Blood-soaked mass-murderer Henry Kissinger once infamously asserted (to Chile's foreign minister) that, “Nothing important can come from the South. The axis of history starts in Moscow, goes to Bonn, crosses over to Washington, and then goes to Tokyo. What happens in the South is of no importance.” In reality, as this book makes abundantly clear, the supposedly civilised “north” has much to learn from the south - and not just from the third world, but also from the even older “fourth world” of indigenous peoples.
The inhabitants of the Andean community of Chillahuani occupy some of the highest inhabited regions of the earth, often living on the edge of subsistence. Nonetheless, they have forged a remarkable “culture of respect”: an egalitarian society, with gender equality and almost no crime, in which competition is anathema and children thrive.
Indeed, though raised in a permissive manner (in all her years there, anthropologist Inge Bolin never saw a small child “being spanked, yelled at, or treated roughly in any way”) under conditions of great material scarcity, Chillahuani's children grow up happy, self-confident and well-adjusted, excelling at work and play within their society and beyond, and displaying a great passion and aptitude for mathematics. Moreover, adolescence - often considered a time of conflict and rebellion in “modern” societies - is viewed by both children and parents as the best time of their lives.
Central to all this, she explains, is the fact that their society's “beliefs and behaviour patterns reinforce respect and compassion for all life” (including the environment), and that the villagers' lives - though extremely hard - are saturated with both dignity and meaning.
Tragically, the people of Chillahuani are now threatened by the extreme weather conditions brought about by global warming - a phenomenon for which they bear no responsibility. Nonetheless, as Bolin notes, they remain exemplary models for all those who would strive to build a sustainable society of true Homo Sapiens, people of wisdom.