Worlds of Darkness and Light

Sarah Werner New Black Ethnographies Professor Mcglotten November 25, 2018 Speculative Ethnography Project A World of Darkness and Light Introduction: My name is Ayla Lee and I am an anthropologist at the University of Selene on Earth’s moon in the year 2500. I traveled to Earth, where the polar ice caps and glaciers melted which caused the sea level to rise dramatically flooding the coastal areas and leading to the deaths of 3.5 billion humans. The ozone layer also thinned making the Earth more vulnerable to dangerous ultraviolet radiation which caused the majority of plants and animals to die out leading to the deaths by starvation of approximately 4 billion humans. The world’s population had increased to slightly over 8 billion people by the time the flooding and famines started in 2050. Some of the world’s smartest people noticed signs of the ensuing disasters and prepared for the worst by building spaceships that were stocked with food and water. Only the richest could afford the substantial fee for a berth on one of the spaceships. Of the half a billion living humans left in the year 2100, only 500,000 people could fit onto the spaceships which then rapidly departed for the Moon. They survived a year-long journey to the Moon during which they adjusted to lunar gravity with artificial gravity generators and located the ideal spot for a settlement. When they landed on the Moon, they carved out an underground network of tunnels and mined for materials to construct a series of interconnected domes with. The people who were left to survive on Earth formed hunter-gatherer tribes who were isolated from each other by the greatly expanded oceans and gradually adapted to the increased levels of ultraviolet radiation by becoming primarily nocturnal and producing abnormal amounts of melanin. This study is a comparison of the two populations, the colonists who inhabit the lunar cities and the huntergatherer tribes who remain on Earth with a strict emphasis on the inhabitants of Earth.

Life on Earth: Those who could not afford the substantial fee for the journey to Earth’s moon during the event that is now called the Exodus have slowly adapted to the increased ultraviolet radiation by increasing their bodies’ melanin production and adopting a nocturnal lifestyle. They became hunter-gatherers who were isolated from each other by the vast oceans that separates the landmasses that remained above water. In addition to hunting the surviving animals that have adapted to the new environment and gathering the plants that have evolved a resistance to ultraviolet radiation while still allowing them to photosynthesize, they scavenge building materials from the remains of civilization that had not been lost to the waves. They believe in four primary gods: the Moon god Den, the Sun goddess Rey, the Earth god Yor, and the Sky goddess Hel along with several minor gods as their beliefs mirror the animist religions of the Native American tribes that once flourished on the North and South American continents.

An abandoned city on Earth

A view of Earth after the ice caps and glaciers melted which caused the sea level to rise significantly from the North Pole

The flooded remains of New York City

Hunter-gatherers on the hunt for prey using primitive bows and arrows

A hunter-gatherer village

Hunter-gatherers at play

Hunter-gatherers at mealtime Life on the Moon: The journey to the Moon took over a year as the scientists who developed the project had to find an ideal spot on the lunar surface with exposure to sunlight and easy access to the resource known as regolith, which is the rock that makes up the majority of the lunar mass.

The passengers also had to adjust to lunar gravity which they did by slowly adjusting the artificial gravity from Earth levels to lunar levels. When they landed, they dug out a network of tunnels and used sunlamps to grow food while they mined regolith and constructed a series of inhabitable domes out of the materials they extracted from the regolith. Regolith contains oxygen, iron, titanium, silicon, magnesium, and aluminum which were all used to construct a permanent settlement on the lunar surface. Silicon can be used in the creation of high-strength glass while titanium, iron, magnesium, and aluminum are valuable components of structural materials and oxygen can be used in the manufacture of ceramics. However, the lack of nitrogen in regolith was be an issue as the air we breathe is mostly nitrogen and plants need nitrogen to grow. There are two possible solutions for this problem, one was the construction of a network of smaller, interconnected domes in order to make use of the limited nitrogen on the moon while the other solution involved extracting nitrogen from the ice located at the bottom of lunar craters.

Life in the early underground city Luna

The domed lunar city of Selene Researcher’s Questions: How have gender relations changed in the transition from an industrial society to a hunter-gatherer/early agrarian society? How have race relations changed in the transition from an industrial society to a hunter-gatherer/early agrarian society? How has society adjusted to a primarily nocturnal existence? What do they remember of the pre-Exodus Earth?

