You know, culture was born of the imagination, and the imagination -- the imagination as we know it -- came into being when our species descended from our progenitor, Homo erectus, and, infused with consciousness, began a journey that would carry it to every corner of the habitable world. For a time, we shared the stage with our distant cousins, Neanderthal, who clearly had some spark of awareness, but -- whether it was the increase in the size of the brain, or the development of language, or some other evolutionary catalyst -- we quickly left Neanderthal gasping for survival. By the time the last Neanderthal disappeared in Europe, 27,000 years ago, our direct ancestors had already, and for 5,000 years, been crawling into the belly of the earth, where in the light of the flickers of tallow candles, they had brought into being the great art of the Upper Paleolithic.
Znate, kultura je rođena iz mašte, a mašta -- mašta kakvu znamo, nastala je nakon što se naša vrsta izdignula iz praoca homo erectusa i, poboljšana sviješću, započela putovanje koje će je odvesti u sve kutke naseljivog svijeta. Neko vrijeme dijelili smo pozornicu s dalekim rođakom neandertalcem koji je sasvim izvjesno imao neku iskru svijesti, ali, bilo zbog porasta veličine mozga ili razvoja jezika ili pak nekog drugog evolucijskog katalizatora, ubrzo smo neandertalca ostavili da se bori za opstanak. U vrijeme kad je zadnji neandertalac nestao iz Europe, prije 27.000 godina, naši su direktni preci već 5.000 godina puzali u utrobi zemlje, gdje su pod treperavom svjetlošću svijeća od loja stvarali veliku umjetnost kasnog paleolitika.
And I spent two months in the caves of southwest France with the poet Clayton Eshleman, who wrote a beautiful book called "Juniper Fuse." And you could look at this art and you could, of course, see the complex social organization of the people who brought it into being. But more importantly, it spoke of a deeper yearning, something far more sophisticated than hunting magic. And the way Clayton put it was this way. He said, "You know, clearly at some point, we were all of an animal nature, and at some point, we weren't." And he viewed proto-shamanism as a kind of original attempt, through ritual, to rekindle a connection that had been irrevocably lost. So, he saw this art not as hunting magic, but as postcards of nostalgia. And viewed in that light, it takes on a whole other resonance.
Ja sam proveo dva mjeseca u pećinama jugozapadne Francuske s pjesnikom Claytonom Eshlemanom koji je napisao prekrasnu knjigu nazvanu „Juniper Fuse“. Gledajući tu umjetnost, mogla se vidjeti kompleksna socijalna organizacija ljudi koji su je stvarali. Još važnije od toga, ona govori o dubljoj čežnji, nečemu puno profinjenijem od puke lovačke magije. Clayton o tome govori ovako: „Znate, u jednom smo trenutku zasigurno svi imali životinjsku prirodu, a u drugom više nismo“. On gleda na proto-šamanizam kao na originalan pokušaj da se, preko rituala, ponovno zapali veza koja je bila neopozivo prekinuta. On u toj umjetnosti nije vidio magiju, već nostalgične razglednice. Gledana tako, ta umjetnost sasvim drugačije rezonira.
And the most amazing thing about the Upper Paleolithic art is that as an aesthetic expression, it lasted for almost 20,000 years. If these were postcards of nostalgia, ours was a very long farewell indeed. And it was also the beginning of our discontent, because if you wanted to distill all of our experience since the Paleolithic, it would come down to two words: how and why. And these are the slivers of insight upon which cultures have been forged. Now, all people share the same raw, adaptive imperatives. We all have children. We all have to deal with the mystery of death, the world that waits beyond death, the elders who fall away into their elderly years. All of this is part of our common experience, and this shouldn't surprise us, because, after all, biologists have finally proven it to be true, something that philosophers have always dreamt to be true. And that is the fact that we are all brothers and sisters. We are all cut from the same genetic cloth. All of humanity, probably, is descended from a thousand people who left Africa roughly 70,000 years ago.
Najzapanjujuća stvar o umjetnosti kasnog paleolitika je ta da je ona kao estetski izraz trajala gotovo 20.000 godina. Ako su to nostalgične razglednice, naše je „zbogom“ zaista bilo dugotrajno. A bilo je i početak našeg nezadovoljstva jer, ako poželimo raščlaniti sva naša iskustva od paleolitika, sve se svodi na dvije riječi: „kako“ i „zašto“. To su luči pronicljivosti na kojima su iskovane kulture. Sada svi ljudi dijele iste, sirove, prilagodljive imperative. Svi imamo djecu; svi se moramo suočiti sa zagonetkom smrti, svijetom koji nas čeka nakon smrti, starim ljudima koji zalaze u svoje staračke godine. Sve je to dio našeg zajedničkog iskustva i to nas ne bi trebalo iznenađivati jer su biolozi napokon dokazali da je istina nešto što su filozofi oduvijek držali kao istinito, a to je činjenica da smo svi braća i sestre. Svi smo istkani od iste genetičke tkanine. Cijelo je čovječanstvo, najvjerojatnije, poteklo od tisuću ljudi koji su prije otprilike 70.000 godina napustili Afriku.
