Personal Narrative: The Mana Tribe

My father recently died of brain cancer. This man was a renowned linguistic anthropologist who rarely frequented home except to either grab a new change of clothes, or to purposely get on my nerves. After his death, I was forced to clean out his office so that his colleagues could make use of his space. Using up my time and willpower to arrive at my father’s workplace, I was welcomed by one of his colleagues, and was then escorted to his office. Upon reaching his office, my father’s colleague proceeded to open the office door, welcoming me to my father’s work space. As I took a step forward into the office, a gust of musk slapped the side of my face, almost leaving a bruise to my sense of smell. Accompanying the ambush was the sight of a very

dark interior that instilled chills inside me, signaling me that this was not a safe place to be in, or so my brain thought. The office looked like an abandoned asylum. If I did not calm down, I surely would have gone crazy from my fear and unpreparedness to such an appalling scene. Taking a minute to finally calm down, I nonchalantly sifted through the stacks of papers located on the desk. I came across a pile of papers titled “Mana.” Curious, I skimmed through the papers to discover that this was one of my father’s linguistic researches. This research was based on a lost tribe called “Mana,” a research that he attempted to finish before his death. As I looked through his research, I can see that he did not regret neglecting his family at home. Seething in anger, I was close to ripping up his research until I came up with an idea. If these notes prove useful to me, then I will keep these notes and not destroy my father’s hard work.
Looking at my father’s research notes, it appears that the Mana tribe may have lived in the plains (equivalent to the Great Plains in America).

I base my conjecture by how his notes explain that the Mana tribe defined the term terrain as “absolutely flat,” “rolling,” and “slightly hilly.” Also, they did not have a term for ocean. Furthermore, the Mana tribe also had several words for precipitation, most translating to “rain”, and only one meaning “snow.” I believe that the geographic terms help reinforce the idea that they lived on the plains. Also, for the Mana tribe to not have a term for ocean shows that they probably did not live near the ocean or any body of water; thus, they did not make a term for it. Also, from my knowledge in Natural History (BIO305), the weather terms describe weather conditions that are common in the plains. Aside from the environmental features, the terms used for food and livestock also help support my claim. The Mana tribe had dozens of terms for grains, including eight for wheat alone. They also had words for cow, pig, calf, and sheep. The crops were probably cultivated and harvested according to season. Because the Mana tribe also lived in the plains, I assume that they had no trouble with growing their vegetation due to the abundance of fertile land that could be used for farming. Not only that, the livestock described by the Mana tribe suit living in the plains, for they are herbivores. Being able to make use of the land year round (if they farmed according to season), they seem to not be in drought (compared to

California).
Assessing into the people of the Mana tribe, I believe that they were not overweight; their build may have been lanky or average built. I base my assumption on how the Mana tribe did not have terms for beef, pork, veal, leather, or mutton. I infer that they probably did not eat their livestock; they probably did not domestic them either. Thus, their diet may have consisted of the grains they planted. From my assumption, if they did not eat meat, they probably did not have a lot of meat on their bones. Also, I believe that the people of the Mana tribe had more brains then brawn. They had twenty words for book, nine words for artist, and four words meaning theater. Thus, instead of focusing on muscle, they probably preferred expressing their feelings and appreciating the aesthetics of life. This also may have contributed to their build, since they did not need much strength performing these activities (excluding farming).
Furthermore, I believe that the Mana tribe valued the younger generation. In the Mana tribe, there are several words for children, some of which translate as “wise, small one,” “innocent leader,” and “little stargazer.” I believe this shows that reproduction was special. To help support my assumption, the word for sex in the Mana tribe translates as “to plant a wise one.” Furthermore, the Mana tribe had seven terms to describe the stages of life up to puberty, and only one term to describe life from puberty to death. This shows that life the younger stages of life were very important. Once the children of the Mana tribe went into adulthood, they most likely were seen to be independent, with enough potential to be candidates to replace their forbearers. My conjecture above could also be supported by how the Mana tribe had terms for men and women that were synonymous to “husband and father” and “wife and mother.”
And, in terms of community, I believe that the Mana tribe lived in harmony. The Mana tribe had no words for violent conflict or war. Also, they had several words for leader, but they were all plural. I believe that this shows that they did not have power struggles in the community, and that the adults had no problem teaching the younger generation how to continue their line of work (in case they die). Though, the tribe did have terms for praise which translates to “peacemaker” and “conciliator.” This makes me assume that although they did not have power struggles, they might have had small disputes with one another (like the ideas of the younger generation vs older generation). I assume that the conflicts were very trivial and were easily handled.
Overall, I believe that the Mana tribe is very admirable. Even without following the rules from a book compiled by a bunch of people (the Bible), the Mana people seem to be good people who know how to live a happy, moral life where force and violence is not needed to get their opinions across. But because my father spent most of his time there and neglected his family, I will definitely complete and publish his research to the journal. If this gets enough hits, I believe the government may take interest and may decide to visit the lost Mana tribe, welcoming them with gifts such as white supremacist Christians, the ghost of Christopher Columbus, butchers, pollution, toxic chemicals, bull dozers, etc. Rest in peace knowing that your precious tribe will be defiled father!