the vedda

I'm watching Les Stroud's new show and he's hanging out with the Vedda in Sri Lanka-- and guys? They settled the island 10,000 years before Ancient Egypt. They were still in the stone age when the Portuguese arrived. They were still living in caves and mostly stone-age until 1986.

Let me say that again.

Nineteen Eighty Six. When I was old enough to remember things and know about the world because I was old enough to read National Geographic. When Les Stroud was, like, a teenager. When the people who are teaching him how to make slingshots and how to hunt were grown men.

Stone-age. Cave men.

I'm so blown away. How did I manage to get a degree in Anthropology (well, a minor) and not know about these people?