But the corollary of that is that, if we all are brothers and sisters and share the same genetic material, all human populations share the same raw human genius, the same intellectual acuity. And so whether that genius is placed into -- technological wizardry has been the great achievement of the West -- or by contrast, into unraveling the complex threads of memory inherent in a myth, is simply a matter of choice and cultural orientation. There is no progression of affairs in human experience. There is no trajectory of progress. There's no pyramid that conveniently places Victorian England at the apex and descends down the flanks to the so-called primitives of the world. All peoples are simply cultural options, different visions of life itself. But what do I mean by different visions of life making for completely different possibilities for existence?
Nužna posljedica toga da smo svi braća i sestre te dijelimo isti genetički materijal je ta da cijela ljudska populacija dijeli istu, sirovu ljudsku genijalnost, istu intelektualnu oštrinu. Je li taj genij upotrijebljen za tehnološke novine koje su veliko dostignuće zapadnog svijeta ili, pak, utkan u kompleksne niti sjećanja naslijeđenog u mitu, jednostavno je stvar izbora i kulturne orijentacije. U ljudskom iskustvu ne postoji razvijanje, ne postoji krivulja napretka, ne postoji piramida koja smješta viktorijansku Englesku na vrh te se spušta prema takozvanim primitivcima svijeta. Svi su narodi samo kulturološke opcije, različite vizije života kao takvog. Ali što mislim kada kažem da različite vizije života tvore posve različite mogućnosti za opstanak?
Well, let's slip for a moment into the greatest culture sphere ever brought into being by the imagination, that of Polynesia. 10,000 square kilometers, tens of thousands of islands flung like jewels upon the southern sea. I recently sailed on the Hokulea, named after the sacred star of Hawaii, throughout the South Pacific to make a film about the navigators. These are men and women who, even today, can name 250 stars in the night sky. These are men and women who can sense the presence of distant atolls of islands beyond the visible horizon, simply by watching the reverberation of waves across the hull of their vessel, knowing full well that every island group in the Pacific has its unique refractive pattern that can be read with the same perspicacity with which a forensic scientist would read a fingerprint. These are sailors who in the darkness, in the hull of the vessel, can distinguish as many as 32 different sea swells moving through the canoe at any one point in time, distinguishing local wave disturbances from the great currents that pulsate across the ocean, that can be followed with the same ease that a terrestrial explorer would follow a river to the sea. Indeed, if you took all of the genius that allowed us to put a man on the moon and applied it to an understanding of the ocean, what you would get is Polynesia.
Pa hajdemo na trenutak svratiti u najveću kulturnu površinu ikad dovedenu u postojanje pomoću mašte -- Polineziju, deset tisuća kvadratnih kilometara, desetak tisuća otoka razbacanih poput dragulja po južnom moru. Nedavno sam jedrio na Hokuleji, nazvanoj prema svetoj zvijezdi Havaja, diljem južnog Pacifika kako bih napravio film o navigatorima. To su muškarci i žene koji, čak i u današnje vrijeme, mogu imenovati 250 zvijezda na noćnom nebu. To su muškarci i žene koji mogu osjetiti prisutnost udaljenih atola izvan vidokruga jednostavno promatrajući odražavanje valova o korito njihovog plovila, znajući veoma dobro da svaka grupa otoka na Pacifiku ima jedinstveni, refraktivni obrazac koji se može prepoznati s istom pronicljivošću s kojom forenzičari uočavaju otisak prsta. To su mornari koji u tami u koritu broda mogu razlikovati do 32 različite vrste bibavica koje se kreću uzduž kanua u bilo kojem trenutku, razlikujući lokalne valne smetnje od velikih struja koje pulsiraju diljem oceana i koje se mogu pratiti s istom lakoćom s kojom bi istraživač na kopnu slijedio rijeku do mora. Zaista, kada biste uzeli istu genijalnost koja nam je omogućila slanje čovjeka na Mjesec i primijenili ju na razumijevanje oceana, ono što biste dobili jest Polinezija.
And if we slip from the realm of the sea into the realm of the spirit of the imagination, you enter the realm of Tibetan Buddhism. And I recently made a film called "The Buddhist Science of the Mind." Why did we use that word, science? What is science but the empirical pursuit of the truth? What is Buddhism but 2,500 years of empirical observation as to the nature of mind? I travelled for a month in Nepal with our good friend, Matthieu Ricard, and you'll remember Matthieu famously said to all of us here once at TED, "Western science is a major response to minor needs." We spend all of our lifetime trying to live to be 100 without losing our teeth. The Buddhist spends all their lifetime trying to understand the nature of existence.
