just that when not in the field. When she and her husband travel
for fun, she makes sure to include these butcher-visits.
She forgoes all modern butchery, the industrialized
shambles behind the scenes that keeps our plates full. She seeks out those who get
their hands dirty on a smaller scale.
Ikram sees in these handed-down traditions of dressing
animals for market likely correlates for the knowledge needed for the preparers
of mummies over 4,000 years ago.
She sees these visits as present-day glimpses into
a possible mind-set of the past that will inform her knowledge of what was. In
other words, she studies areas that would be assumed outside of her main area
and yet she asserts these “off target” pursuits have cross-pollinated ideas and
made knowledge of her main area stronger.
“I have made lots of friends
with butchers all over the world as a result and have learned some obscure, and
often gross, butchery facts. For instance, you can use the foreleg of an animal
as a pump to push out the blood, which is very helpful in keeping meat fresh in
a hot climate.”
Seemingly unrelated domains—linked.
Leg Wrestling &
Bareback Riding: An Anecdote
I recently spent a week at a working ranch.
Had a blast!
Amongst the fun was time spent working my
Comanche bareback.
I had never done it before and was eager to
give her a go.
I had the flattery of being told I took to it
like a talented rookie.
Where my associates all begged off the experience
earlier as it is a far more leg-intensive and balance testing experience, I did
not find it that way at all.
My instructor remarked that good leg strength
and balance had given me a leg up, so to speak.
My thoughts atop my equine friend were, “Ah, this is similar to leg-riding in my ground game.” I thusly adjusted to steady heel-in toes akimbo pressure, drifted and
floated the hips with each stride, made appropriate tensions/relaxations with
the hamstrings and, well, looooved it.
Upon my return to real-life [not riding and working
horses everyday] my first session back on the mat struck me that my leg-riding
had made a few adjustments, all to the good.
It seems my decades of leg-riding prepared me for
an easier introduction to bareback, and my bareback riding experience thusly
wound up informing my wrestling game.
In a sense, bareback riding was my “visiting a butcher” on vacation.
That such areas should cross-pollinate should come
as no surprise if we consider the milieu that rough ‘n’ tumble wrestling and leg-riding
was borne in.
In cultures that saw horseback as the primary
mode of transportation all would be familiar with the experience of how to ride
and lean into strides with skill. It would not occur to an experienced leg-wrestler
to say, “You ride don’t ya?”
The assumption would be that you did, and the instruction
could proceed from the base-rate of balance-fluid hips-leg pressure and add the
overlay of the wrestling element.
As with Salima Ikram’s observation, the study
of tangential areas, or the milieu something was born in gives a greater understanding
to specifics that may not be had by merely peering at the thing itself.
Training for
Awareness
Scene: Afghanistan & Iraq.
The US Military noted that some troops were
far better at spotting danger than others. These “early spotters” could “see”
the ambush before it started, “felt” that things were wrong before they went
wrong, and, in some cases, seemed to know where there was an IED.
The military wanted to find out how these
soldiers were doing what they did and see if it could be dispersed, so they
commissioned a study.
Journalist Tony Perry reported on this study
in his article for the Los Angeles Times “Some Troops Have a Sixth Sense for
Bombs.” October 28, 2009.
Army Sgt. Major Todd Burnett, himself a
veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq conducted the research. After 18-months and
over 800 troops sampled from various bases he came to the conclusion that “…two groups of personnel are particularly good at
spotting anomalies: those with hunting backgrounds, who traipsed through the
woods as youths looking to bag a deer or turkey; and those who grew up in tough
urban neighborhoods, where it was often important to know what gang controls
which block.”
This is Richard Louv, author of The Nature Principle on the same study.
“A common factor
seemed to be at work: plenty of experience outside the home and outside the
electronic bubble, in an environment that demands better uses of the senses.”
Sgt. Burnett on the two groups…
“They just seemed to
pick up things much better…They know how to look at the entire environment.”
Back to Mr. Louv, “And the other young
soldiers, the ones who were raised with Game boys, and spent weekends at the
mall? By and large, these enlistees lacked the ability to see nuances that
might enable a soldier to spot a hidden bomb. Even with perfect vision, they
lacked the special ability, that combination of depth perception, peripheral
vision, and instinct, if you will, to see what was out of place in the
environment. Their focus was narrow, as if they were seeing the world in a set
format.”
Back to Sgt. Burnett, “[They saw] as if the windshield of their Humvee was
a computer screen. The gamers were focused on the screen rather than the whole
surroundings.”
The best classroom-based awareness training
can do is expose one to the information, “Hey, you’re getting
ready to be in the midst, you might wanna pay attention.”
And yet, with the high stakes of
life-on-the-line, the lessons simply do not seat.
It seems the milieu, the peripheral experiences
of the two successful groups provide greater “training” than the actual designated
training.
I ask, if those who most need awareness and
likely value it highly as their life is on the line in the day-to-day have a hard
time seating the lesson, how well do you think we in pampered situations are
truly “seeing all” with all our “Hoo-Ahh!” talk?
The “Ghetto”
Hypothesis
Some boxing historians see the greatest number
of successful fighters coming from “the lower classes” no matter the time
period.
Black, Irish, Italian, Jewish, and on and on in
certain locales and time periods have suffered from hardships. In these times
of hardship “The Ghetto Hypotheses” sees more fighters emerge from these groups
than from pampered classes. [Of course, there is some leeway in both
directions, but overall, the numbers seem to support.]
It is surmised that the overall milieu of “hardness”
is a better preparation than comfort raised.
With that in mind, when we assume the mantle of
combat pursuits, we must never neglect the seemingly unrelated intangible peripheries.
We never know if the knowledge of butchery aids our understanding of mummification,
or if day-in-day-day-out horseback riding creates an unstated fact of leg-wrestling,
or if our living in less-than-savory circumstances or at the very least engaging
in and with the wilderness is a better preparation for “eyes open” than eyes on
every single page of “preparedness” textbooks.
Wise Warriors, like wise archeologists immerse
in the entire milieu to gain competitive or at least marginal advantage.
These “peripheral visions” likely make one see
farther and more clearly than one who stares steadily at a single subject.
[For more Rough& Tumble history,
Indigenous Ability hacks, and pragmatic applications of old school tactics historically
accurate and viciously verified see our RAW/Black Box Subscription Service
where we move from mere reading to DOING.]
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