The Iks, Essay Example

In the short essay entitled “The Iks,” Lewis Thomas narrates a story about a diminutive tribe of hunters that lives in Uganda and constantly struggle to thrive with others after the government forced them to give up their work and living area. Lewis succinctly compares the behaviors exhibited by the Iks to various groups ranging in size from committees to nations. They were originally lived as nomadic hunter gatherers who lived in the mountainous region in Uganda but were subsequently removed for their indigenous environment and forcibly relocated to the hilly peripheral regions and become farmers. Isolated from their natural habitat, the Iks did not know how to live peacefully together. Indeed, the Iks evolved from exhibiting “normal” characteristics to seemingly abnormal traits because of the impact of society on their way of life. As such, they were quite miserable in their new environment and became quite happy at each other’s misfortunes. As individuals, the Ik was overwhelmingly selfish and exhibited little regard for others, as some even encouraged their children to rob the elders of their food and possessions as a result of greed and self-interest. Society treats the Iks quite harsh, which propels them to rebel in various ways. According to Thomas, an anthropologist, the behavior of the Iks is comparable to the behavior of “groups of one size or another, ranging from committees to nations. This argument is a valid one to an extent, although his ethnographic account of the Ik is unequivocally steeped in his personal biases. The behavior of the Iks described by Thomas resembles the behavior not of smaller groups but rather of cities and nations.

According to Thomas’ ethnography, all humans have the capacity to devolve in the same way that the Iks do, although Thomas claims the Iks lacked the ability to control how they reacted to their new environment. Nations act in the same way that the Iks do rather than cities because of the geopolitical antagonism that has fomented amongst nations within the context of modernity. When humans are grouped into larger groups or entities, it is much harder to control their behaviors and succumb to societal influences that are often corrupting. For this reason, government is necessary within national contexts in order to maintain order and curtail the potential for chaos and anarchy. From personal experiences, peer pressure, especially during adolescence and young adulthood within social contexts, controls the thoughts and actions of individuals in ways that are often not seen when people are put in smaller groups because there is less influence. Thomas states: “We have not yet learned how to stay human when assembled in masses,” which insinuates that by nature humans cannot retain their individuality once they become members of and accepted into a larger crowd or group to belong to (Thomas). For example, teenagers who strive to become accepted by the popular crowd often feel pressured to engage in certain activities such as smoking cigarettes or consuming alcoholic beverages, even if they know that such activities are rendered illegal. The overwhelming fear of rejection by society propels people to be complicit with what is happening rather than chafing against the grain. This overwhelming fear of being ostracized propels people to conform to social norms in the same way that nations conform with one another regarding decisions such as going to war.

Thomas notes that society has caused the Iks to profoundly change their fundamental characteristics, arguing that nations more resemble the Iks than cities do because nations contain people individuals clustered together. If there are more people in a group, then society at-large exerts greater influence on the beliefs and behaviors of the citizens therein. Indeed, nations are self-centered, selfish, and self-absorbed in the same way that Thomas describes the behaviors of the Iks. He attributes the anomalous and bizarre behaviors exhibited by the Iks to their exposure to and influence of society. After being ostracized from their habitat, the Iks evolved into human beings devoid of love and kindness as they grieved the loss of their natural living patterns and cultural traditions. Thomas was sent to observe the Iks’ new way of life in the hopes of ascertaining whether or not human beings are intrinsically nefarious, especially when surroundings in which people are used to quickly change. It is then amidst such profound changes that people’s true personality and feelings manifest. However, upon observing the Iks, Thomas argues that Iks cannot be viewed as individuals but rather as a group. After their social structure was torn asunder, the Iks built defense mechanisms in order to cope with such change by stealing others’ resources and offending their respective tribe members.

The phenomenon that Thomas observes mirrors what has been transpiring in the modern world. Conflicts between nations are constant, fierce political conflicts between various parties—such as in the United States in which Democrats and Republicans fiercely debate due to ideological differences—and constant fighting over resources amongst committees continues to proliferation without any boundaries. As a result, the behavior of the Iks that Thomas observes is greedy, brutal, harsh, and outright mean, which results in unreasonable behavior. Such observations is similar to ethnographies on indigenous peoples living in the United States, who have suffered various genocides and adverse treatment at the hands of the U.S. government. Their loss of tradition, forced migration, and the death of their culture has spawned various negative behaviors as coping mechanisms to the profound change in their lives.