Ako prijeđemo s područja mora u područje duha mašte, ući ćemo u područje tibetanskog budizma. Nedavno sam napravio film nazvan „Budistička znanost o umu“. Zašto smo koristili tu riječ, „znanost“? Što je znanost ako ne duhovna potraga za istinom? Što je budizam ako ne 2.500 godina duhovnog promatranja prirode uma? Mjesec sam dana putovao Nepalom s dragim prijateljem Matthieom Ricardom, i sjetit ćete se kako je on svima nama na TED konferenciji jedanput slavno rekao: „Zapadnjačka je znanost veliki odgovor na male potrebe“. Mi provedemo cijeli životni vijek nastojeći doživjeti stotu bez izgubljenih zubi. Budisti svoj životni vijek provode pokušavajući odgonetnuti prirodu postojanja.
Our billboards celebrate naked children in underwear. Their billboards are manuals, prayers to the well-being of all sentient creatures. And with the blessing of Trulshik Rinpoche, we began a pilgrimage to a curious destination, accompanied by a great doctor. And the destination was a single room in a nunnery, where a woman had gone into lifelong retreat 55 years before. And en route, we took darshan from Rinpoche, and he sat with us and told us about the Four Noble Truths, the essence of the Buddhist path. All life is suffering. That doesn't mean all life is negative. It means things happen. The cause of suffering is ignorance. By that, the Buddha did not mean stupidity; he meant clinging to the illusion that life is static and predictable. The third noble truth said that ignorance can be overcome. And the fourth and most important, of course, was the delineation of a contemplative practice that not only had the possibility of a transformation of the human heart, but had 2,500 years of empirical evidence that such a transformation was a certainty.
Naši reklamni paneli slave golu djecu u donjem rublju. Njihovi su reklamni paneli priručnici, molitve za dobrobit svih osjetnih bića. S blagoslovom Trulshika Rinpochea započeli smo svoje hodočašće čudesnom odredištu u pratnji dobrog liječnika. Odredište je bila jedna soba u ženskom samostanu gdje se jedna žena povukla u cjeloživotno utočište prije 55 godina. Na putu smo uzeli „darshan“ od Rinpochea i on je sjeo s nama i pričao nam o četiri plemenite istine, o srži budističkog puta. Sav je život patnja. To ne znači da je sav život negativan. To znači da se stvari događaju. Uzrok je patnje neznanje. Pod tim Buda nije mislio na glupavost, mislio je na prianjanje uz iluziju da je život statičan i predvidljiv. Treća je plemenita istina da se neznanje može nadići. I četvrta je i najvažnija, naravno, prepoznavanje kontemplativne prakse koja ne samo da ima mogućnost promjene ljudskog srca već ima i 2.500 godina razumnih dokaza da je ta promjena sigurnost.
And so, when this door opened onto the face of a woman who had not been out of that room in 55 years, you did not see a mad woman. You saw a woman who was more clear than a pool of water in a mountain stream. And of course, this is what the Tibetan monks told us. They said, at one point, you know, we don't really believe you went to the moon, but you did. You may not believe that we achieve enlightenment in one lifetime, but we do. And if we move from the realm of the spirit to the realm of the physical, to the sacred geography of Peru -- I've always been interested in the relationships of indigenous people that literally believe that the Earth is alive, responsive to all of their aspirations, all of their needs. And, of course, the human population has its own reciprocal obligations.
I kada su se ta vrata otvorila i otkrila lice žene koja 55 godina nije izašla iz te prostorije, niste vidjeli ludu ženu. Vidjeli ste ženu koja je bila bistrija od vode u planinskom potoku. I, naravno, to je ono što su nam tibetanski monasi rekli. Rekli su u jednom trenutku: „Znate, mi možemo ne vjerovati da ste vi otišli na Mjesec, ali jeste. Vi možete ne vjerovati da mi doživimo prosvjetljenje u jednom životu, ali doživimo“. A, ako odemo iz područja duhovnog u područje fizičkog, u svetu geografiju Perua. Oduvijek sam bio zainteresiran za vezu domorodačkih naroda koji doslovno vjeruju da je zemlja živa, da odgovara na sve njihove težnje, sve njihove potrebe. Naravno, ljudska populacija ima svoje recipročne obaveze.
