February 4, 2016 • 38 mins
On Pentacost Island the ritual that preceded bungee jumping is alive and well. Just why do these tribesmen risk life and limb? To ensure a hearty yam harvest. Great reason.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This episode is brought to you by square Space. Start
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Stuff you should Know from House Stuff Works dot com. Hey,
(00:23):
and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with Charles W.
Chuck Bryant. And although we haven't been in the studio
and Jerry's over there. Although we haven't been in the studio, Chuck,
can I have been together on the road, Yeah, doing
stuff you should know the podcast, calling live exclamation, leaving
our stank all over this great nation, hoping to bring
our stank into other great nations. Yeah, we're looking at you,
(00:46):
Great Britain. We have no idea whether you want us
to come over or not. We're trying to feel you
guys out. Let us know if you want us to
come to a show there. Yeah, and that goes for
other cities. Um, well, let's just recap. We went to
We had a great fun time on the Warm Climbs tour.
Big thanks to squarespace again for sponsoring the tour uh
and allowing UH the free printing and giving out of
(01:08):
posters which is always wonderful when people say how much
did these costs? And I say zero money because Uncle
squarespace pay. That's right. So we went to San Francisco.
That was fantastic. Um, you want to tell your San
Francisco story, it's so wonderful. The little kid. Yeah. So
I was on Fillmore Street, which is my new favorite
(01:28):
street in San Francisco, and there's this little girl crying
and pointing at a man. And I couldn't figure out
what the girl's problem was until I overheard her mom say, no, honey,
he's not throwing that away. That's a recycling. Then he's
putting that cup. And I swear to God that happen. Yeah,
it could not be more San Francisco than that. Oh,
(01:49):
I can top that. That same street later that day
or the next day, I saw a woman crossing at
about that point and she had her arm in a
sling and the sling was berber wow. And the cast
was probably made from like recycled bandages from you know,
patients who didn't make it or once who did. They
(02:09):
just took him anyway, right, Uh? Oh, very nice Monty
Python reference. Uh. Then we went to San Diego performed
in a church, yes ironic, Yeah, which was a little
weird but cool and fun. It was the church from
the Prince of Darkness. That's right, or at least it
was after we left. I'm virtually convinced that's what it was.
(02:32):
It might have been. I have to go back and
watch it again, but I mean it was very reminiscent
of it. Uh. Where Dallas after that? Yeah, we played
in the theater where Lee Harvey Oswald hit out. That's right.
And the Dallas crowd was great and raucous and they
actually there's a point in this show where I do
aye haw and they hold back. It was an involuntary
(02:53):
spasm from the Dallas crowd. And they also at least
two or three people shot guns into the air. And
you saw Tim Gallant hat. Yes, did it hold ten
gallons milk? At least maybe a baker's dozens of gallons. Uh.
Then we went to Austin, Texas, which is a wonderful city.
And by the way, we're gonna be back in Austin
(03:14):
for South by Southwest, uh and performing and our very
own we're getting like our own house, not of stuff
you should know house, you know, like the speakeasy we're
gonna be there. Yeah, the City of Atlanta speakeasy house
I think like fifth in Congress or something like. Yeah.
So look for us again Austin, Texas in March. Yeah.
I don't know if you guys have heard of it
(03:34):
or not. It's gonna be a south By Southwest just
look at him. Where do we go next? We went
to New Orleans. It was wonderful and uh, I want
to shout out uh ms Kristen Bell and Mr Dack Shepard,
the lovely acting couple who we know listen to our
show because they've been kind enough to tweet about us
(03:55):
in support in the past. And I was at a
bakery in New Orleans and came out. She said, Kristen
Bell's in there, and I felt like I had to
go say something and thank her. And she was delighted
to meet me and relieved seconds after I said who
I was, that you weren't just some weirdo dude. I
come lumbering like this woodland beast comes lumbering up to
(04:16):
a bakery and she was like literally shielding her children
from it. And yeah, oh, oh your chuck, thank god. Uh.
