chairs
One of our pilots spent 2 days in Djolu, a town between Mbandaka and Kisangani, closer to Kisangani. Aside from there being no running water nor electricity, the accomodations were pretty good. There being no internet either, he went shopping and bought two chairs for 200 Franc Congolaise each, a total of about 75 cents. One of the chairs is pictured above.
These chairs are fabricated without using glue or metal fasteners. Everything needed to make them comes from the forest. All you need is a tree, something sharp and a clever mind. I am completely fascinated by them.
This puts me in mind of something. I always thought one of the reasons it would be unpleasant to be a cave man was because you wouldn't have anything to sit on. You would have to sit on the ground or a rock or an animal head and be that would be dirty, cold or greasy. Barring that you would have to stand around a lot.
Or so I thought because the cave man exhibit at the Chicago Museum never showed any furniture in the cave.
Well if cave man furniture was made like these chairs were, there would be no archeological evidence left behind to attest to their existence. The cave men could have had bedroom sets and dining room sets and we would never know it because the wood has all rotted away.
This is something that makes life as a cave man much more attractive; furniture.
Another thing I've noticed around here is many of the people speak 3 and 4 or more languages. They have to to get along because you don't have to go far to run into another language group. I think it must have been the same in pre-Columbian America. It must have been common for those guys, especially the traders, must have spoken several languages each.
posted by Carl at 4:42 AM
3 Comments:
Necessity is the mother of invention, they say. Amazing chairs - I just can't believe that he paid only 200FC for them.
Those chairs are incredible. THe remind me a little of the chairs you can find in Amish country. I like your observation o the cave men, or, for your politically correct reader, the early hominids. The beauty of the furniture is threefold (good things always come in threes):it will probably last until it rots out, it does not have to be moved because another can be crafted upon reaching a new destination, and, most importantly thanks to your observations, it really screws up the modern day archaeologists view of early man!!
Interesting post. Just imagine, cave men and women, and pre- columbian American's speaking multiple languages...fasinating (see your post from September 2006 - On the Way home. Carl said -- "Which language should I learn...")
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