I spent 30 years living amongst the people of Chinchero and I always heard about an event that I always wanted to participate in. Once each year, the fastest young boy in each hamlet is given the honor of becoming a woman. And for one day, he wears the clothing of his sister and he becomes a transvestite, a waylaka. And for that day, he leads all able-bodied men on a run, but it's not your ordinary run. You start off at 11,500 feet. You run down to the base of the sacred mountain, Antakillqa. You run up to 15,000 feet, descend 3,000 feet. Climb again over the course of 24 hours. And of course, the waylakama spin, the trajectory of the route, is marked by holy mounds of Earth, where coke is given to the Earth, libations of alcohol to the wind, the vortex of the feminine is brought to the mountaintop. And the metaphor is clear: you go into the mountain as an individual, but through exhaustion, through sacrifice, you emerge as a community that has once again reaffirmed its sense of place in the planet. And at 48, I was the only outsider ever to go through this, only one to finish it. I only managed to do it by chewing more coca leaves in one day than anyone in the 4,000-year history of the plant.
Proveo sam 30 godina živeći među ljudima Chincherra i slušao sam o događaju u kojem sam uvijek želio sudjelovati. Jedanput je godišnje u svakom zaselku najbržem malom dječaku dana čast da postane ženom. I na jedan dan on nosi odjeću svojih sestara i postane transvestit, „waylaka“. Na taj dan on vodi sve dovoljno snažne muškarce u utrku, ali to nije obična utrka. Počinje na visini od 3.505 metara. Trči se do podnožja svete planine Antkilka*. Trči se gore 4.572 metra , spusti se 914 metara i opet penje u roku od 24 sata. Naravno, Waylakamaspin*, putanja rute, obilježena je svetim brežuljcima Zemlje, gdje se zemlji daruje koka, alkohol prolijeva u vjetar i vrtlog ženskog spola doveden je na vrh planine. Metafora je jasna: odlaziš na planinu kao individualac, ali kroz iscrpljenost, kroz žrtvu, izranjaš kao zajednica koja je još jednom potvrdila svoje mjesto na planetu. U dobi od 48, ja sam bio jedini stranac koji je kroz to prošao, jedini koji je to završio. I uspio sam jedino zato što sam sažvakao više listova koke u jednom danu nego itko u 4.000 godina dugoj povijesti biljke.
But these localized rituals become pan-Andean, and these fantastic festivals, like that of the Qoyllur Rit'i, which occurs when the Pleiades reappear in the winter sky. It's kind of like an Andean Woodstock: 60,000 Indians on pilgrimage to the end of a dirt road that leads to the sacred valley, called the Sinakara, which is dominated by three tongues of the great glacier. The metaphor is so clear. You bring the crosses from your community, in this wonderful fusion of Christian and pre-Columbian ideas. You place the cross into the ice, in the shadow of Ausangate, the most sacred of all Apus, or sacred mountains of the Inca. And then you do the ritual dances that empower the crosses.
Ti su lokalni običaji postali karakterističnim za cijele Ande i ti su fantastični festivali, poput Qoyllur Rit'i-a koji se događa kada se Plejade ponovno pojave na zimskom nebu, poput Andskog Woodstocka: 60.000 Indijanaca na hodočašću prema kraju prašnjavog puta koji vodi do svete doline zvane Sinakara, kojom dominiraju tri jezička velikog ledenjaka. Metafora je veoma jasna: donesu se križevi iz zajednice u prekrasnu mješavinu kršćanstva i pred-kolumbovske ideje. Križ se postavi u led u sjenu Ausangate, najsvetije od svih Apusa, svetih planina Inka, i tada se plešu ritualni plesovi koji osnažuju križeve.
Now, these ideas and these events allow us even to deconstruct iconic places that many of you have been to, like Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu was never a lost city. On the contrary, it was completely linked in to the 14,000 kilometers of royal roads the Inca made in less than a century. But more importantly, it was linked in to the Andean notions of sacred geography. The intiwatana, the hitching post to the sun, is actually an obelisk that constantly reflects the light that falls on the sacred Apu of Machu Picchu, which is Sugarloaf Mountain, called Huayna Picchu. If you come to the south of the intiwatana, you find an altar. Climb Huayna Picchu, find another altar. Take a direct north-south bearing, you find to your astonishment that it bisects the intiwatana stone, goes to the skyline, hits the heart of Salcantay, the second of the most important mountains of the Incan empire. And then beyond Salcantay, of course, when the southern cross reaches the southernmost point in the sky, directly in that same alignment, the Milky Way overhead. But what is enveloping Machu Picchu from below? The sacred river, the Urubamba, or the Vilcanota, which is itself the Earthly equivalent of the Milky Way, but it's also the trajectory that Viracocha walked at the dawn of time when he brought the universe into being. And where does the river rise? Right on the slopes of the Koariti.