And she couldn't have been nicer and she met Ruby
and insisted I changed Ruby staper there in her booth
because there was no changing room. And so thanks for
your support, ms ms Bell, ms Bell. Yes, yeah, I
(04:40):
can't call it Kristen h. I can call dackx Dax
because he's just cool like that. Uh. And then we
went to Atlanta. That was probably the most fun show
I've ever done. That was a fun hometown show. Sold
it out, family and friends. It was just a wonderful
special night. And I stayed out until three in the morning,
drink way too much. And I can attest to this
(05:02):
because I saw Chuck the next day for the last
show in Birmingham, and both of us took it easy
that night because we both had to turn around and
drive home after the show. Two am back to Atlanta,
two exhausted little stuffers. I was impressed by the Birmingham crowd.
They showed up and they were like, Um, whatever impressions
you may have of us, they're wrong. Entertain us smartly. Yeah,
(05:24):
and when we did, we we didn't know the roof
off that sucker. It was sort of a test of
a smaller Southeastern market and they came through. So yeah,
it was a good crowd. In Birmingham too, and the
venue was really neat to the work Play space is
really neat and they were very nice. All podcasters out
there who go on tour, check out Workplay in Birmingham.
There were dogs running around after inside there, which is
(05:45):
perfect for us. That's our tour. Yeah, thanks everybody, And
if you're wondering what we did, you have to wait
until we released the live show. That's right. Oh. One
more quick announcement, um, if anyone in Atlanta wants to
come see my mediocre old man band, Oh, we are
playing February twenty six at the Starbar. Awesome. I'm super
excited because it's just the age old great venue in
(06:07):
Atlanta and they mistakenly let us on the bill. Uh
so come on out if you want to see see
you smelt some faces? Is that what you guys? Dos? Shredding?
Shredding my friend nice? So that's it. You got any
other announcements? No, great, I don't have an old man band,
so no, well you can. Dreams can't come true. Starbar
(06:30):
is one of mine, and you may places. Yeah yeah,
are we invited? No you can't. Actually you're on a
list like do not let in I think you should
have been like Atlanta minus Josh. My old man band
is going to be playing. Yeah, you can come if
you want. Nice. Great, let's see what else, Chuck, land diving.
Oh yeah, we've put it off long enough. That's right,
(06:52):
all right, the land diving. It sounds weird, and it
is a little weird. It's um this ancient cut them
they We actually know the origin story too. We know
where it started. You know, it never came across wind specifically.
It seems to have happened some point back in the
distant past. But I'm not entirely certain that the distant
(07:13):
passes like two thousand years ago or three years ago,
in which case it wouldn't be ancient. No, but it's
still be. This still distant past is ancient? Is that quantified? Uh? No?
I never even thought to see surely it's not. Why
(07:34):
Why don't you just continue? I might even look it up, okay,
which we rarely do. So Chuck's gonna look that up.
I'll keep talking. There's an island called Vanuatu. It's in
the South Pacific. Survivor did a season there, but even
before Survivor it was famous, and it was famous for
this land diving thing. Um and back in Uh, there's
(07:55):
actually specific island in Vanuatu called Pentecost Island. Uh. Clearly
the missionaries got their hands on that island and um,
Pentecost Island is where this the the origin of land
diving or something called. It's called nag hall or nag
hall h o L. Yeah, not the easiest word to pronounce.
(08:16):
You did funnog hall anyway, you say that a bunch
of times. Man, I feel rusty. No, you're great, great,
you're squeaky clean. So this land diving thing, it's not
like these guys like climb up a couple of feet
and jump onto the ground and do a summersault and
then do it. Stick it with the y their hands
(08:37):
in the air, stick the landing. It's much more intricate
than that. Primitive and dangerous, extremely dangerous. So it bears
a striking resemblance to bungee jumping. And the reason why
is because the guy who invented bungee jumping, Australian named A. J. Hackett,
went to Pentecost Island at some point in the eighties,
(08:57):
saw this stuff and said, oh, I could totally do
something like that, but with an elastic band. Yeah, that's
a big difference between bungee and land diving. Yeah, he
didn't invent it, but he popularized it. Who invented bungee jumping?
I didn't get a name, but I saw that the first, um,
the first bungee jumping that anyone knows about, was in England.