Research Methods: Interviews with members of various tribes Interviews with scientists who study what caused the Isolation Interviews with historians of the pre-Exodus and pre-Isolation worlds Historical records of the Isolation and the Exodus Field research Field Notes: Diet, Knowledge, and Movement: Men hunt and fish, providing meat

Women gather, providing nuts, berries, fruits, and vegetables Women take care of the children while gathering Women provide most of the food Meat is only a small percentage of their diet Primarily nomadic Seasonal migration Following herds of animals in order to hunt Allowing the plants in one area to grow back Knowledge of plant life, maturation time, and ripeness Knowledge of animal life, the herd mentality, predator/prey relationships, and focusing on the stragglers Tribal Differences: Coastal tribes subside on fish and what they gather Coastal tribes have adapted to water Able to hold breath for longer Able to see clearly underwater Inland tribes subside on meat from prey animals and gathered food Nocturnality: Nocturnal Active primarily at night and twilight Sleep in caves and underground burrows Have adapted to a nocturnal lifestyle Adaptions: Primitive echolocation Larger eyes More rods in eyes to see in low light conditions Reliance on senses of smell and hearing More sensitive and powerful olfactory nerves Larger olfactory bulbs Larger primary auditory cortexes More powerful and sensitive cochlear and vestibular nerves Increased range of hearing Increased number of olfactory receptors Inter-tribal Contact: Isolated tribes Little to no inter-tribal contact or conflict Competing for resources with native predators Sexuality: Heterosexual relationships common Need to reproduce

Homosexual relationships allowed As long as the partners mate with someone of the opposite sex Scavengers: Scavenging from the abandoned cities and suburbs Some previously inhabited land did not disappear underneath the waves Mostly building materials and fuel for fires Interview: Subject: Isa Rey-Tithe, a hunter-gatherer local from an inland tribe located in what was once the Midwest of the North American continent Translated using a universal translator that was invented on Selene Disguised with an image inducer to conceal my lunar biology Subject believes that I am a visitor from a coastal tribe who is curious about the lives of people in other tribes Ayla: What do you believe in?

Isa: My people and I believe in four gods: the Moon god Den, the Sun goddess Rey, the Earth god Yor, and the Sky goddess Hel as well as several other minor gods as per our belief in the fact that everything has a spirit that belongs to it.

Ayla: What do your people think about the abandoned cities?

Isa: We think that they were inhabited long ago by those who died out because they could not survive as the world grew harsher.

Ayla: What stories do your people have about those who came before?

Isa: They were reckless people who despite their advanced technology could not adapt to the world as the sun bore down on them and either died out or fled.

Ayla: Are there any differences in status between men and women?

Isa: Women are revered as the bearers of life and the suppliers of most of our tribe’s food. Men are expendable so they are sent out on dangerous hunting and scavenging missions so that we don’t lose any women to predators or environmental hazards.

Ayla: What are romantic and sexual relationships like in your tribe?

Isa: We can be with as many people as we want to be with as long as we keep having children in order to expand the tribe. I’m currently in an open relationship with two other women and a man.

Ayla: When are children allowed to help gather food, hunt prey, and scavenge items from the homes of those who came before?

Isa: Children are considered to be mature enough to help gather food, hunt prey, and scavenge items from the homes of those who came before at the age of eight as they can walk and talk as well as an adult and can assist us by getting into small spaces and retrieving items.

Analysis: From this project, I have learned all about the culture and history of both the earth-bound hunter-gatherer tribes and the colonists living in the lunar cities. The five hundred years of separation has led to extreme divergence between the two populations. The lunar colonists are pale and short as they have adjusted to lunar levels of gravity and sunlight. The hunter-gatherer tribes have adapted to a nocturnal lifestyle with an increased number of rods in their eyes, a dependence on their stronger senses of smell and hearing, and a darker complexion to deal with the increased ultra-violet radiation. The inhabitants of the lunar cities consist of a small but diverse population that is mainly industrial with regolith mining being the main industry along with agriculture. The hunter-gatherer tribes on Earth also consist of small but growing populations that have begun to develop agriculture as they learn about the growth cycles of plants.

On Earth, women are revered as the bearers of life and the raisers of young who gather the majority of the food while on the Moon, the genders are considered equal due to the small population necessitating every person who is able to work to do so. In order to maintain a sustainable population, breeding is encouraged among both groups but open relationships are common with many people being with partners of the same sex on Earth whereas on the Moon, heterosexual relationships are the norm due to the need for offspring to populate the cities and work in the farms and mines.

Religiously, the hunter-gatherers believe in four primary gods: the Moon god Den, the Sun goddess Rey, the Earth god Yor, and the Sky goddess Hel along with several minor gods in line with their animist beliefs that say that everything has its own spirit. The lunar colonists brought their Buddhist and Confucian beliefs with them from Earth. In accordance to their beliefs, the lunar residents believe that family comes before the individual and that it is paramount that children take care of their aging parents. On Earth, the primary allegiance is towards one’s own tribe and then to take care of their family. When someone dies on the Moon, their close family and friends go out onto the bleak lunar surface and leave them out there to gradually weather away so that whenever someone looks out from the domed cities they will remember the people who died establishing their civilization and continue on to honor them. In tribal communities, the dead are either buried under a fertile patch of land so that their bodies can replenish the Earth or in the case of coastal tribes, they are sent afloat on the ocean to sink and provide nourishment to the sea creatures that generate most of the food eaten by the tribe.

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