Te ideje i ti događaji dopuštaju nam da ponovno izgradimo kultna mjesta koja su mnogi od vas posjetili, poput Machu Picchua. Machu Picchu nikad nije bio izgubljen grad. Baš suprotno, on je bio potpuno povezan pomoću 14.000 km kraljevskih cesta koje su Inke napravile u manje od sto godina. Još važnije, bio je povezan s andskom idejom o svetoj geografiji. Intiwatana, „mjesto za sunce“, zapravo je obelisk koji neprestano reflektira svjetlo koje pada na sveti Apu Machu Picchua, Šećernu glavu nazvanu Huayna Picchu. Ako dođete na jug Intiwatane, naći ćete oltar. Popnite se na Huayna Picchu, naći ćete još jedan oltar. Idite izravnim sjever-jug pravcem i na svoje zaprepaštenje vidjet ćete da on dijeli Intiwatana kamen na pola, odlazi prema horizontu, udara posred Scalantaye, druge najvažnije planine carstva Inka, i tada iznad Salcantaya, naravno, kada južni križ dostigne najjužniju točku na nebu, točno u tom pravcu, Mliječna staza nad glavom. A što obuhvaća Machu Picchu odozdola: sveta rijeka Urubamba ili Vilcanota, koja je sama po sebi zemaljski odgovarajući parnjak Mliječne staze, ali je i putanja kojom je Viracocha kročio u zoru vremena kada je stvorio svemir. A gdje se rijeka uzdiže? Upravo na padinama Koiaritia*.
So, 500 years after Columbus, these ancient rhythms of landscape are played out in ritual. Now, when I was here at the first TED, I showed this photograph: two men of the Elder Brothers, the descendants, survivors of El Dorado. These, of course, are the descendants of the ancient Tairona civilization. If those of you who are here remember that I mentioned that they remain ruled by a ritual priesthood, but the training for the priesthood is extraordinary. Taken from their families, sequestered in a shadowy world of darkness for 18 years -- two nine-year periods deliberately chosen to evoke the nine months they spend in the natural mother's womb. All that time, the world only exists as an abstraction, as they are taught the values of their society. Values that maintain the proposition that their prayers, and their prayers alone, maintain the cosmic balance. Now, the measure of a society is not only what it does, but the quality of its aspirations.
Dakle, 500 godina nakon Kolumba, ti drevni ritmovi pejzaža odigravaju se po običaju. Kada sam bio ovdje na prvoj TED-konferenciji, pokazao sam ovu fotografiju: dva muškarca, pripadnici Starije braće, potomci, svjedoci Eldorada. To su, naravno, potomci drevne Tairona civilizacije. Neki se od vas možda sjećaju da sam spomenuo da kod njih i dalje vlada ritualno svećenstvo, ali obuka je za svećenstvo nevjerojatna. Odvojeni od obitelji, osamljeni u sjenovitom svijetu tame 18 godina, dva perioda od devet godina namjerno izabrana da prizovu devet mjeseci koje su proveli u utrobi svoje biološke majke. Svo to vrijeme svijet postoji samo kao apstrakcija, dok bivaju učeni o vrijednostima svog društva. Vrijednostima, koje pretpostavljaju da njihove molitve, i to isključivo njihove molitve, održavaju kozmičku ravnotežu. Mjerilo nekog društva nije samo ono što društvo čini, već i kvaliteta njegovih težnji.
And I always wanted to go back into these mountains, to see if this could possibly be true, as indeed had been reported by the great anthropologist, Reichel-Dolmatoff. So, literally two weeks ago, I returned from having spent six weeks with the Elder Brothers on what was clearly the most extraordinary trip of my life. These really are a people who live and breathe the realm of the sacred, a baroque religiosity that is simply awesome. They consume more coca leaves than any human population, half a pound per man, per day. The gourd you see here is -- everything in their lives is symbolic. Their central metaphor is a loom. They say, "Upon this loom, I weave my life." They refer to the movements as they exploit the ecological niches of the gradient as "threads." When they pray for the dead, they make these gestures with their hands, spinning their thoughts into the heavens.
I uvijek sam se želio vratiti u te planine da vidim može li to ikako biti istina, kao što je izvijestio veliki antropolog Reichel-Dolmatoff. I tako, doslovno prije dva tjedna, vratio sam se nakon što sam šest tjedana proveo sa Starijom braćom na najnevjerojatnijem putovanju mog života. To su zaista ljudi koji žive i dišu u carstvu svete, kompleksne religioznosti koja je jednostavno fantastična. Oni konzumiraju više listova koke nego bilo tko drugi: oko 22 dkg po čovjeku i danu. Tikva koju vidite ovdje sve je u njihovim životima simbolično. Njihova je centralna metafora razboj. Kažu da na tom razboju tkam svoj život. Odnose se na pokrete dok iskorištavaju ekološke niše nagiba kao „niti“. Kada se mole za mrtve, oni rade te pokrete svojim rukama, šaljući svoje misli u nebesa.