(09:21):
Oh yeah, Are you sure it wasn't this cat because
he traveled the world bungee jumping. Yeah. Ninety nine. The
UK based Dangerous Sports Club leapt off the suspension bridge
in San Francisco, though I think Clifton suspension Bridge near Bristol. No,
that's San Francisco. Everybody goes the famous Clifton suspension Bridge
(09:44):
in Marin County. This is uh, that's the Golden gate Bridge,
I believe. Oh yeah, uh. And I think they say
Marinus um. Yeah. I don't think they didn't give a name,
but it said uh. And this is from a Time
magazine article. Because what's going on is um or. At
least a few years ago, people and the tribes people
(10:06):
were trying to get some money out of A. J.
Hackett and his partner. They're basically like, wait a minute,
you copied our age old and I looked up ancient
by the way, UH said, it's uh belonging to the
very descent past and no longer in existence. Oh well,
then ancient wouldn't work in this case because there's still
(10:27):
land diving in Vanuatu. But it can also just mean
like really old, like that ancient jacket you're wearing. I'm
not wearing the ancient underwear you're wearing. This is very
new from last quarter your underwear. Yeah, okay, good, do
you buy your underwear quarterly? Do the texas by the underwear?
(10:51):
I gotta do that still. Um So, anyway, he didn't
invent it, but uh, and I might as well go
ahead and finish that little story about them trying to
get money. Apparently it's probably not going to happen. I
couldn't see any recent It's always one of the most
frustrating things when you see something from a few years
ago and can't find a follow up. But from what
(11:11):
I gathered, they're gonna have a really hard time getting
money out of them because there's no legal protection afforded
to traditional rituals in or outside of Vanuatu. Is what
experts say, Like, basically, you can't you can't say this
tribal ritual like we own it, right, so Westerners just
(11:32):
feel free to copy it and explore it. Our western
intellectual property laws don't apply to your tribal customs. All right,
Since we were long winded at first, why don't we
take a break, and then we'll get into exactly what
goes on with these dives. All right? Josh, you said
(12:07):
it wasn't a few feet off the ground. It's more
like just under a hundred feet where these towers are built.
The towers are are not, you know, um made of
rebar and uh what do they call the scaffolding. It's
made of stuff there in in the in the jungle.
It's made of vines, and it's made of wood, and
they build a new one each year during uh well,
(12:31):
I call it yam season, before the yam harvest, because
yam time, I call it the blood lighting. But it
is cut open the earth and remove her yams from
her breast. What in the world are you talking about
yam time? I don't get it. We're talking about the
same thing, talking differently, all right. Is what you said
(12:53):
a real thing? No, it's very maccab I know where
I yam time. Yam time, So it's during m season
or just before yam harvest. And that's one of the reasons, uh,
they take part in this ritual is to ensure a
bountiful yam harvest. I get the feeling it's yams are
a pretty big deal for them. If you're doing this
(13:15):
to ensure a bountiful yam harvest. Yes, yes, yams are
very important. And it's also um a good time to
do it because that is when the vines are most
full of sap and less likely to be brittle and break,
which is not what you want. And these are the
linear vines, right, yes, so the the linear vines. It's
(13:37):
extremely important what kind of linea vines that you select
because at any point in the linear vine that you select,
if it's dry, it can snap. And it's it's tied
to somebody's ankle and they're jumping off at about forty
five up to thirty meters or almost a hundred feet. Yeah,
you want to make sure that vine is not going
(13:58):
to snap. Yeah. So, if we haven't explicitly said it,
they jump as if they're bungee jumping. But there is
I mean there's some elasticity because I watched it, but
it's not like bungee cords. They're not rubber bands. Um.
It's generally the ideas you want to fold your arms
over your chest, make the leap, and then come as
(14:22):
close to the ground as you can without uh having
a hard impact. But you ideally do want to touch
the ground with your shoulders right so barely. You also,
as you're coming up towards the ground, you want to
tuck your head into your chest so that what's hitting
the ground is that like the tops of your shoulders basically.
