Built by Hand ( Book Report )

Built by Hand

i just recently checked out a book from my local library whose title is :

Built by Hand

by Bill & Athena Steen, Eiko Komatsu With Photographs by Yoshio Komatsu

© 2003

It’s a reasonably Large Book; 9 by 8 Inches with Nearly 500 Pages of Just Photographs Of Homes & Domiciles of Preliterate or Formerly Preliterate, PreIndustrial Indigenous Aborigines from Around The World, that bleed over every page’s edge.

Firstly; It’s a very pretty Book.

But also; As i have The General Impression that Most Humanimals are Incredibly Stupid & that Civilization was constructed by a very tiny percentage of True & UnMistakably Genius Engineers that started perhaps with The First Genius that Saw an Axehead inside a FineGrained River Rock.

What this Book has done to me; Is awakened The Awareness that People from around The World, without The Benefit of Libraries, State Run Institutionalized Educational Indoctrination Centers or Tools made from Durable Materials; Have Created This Vast Diversity of Wondrous Architectural Forms !

The Curious Bit though is that although The Population’s that have created these Homes are Incredibly ‘Primitive’ in that they have access to iPods with only 8_Gb of Memory And T-Shirts Discarded by Christians throughout Louisiana & Mississippi; They have produced enough Genius’ to Invent this Level of Domicile Construction that any Ordinary First World Middle Management Bureaucrat would Not be able to Replicate; Even if they were provided with Several Notebooks full of Photographs & Doodles of The Desired End Product.

While this book has ( Renewed ) my Respect for Aboriginal Populations, It is ( Also ) very interesting that while These Peoples have been able to create these Delightful Homes, Simple Looms, Intricate Pottery & Inventive Ceremonial Masks—

They have failed to produce sufficient momentum to keep inventing new conveniences & amenities that would eliminate many of The Most annoying aspects of their lives.

i love The Idea of People living simple lives in Straw Huts for Millennia after Millennia, But if you have to Endure Horrific Diseases, Insect Dominated Plateaus & Occasional Years of Famine; That takes The Fun out of Remaining in Eden.