You can see the calcium buildup on the head of the poporo gourd. The gourd is a feminine aspect; the stick is a male. You put the stick in the powder to take the sacred ashes -- well, they're not ashes, they're burnt limestone -- to empower the coca leaf, to change the pH of the mouth to facilitate the absorption of cocaine hydrochloride. But if you break a gourd, you cannot simply throw it away, because every stroke of that stick that has built up that calcium, the measure of a man's life, has a thought behind it. Fields are planted in such an extraordinary way, that the one side of the field is planted like that by the women. The other side is planted like that by the men. Metaphorically, you turn it on the side, and you have a piece of cloth. And they are the descendants of the ancient Tairona civilization, the greatest goldsmiths of South America, who in the wake of the conquest, retreated into this isolated volcanic massif that soars to 20,000 feet above the Caribbean coastal plain.
Možete vidjeti naslage kalcija na Poporo-tikvi. Tikva je ženski aspekt, a držak muški. Držak se umoči u prašak kako bi se uzeo sveti pepeo. Zapravo, nije to pepeo, već spaljen vapnenac, kako bi osnažio list koke i promijenio Ph-vrijednost usta, kako bi se olakšalo upijanje kokain hidroklorida. Ako se slomi tikvu, ne može ju se jednostavno baciti jer svaki udarac tog drška, koji je stvorio taj kalcij, mjeru čovjekova života, ima misao iza sebe. Polja su posađena na tako nevjerojatan način da je jedna strana posađena od strane žena. Druga strana posađena je tako od strane muškaraca. Metaforički, ako je okrenete na stranu, dobijete komad tkanine. I oni su potomci drevne Tairona civilizacije, najboljih zlatara Južne Amerike, koji su se pred osvajanjem povukli u taj izolirani vulkanski masiv koji se uzdiže do 6.096 m iznad karipske obalne ravnice.
There are four societies: the Kogi, the Wiwa, the Kankwano and the Arhuacos. I traveled with the Arhuacos, and the wonderful thing about this story was that this man, Danilo Villafane -- if we just jump back here for a second. When I first met Danilo, in the Colombian embassy in Washington, I couldn't help but say, "You know, you look a lot like an old friend of mine." Well, it turns out he was the son of my friend, Adalberto, from 1974, who had been killed by the FARC. And I said, "Danilo, you won't remember this, but when you were an infant, I carried you on my back, up and down the mountains." And because of that, Danilo invited us to go to the very heart of the world, a place where no journalist had ever been permitted. Not simply to the flanks of the mountains, but to the very iced peaks which are the destiny of the pilgrims.
Postoje četiri društva: Kogi, Wiwa, Kankuamo i Arhuacos. Putovao sam s Arhuacosima i predivna je stvar o toj priči da ovaj čovjek, Danilo Viathanya*, ako samo skočimo ovdje na trenutak. Kada sam prvi put upoznao Danila, u Kolumbijskom veleposlanstvu u Washingtonu, nisam mogao, a da ne kažem: “Znaš, izgledaš kao jedan moj stari prijatelj“. Ispalo je da je on sin mog prijatelja Aroberta iz 1974. kojeg je ubila kolumbijska vojska i rekao sam: Danilo, nećeš se sjećati ovoga, ali kada si bio dojenče, nosio sam te na svojim leđima gore i dolje po planinama. I zbog toga nas je Danilo pozvao da pođemo u samo srce svijeta, mjesto na koje nijednom novinaru nije bilo dopušteno doći: ne samo do obronaka planina već i na same ledene vrhove koji su sudbina hodočasnika.
And this man sitting cross-legged is now a grown-up Eugenio, a man who I've known since 1974. And this is one of those initiates. No, it's not true that they're kept in the darkness for 18 years, but they are kept within the confines of the ceremonial men's circle for 18 years. This little boy will never step outside of the sacred fields that surround the men's hut for all that time, until he begins his journey of initiation. For that entire time, the world only exists as an abstraction, as he is taught the values of society, including this notion that their prayers alone maintain the cosmic balance. Before we could begin our journey, we had to be cleansed at the portal of the Earth. And it was extraordinary to be taken by a priest. And you see that the priest never wears shoes because holy feet -- there must be nothing between the feet and the Earth for a mamo. And this is actually the place where the Great Mother sent the spindle into the world that elevated the mountains and created the homeland that they call the heart of the world.