(14:43):
And and a really really important point that just kind
of gets glossed over in this article is that they
till the ground below the platform. It's also a little slopey,
which helps, I think, right, so that it's cushion. Because
when you watch this stuff, people hit the ground own
really hard. A lot, yeah, a lot. And as a
(15:05):
matter of fact, one guy died in ninety four and
Queen Elizabeth happened to be there. He didn't die in
front of her. He died later of his injuries. But um,
one of the jumpers while Queen Elizabeth was sitting there watching, UM,
he did die. And it turns out that a lot
of people hit the ground, but this guy was the
only person in recent memory that anybody alive could remember,
(15:29):
um actually died. And I think it's mainly because they
till that ground so much. Yeah, there was one fatality
in two thousand six. But um, I mean, considering what
they're doing, that's a pretty good track record here in
modern times, that's not too bad. So where all this
come from? Chuck? Well, uh, years ago that Well, here's
(15:50):
the legend. And of course this smacks of legend um
in every way, but you never know, might have been
had some truth to it early on. So many legends too,
including that Tom Cruise movie legend which one was, Oh
that was the fantasy movie. Yes, and I think I
saw it, but not my favorite. No, I never saw it. Okay,
(16:14):
don't bother. I always used to confuse it with Labyrinth. Yeah,
that was better. It was featuring David Bowie, the late
great David Bowie. Al Right, here's the legend, um. There
was a woman named tom Alee t A. M. A. L.
I E. Not Tomali. It's the way do you go,
Tomi Lee. She was a woman in the village. Tomallee
(16:37):
was the man. I thought Tomallee was a woman. No,
Tomallee was her husband. I believe. All right, so it's
the husband. Yeah, maybe she was amily Emiline Tomiie who
had been the cutest couple who knew they were going
to get married on Pentecost Island. So she apparently Tomilee
was abusive. Well, she she had had an affair and
he found out about it and it was in the
(16:59):
process of a abusing her. And see I also read
this is why it's a legend because there are many versions.
But I read he was forcing himself on her sexually
and she was like the sat happen anymore, Tommie. Either way,
it's abuse. He's abusing her. Uh, And so she flees,
climbs up to a tall tree. He climbs up after her, uh,
(17:20):
intent on you know, continuing his his abusive behaviors. She
I guess has enough time to tie these vines around
her ankles and jumps fast and he says, I'm jumping
after you too, Okay again legend Either out of he
thinks that she just jumped to her death and he's sad,
so he's committing suicide. I don't buy that one. He's
lunging at her and missus I could buy that one more.
(17:43):
Or he's like I'm I'm jumping after you because I'm
Tomilee and I'm dumb. Maybe so one of those, but
at any rate, as legend goes, beat you up on
the way down. As legend goes, she actually survived the
jump thanks to the vines on her ankles. He did not. Um,
so did she craft this ahead of time? I say,
there's a lot easier ways to kill your husband than this.
(18:05):
Weird Yeah, you know, like maybe he'll follow me up
the tree then jump after me. Well, if you're a
thrill seeker, though, this is what you're gonna come up with.
She might have been. Uh. And then this is where
it also goes off into different directions. Um. Some people
say that she continued that jump every year. Uh. And
then men eventually said no, we're doing the jumping. And
(18:26):
then some say no men immediately started jumping and said
women can't jump, right, And the ladder of those two legends,
um is that men, we're like, well, we need to
start practicing in case somebody else this ever happens to me,
because clearly this is going to be a trend that starts.
And you women, you're not allowed to practice, only us,
(18:49):
That's right. And so the husbands would get up on
the platform and they would basically make a speech about
their wife's behavior and then make the jump. And the
coffee she makes is terrible, So I'm gonna jump. Watch this,
you know. The wife is just down there, like I
hate the stupid tradition. No, I don't think so they
(19:11):
embrace it now. Well, I mean when the husband's sitting there,
gripe wife, anybody about I'm sure some pitdling stuff. It's
just just jump. You don't have to add that part.
But what has remained true today is that women are
not permitted to jump. Um. It's only men. And aside
(19:32):
for him one uh white dude in the nineties seventies,
no outsider has ever been allowed to jump. No cat
cat Mueller. Cal was the cal I thought was Cat
cal Mueller. Yeah. Ended up like living with the pentecost
islanders um for at least seven months, if not longer.
I think over the course of a couple of years.
