Does lack of response mean that nobody can give me an example of a community where living conditions today are much the same as they were a hundred years or so ago?

Perhaps things are quieting down aroud here in anticipation of the predicted turning off the switch that powers WonderCafe.

Yes, it sure seems that way to me. 

Well, there are some tribes in the highlands of New Guinea that still live the same way they did hundreds of years ago. And there are some American aboriginal tribes that try to recapture their tradtional communal lifestyle.

And there are many modern intentional communities, but they all are more or less experimental. I have yet to see any of them succeed in the long term, except, perhaps, some Quaker communites, or Old Order Amish, Mennonites, Shakers, Hutterites, etc.

Even without globalization, most cultures change over time.

Yes, human cultures evolve.

I find that is true for me.  While I still come regularly, checking in on the posters I've come to know over the years, occasionally asking questions or offering my view point on a thread - and sometimes getting involved in arguing rather than discussing - it is with a sense of saddness that soon I won't have this site that has been a part of my life during the last six or so years.   That sadness has been compounded this week with the loss of a child we have come to know and care about.   I'm only thankful that we were still here for Chansen at his time of need.   What will happen to the others who need us, and we no longer have this Cafe to connect us?

Back to your question - simple, relatively isolated societies.  I'm recently sharing memories, pictures, stories with people who grew up in the same tiny community as I did.  We were a community of 200 or so people in a village by a railroad yard, at the end of a gravel road.  We had our own school, churches, stores, post office.  This was in the days before telephones or television, but we had radio.  The passenger train came through three times a week bringing the mail (and newspapers to those few families who could afford them).  During the winter, storms might blow for days and it might be a week or more before the road was opened.  We were pretty isolated.

Yet, the radio brought news, music, and entertainment (and soap operas).  Newspapers and magazines were passed from one house to another before being used to start the fire in the kitchen stove.    The women had a book club - mail-ordered their books from a book-of-the-month club and passed them around.  There was church once a month when a minister came from the nearest larger community (16 miles away), and Sunday School every Sunday with local leadership.   We played cards and monopoly - visited each others homes - had sliding parties on the hill behind the village - hockey games and a winter carnival on an outdoor rink.

We picked wild berries.  We ate trout and venison.  We grew vegetable gardens.  The men and boys cut firewood from the surrounding forests - for our own stoves and our neighbours - and everybody cooked and heated with wood stoves.

That way of life is long gone now.  The community has only a few occupied houses.  The people look to the outside for almost everything.  There are advantages of course.  The regional school has more to offer than the two-room school of my childhood.  It's easier to get to the doctor.  News isn't three days old when we get it.   But - something has been lost.   Pity.

Hi naman,

There are still communities deep in the Amazon which have had very little contact with the wider world.  They are known to exist but tend to be hostile towards outsiders, hence little contact.  There are also uncontacted communities in New Guinea and India.

I'm not sure.  Most people seem to operate under an I'm watching you kind of suspicious alertness.

I can't imagine that WonderCafe.ca is completely unique.  There must be other on-line places which capture some of the elements we most enjoy here.  How to find it might be a difficult feat.

Grace and peace to you.

John

I think Wondercafe is unique. I see my kids and grandkids and friends jump from one site to another. I think they are looking for new things. They don't seem to want to put roots down on the internet. Maybe what we bring to WonderCafe is the unglobalized community that you talk about naman.I think their are probably other sites like RevJohn says but WonderCafe has becme something that I never expected on the first day I posted.

For one thing, I am somewhat housbound with the cold, snow and wind this winter and so Wondercafe has become my church community. I wish the greater church could be convinced that it needs to stay in some form.

I have been on Chansen's Facebook site and The Chansen there is not as open and revealing as he is on WondrCafe, Where will he go in his grief.?Where will seeler go? Where will I go?

Alerting the WC community to the closing has frightened people away.Why would our church do that? Where is the pastoral care? Questions. Questions with no answers.

I appreciate the comments.I still do not have much idea where mankind is headed. Not that I can do much about it.  I am getting to be an old codger who keeps looking over his shoulder trying to stay one step ahead of the Grim Reaper.

Naman, not sure if it is the same, but, I would consider people who have lost their ability to be in the world as they were before, isolated in a way that we didn't understand before...

If you are used to be part of a global community via the internet, then if you lose your sight you become isolated.  I'm not sure if you would considre this in the same way that i do.

well you are not alone in that boat.....

well you are not alone in that boat.....

[/quote]

No I guess not Aldo.  On the other hand, you have me thinking, a primitive community, alone in its own boat might survive a catastrophy that wiped out the global community.

Some of those people who have isolated, primitive lives would likely be better able to cope with a global catastrophe.  Many people in the so called civilsed, developed world are pretty useless about survival skills.  How many people in Europe or North America can start a fire without a match and routinely carry a method of firelighting with them?  How many people know what weeds/flowers/fungi/seeds/wild fruits are edible?  How many people can set a snare and deal with the animal caught by it?  

A friend said recently that she and her partner were starting to get a bit tired of their adult kids requests for free help.  They seem to have taken such good care of their kids that they grew up without practical skills or general emotional strength.  The kids are between 35 and 40 and apparently can't use repair bikes, hang wallpaper, paint a baby crib, lay tiles etc without parental help.  They call for help if they have a cold and need someone to take care of the baby, they phone for help if the baby is teething and they are tired from a noisy night. They call to ask what could be causing a rash and what  they should do about it   etc etc. Definitely not prime folks to survive much of anything!