A ovaj je čovjek koji sjedi prekriženih nogu sada odrasli Yuhenio*, čovjek kojeg poznajem od 1974. A ovo je jedan od tih početnika. Ne, nije istina da su oni u tami 18 godina, oni su unutar granica ceremonijalnog kruga muškaraca 18 godina. Taj dječak nikada neće izaći izvan svetih polja koja okružuju kolibu muškaraca; ne dok ne započne svoj put inicijacije. Cijelo je to vrijeme svijet apstraktan i on biva poučen vrijednostima društva i onoj ideji da isključivo njihove molitve održavaju kozmičku ravnotežu. Prije nego što smo mogli započeti naše putovanje, morali smo biti očišćeni na vratima zemlje. I bilo je izvanredno kada te svećenik uzme i vidiš da on nikad ne nosi cipele zbog svetih stopala jer ništa ne smije biti između stopala i zemlje za Mamoa. I to je zapravo mjesto gdje je velika majka poslala vreteno u svijet, vreteno koje je izdiglo planine i stvorilo zavičaj koji oni zovu srcem zemlje.
We traveled high into the paramo, and as we crested the hills, we realized that the men were interpreting every single bump on the landscape in terms of their own intense religiosity. And then of course, as we reached our final destination, a place called Mamancana, we were in for a surprise, because the FARC were waiting to kidnap us. And so we ended up being taken aside into these huts, hidden away until the darkness. And then, abandoning all our gear, we were forced to ride out in the middle of the night, in a quite dramatic scene. It's going to look like a John Ford Western. And we ran into a FARC patrol at dawn, so it was quite harrowing. It will be a very interesting film. But what was fascinating is that the minute there was a sense of dangers, the mamos went into a circle of divination.
Putovali smo u Potomo i, dok smo prelazili brda, uočili smo da muškarci svaku izbočinu u krajoliku promatraju u kontekstu vlastite intenzivne religioznosti. Naravno, kada smo stigli do našeg konačnog odredišta, mjesta zvanog Mananakana*, iznenadili smo se jer je kolumbijska vojska čekala da nas otme. Tako smo završili u tim kolibama, skriveni do mraka. I tada, napuštajući svu našu opremu, bili smo prisiljeni uzjahati usred noći, u vrlo dramatičnoj sceni. Izgledat će kao vestern Johna Forda. Naletjeli smo na patrolu vojske u zoru pa je bilo vrlo iscrpljujuće. Bit će to vrlo zanimljiv film. Ali ono što je bilo fascinantno jest to da su isti trenutak kada se osjetila opasnost, svećenici otišli u krug vračanja.
And of course, this is a photograph literally taken the night we were in hiding, as they divine their route to take us out of the mountains. We were able to, because we had trained people in filmmaking, continue with our work, and send our Wiwa and Arhuaco filmmakers to the final sacred lakes to get the last shots for the film, and we followed the rest of the Arhuaco back to the sea, taking the elements from the highlands to the sea. And here you see how their sacred landscape has been covered by brothels and hotels and casinos, and yet, still they pray. And it's an amazing thing to think that this close to Miami, two hours from Miami, there is an entire civilization of people praying every day for your well-being. They call themselves the Elder Brothers. They dismiss the rest of us who have ruined the world as the Younger Brothers. They cannot understand why it is that we do what we do to the Earth.
Naravno, ova je slika doslovno slikana te noći dok smo se skrivali, dok su oni blagoslivljali rutu da nas odvede u planine. Mogli smo, jer smo imali ljude osposobljene za snimanje filmova, nastaviti sa svojim radom i poslati svoje Wiwa i Arhuaco filmaše do posljednjih svetih jezera da snime posljednje kadrove za film, ali mi smo slijedili ostale Arhuace natrag do mora, uzimajući elemente od brdovitog kraja do mora. I ovdje se moglo vidjeti kako je njihov sveti zavičaj prekriven bordelima, hotelima i kasinima, a oni se ipak mole. I bila je prekrasna stvar shvatiti da ovako blizu Miamija, točnije dva sata od Miamija, postoji cijela civilizacija ljudi koja svaki dan moli za tvoju dobrobit. Zovu se Starijom braćom. Oni odbacuju nas ostale koji smo uništili svijet kao mlađa braća. Oni ne mogu razumjeti zašto radimo zemlji to što radimo.
Now, if we slip to another end of the world, I was up in the high Arctic to tell a story about global warming, inspired in part by the former Vice President's wonderful book. And what struck me so extraordinary was to be again with the Inuit -- a people who don't fear the cold, but take advantage of it. A people who find a way, with their imagination, to carve life out of that very frozen. A people for whom blood on ice is not a sign of death, but an affirmation of life. And yet tragically, when you now go to those northern communities, you find to your astonishment that whereas the sea ice used to come in in September and stay till July, in a place like Kanak in northern Greenland, it literally comes in now in November and stays until March. So, their entire year has been cut in half.