(19:52):
But the last stint was seven straight months. And he
they speak a version of Pidgeon English um, and he
like learned to speak it as well, and he gave
a really like heartfelt speech from the platform when they
finally led him, and it was apparently, by all accounts,
are very touching, well not all accounts, by cal Mueller's account,
very touching experience. Well, and you know, because he said
(20:16):
in his article land Diving with the pentecost Islanders that
was a very touching experience. I'm sure he did. Okay,
I did read uh the article. Actually that's pretty good.
He wasna Geo magazine. So he was the first two
or only outsider to jump. It's it's actually so it's
because it's so dangerous. It's it's forbidden. But they they
(20:37):
they've enshrined it in a taboo. It's like a cultural
taboo for a non van oat tour to jump, to
do the knock. Yeah, and I'm sure there have been
plenty of bungee bros really trying to get in there,
but they by all accounts have been rebuffed every time.
They have some three eleven they can play while a jump.
(20:59):
But any way, cal Mueller wasn't the he was the
only one to jump. He wasn't the first outsider to
see this. There were a lot of early witnesses, obviously
the Pentecostals who first came to the island as missionaries.
It didn't occur to me. That's why the island was
called that. Sure, like a dummy. I just gloss right
over that. Um, you're not a dummy, man. I hate
it when obvious things don't occur to me, though. It's
(21:21):
it's just perspective, like it could have been called Christian
Now island. What a weird name? Christian now, what's what
the exclamation? But earlier than that, earlier than cal Mueller,
there was some Uh there was an adventurer couple named
um Irving and Electra Johnson, and they just traveled the
(21:42):
world at a time when traveling the world was very difficult. Uh, well,
the fifties, and they were correspondents for National Geographic for
a while, and in nineteen fifty three they finally got
to see it. They had a friend on Pentecost Island,
probably a missionary, who was saying, like, you gotta see this, man,
it's crazy. Yeah, I'll see if I can arrange it.
And they became some of the first outsiders to ever
(22:04):
write about it. Well, and missionaries actually um talk to
them and well it says they banned the practice in
the late nineteenth century. But after World War Two, apparently
there was a big revival in Vanuatu's independence and like
reclaiming their traditions and so that's when it started coming
back into favor. And um also because they realized, and
(22:28):
we'll get to this, that the gams had shrunk in size.
Maybe also because they could make some dough from from
people who wanted to travel and watch this. Yeah. Because um,
we mentioned Queen Elizabeth has seen this. She wasn't the
it didn't go uh the Johnson's cal Mueller Queen Elizabeth.
It became like a pretty big tourist attraction and still
(22:50):
is today. Um. And as a matter of fact, the
original nogal took place once one day out of the year,
and as tourists started to um and tourist dollars started
to come with them, the pentecost Islanders said, we'll do
this more than once a year. How about that? Yeah,
I think the the one is their official special ceremony.
(23:12):
But then I think between what April and June they
do it weekly. Yeah, like a matinee on Saturday's even Yeah,
for the kiddies, the rest of them get a little blue.
So let's take a break and then we'll describe the
actual not all ceremony huh. All right, so chuck, yes, uh,
(23:49):
not all begins with a. I think they kind of
select a trusted elder of the tribe and say, this
is your year. You're the Grand Marshal of Nargnog. Hall Uh.
Here's your hat with the feather in the front. Do
some good stuff. Here's your orange soda. And the elder said,
I've been waiting for this my whole life. I'm gonna
(24:10):
do the best. Not all ever, it's going to be
an under the sea theme. No, okay, well, everything but
the last part, right, okay. So the elder is in
charge of overseeing the construction of the platform, which is terrifying.
These platforms are terrifying. Yeah, I mean just when you
look at these, climbing up to the top of that
to me is too much, let alone jumping off right.
(24:33):
I'm sure they're really good at it though, and they
very sturdy. Right. So, over the course of a few
weeks they construct these platforms again up to like thirty
meters in height, which is about a hundred feet UM,
and they'll have platforms of varying levels for people of
varying levels of courage UM. And the platforms are basically
like they select a strong, tall tree and that serves
(24:55):
as like the spine of the platform, and then they
use wood and vines to kind of create the platforms
are varying height along the tree, right, that's right. And
so that's kind of phase one, the construction phase. And
then finally the day of knock Hall comes and the
night before they jump, all the people who are going
to jump sleep out at the foot of the platform. Sex. Yeah,
(25:16):
that's a big superstation. Have sex of the night before.