Sada, ako odemo na drugi kraj svijeta. Bio sam na Arktiku kako bih ispričao priču o globalnom zatopljenju, djelomično nadahnut prekrasnom knjigom bivšeg potpredsjednika. Ono što me se dojmilo na nevjerojatan način bilo je opet biti s Inuitima, ljudima koji se ne boje hladnoće, već ju iskorištavaju. Ljudi koji svojom maštom pronalaze način da izrezbare život iz nečeg zamrznutog. Ljudi za koje krv na ledu nije znak smrti, već potvrda života. Ali ipak tragično, kada odete u jednu od tih sjevernjačkih zajednica, na svoje zaprepaštenje vidite da je morski led uobičavao doći u rujnu i ostati do srpnja, a na mjestima poput Kanaka na sjevernom Grenlandu, sada dolazi u studenom i ostaje do ožujka. Dakle, cijela im je godina prepolovljena.
Now, I want to stress that none of these peoples that I've been quickly talking about here are disappearing worlds. These are not dying peoples. On the contrary, you know, if you have the heart to feel and the eyes to see, you discover that the world is not flat. The world remains a rich tapestry. It remains a rich topography of the spirit. These myriad voices of humanity are not failed attempts at being new, failed attempts at being modern. They're unique facets of the human imagination. They're unique answers to a fundamental question: what does it mean to be human and alive? And when asked that question, they respond with 6,000 different voices. And collectively, those voices become our human repertoire for dealing with the challenges that will confront us in the ensuing millennia.
Sada bih želio istaknuti da nijedan od ovih naroda o kojima sam ovdje nabrzinu govorio nisu svjetovi koji nestaju. To nisu narodi koji izumiru. Posve suprotno, znate, ako imate srce da osjećate i oči da vidite, otkrivate da svijet nije tako ravan. Svijet ostaje bogati goblen. Ostaje bogata topografija duha. To mnoštvo glasova čovječanstva nije propali pokušaj bivanja novim, propali pokušaj bivanja modernim. To su jedinstveni pogledi ljudske maštovitosti. Oni su jedinstveni odgovori na temeljno pitanje: Što znači biti čovjekom i živjeti? Kada im se postavi to pitanje, oni odgovaraju sa 6.000 različitih glasova. Kolektivno, ti glasovi postaju naš, ljudski repertoar za suočavanje s izazovima koji će nas zateći u narednim tisućljećima.
Our industrial society is scarcely 300 years old. That shallow history shouldn't suggest to anyone that we have all of the answers for all of the questions that will confront us in the ensuing millennia. The myriad voices of humanity are not failed attempts at being us. They are unique answers to that fundamental question: what does it mean to be human and alive? And there is indeed a fire burning over the Earth, taking with it not only plants and animals, but the legacy of humanity's brilliance.
Naše je industrijsko društvo staro jedva 300 godina. Ta površna povijest ne bi trebala pretpostavljati da mi imamo sve odgovore na sva pitanja koja će nas zateći u narednim tisućljećima. To mnoštvo glasova nije neuspjeli pokušaj da budu mi. Ono je jedinstven odgovor na temeljno pitanje: Što znači biti čovjekom i živjeti? I zaista postoji vatra koja gori nad zemljom, uzimajući sa sobom ne samo biljke i životinje već i baštinu ljudske briljantnosti.
Right now, as we sit here in this room, of those 6,000 languages spoken the day that you were born, fully half aren't being taught to children. So, you're living through a time when virtually half of humanity's intellectual, social and spiritual legacy is being allowed to slip away. This does not have to happen. These peoples are not failed attempts at being modern -- quaint and colorful and destined to fade away as if by natural law.
Sad, dok sjedimo ovdje u ovoj prostoriji, od 6.000 jezika govorenih na dan kad ste se rodili, djeca ne uče niti pola. Dakle, živimo u vremenu kada se polovici ljudskog intelektualnog, društvenog i duhovnog naslijeđa dopušta da jednostavno nestane. To se ne mora dogoditi. Ti ljudi nisu propali pokušaji bivanja modernim, neobičnim, slikovitim i osuđenim na to da se iščezne kao po prirodnom zakonu.
In every case, these are dynamic, living peoples being driven out of existence by identifiable forces. That's actually an optimistic observation, because it suggests that if human beings are the agents of cultural destruction, we can also be, and must be, the facilitators of cultural survival.
U svakom slučaju, to su dinamični, živi narodi tjerani u propast silama čiji je identitet moguće utvrditi. To je zapravo optimistično opažanje jer predlaže da, ako je polovica ljudskih bića agent kulturnog uništenja, mi također možemo i moramo poduprijeti kulturni opstanak.
Thank you very much.
Hvala Vam lijepa.