They say that it'll throw off your jump. Sure. Uh.
And actually the guy who jumped and died in front
of Queen Elizabeth, Uh, he had a lucky charm on him.
I thought you're about to say he had sex with
Queen Elizabeth, Right, that's you. And so that's another table.
No sex with Queen Elizabeth. Um, he had a lucky
(25:38):
charm on him. So now lucky charms are considered bad luck. Um,
so there's some there's some superstitions considering the whole thing
or surrounding the whole thing. Um. But the the night
before they will sleep out in front of the platform,
and then when they wake up, they just immediately start
drumming and like cooking and like it's a huge party,
like the moment they wake up. And that same elder
(26:01):
that that supervises the construction is also the man who
picks out all the vines for all the jumpers. And
it says right here in the article there's there's no
maths involved. Um he Basically it said works from experience
and trial and error in selecting the appropriate length of vine. Um.
(26:21):
So hopefully you apprentice as an elder. Sure you know, yeah,
and it's not just like I've never done this before,
but let's see what happens. Yeah, but like I said,
only in the ninety four and two thousand six deaths
in modern times, so they're doing it right. They are
doing it right. I'm sure there are injuries though, broken
shoulders and and broken arms and spleen bursts is a
(26:44):
big problem. Oh the old, the old spleen versus, especially
if the vine is too short and you slam into
the platform. Yeah, like that's what you would think, is, no,
just make it super short. But because it's not a bungee,
you jump out and you swing right back into that thing.
So you like, there is a tremendous amount of skill
and look in selecting the vine length because I mean
(27:04):
you have to take into account, well, what platform are
you jumping from? How long are you? Or tall is
another way to put it. Um. And again the the
you want to have a vine that's very supple, has
a lot of sap and no dry spot in it,
because a vine is only as strong as its weakest
dry spot. That's the old thing. Uh So the first
jumper gets up there, and every jumper to follow um
(27:28):
still traditionally will say a few words um at the top.
That could be his last words, you never know. Um.
And it ranges from let me get a few things
off my chest here, um, clear up a couple of like,
you know, issues I've had with people, maybe any outstanding
beefs once stolely yam. Maybe it's really kind of up
(27:51):
to them from some people mind really like some people
really ham it up up there because the crowd is
just en wrapped by you. Is your moment, it's a
big moment like that. You can have them eating out
of your hands. Some people do. Some people sing a song,
they're like the whitey really loves this part, so let
me put on a good show. Or they tell jokes
(28:12):
or something like that. Yeah. Um, And when I say Whitey.
I mean, like, you know, people like Whitey Ford, people
that pay four dollars after spending thousands to travel here
to witness this ancient custom. Well I'm not ancient custom. Yeah.
I don't think clearing that up's gonna help. I think
you're still going to get a ton of emails for
that one. You know, if someone white writes in and
(28:34):
takes a task with me saying whitey, then come on
bring it, That's what I say. Uh So when they
make the jump, um, the crowd is silent initially right
before the leap, and then much rejoicing right afterwards, and
it's all you know, it's over in a second, especially
if the person is okay. There's a lot of rejoicing
right after. But I guess everybody rushes over and like
(28:56):
unties the vines and they're like, get okay, suck it out.
Is a salt tablet uh So we did mention the tourism,
and I think I just dropped the three fifty references,
and that's just for the actual let me pay to
witness this cost a lot more to to get there.
(29:18):
Oh yeah, and you know, if you can find a
three fifty dollar package to get you from your house
in the United States to Vanawat to you take that
package now because you have to fly in by seaplane.
They do they have an airport, right that I know of.
I wonder where you would fly into to get to
vanawa to surely there's an international airport in Vanawatt. It's
(29:38):
South Pacific, right, Yeah, yeah, who knows. I'm sure they
did the Survivor show there, so I'm sure there's just
they constructed an airport. But then they're also like nothing
but sour grapes because they tore it down right after.
They're like, well, we don't need this anymore. Did you
ever watch that show? I saw like the first season.
I think I did too. I think it's still going miraculous?
(30:00):
Is it really? Maybe? Maybe not? But I know it
went on far longer then I believed it did. I
would guess what maybe in the seventeen seventeen seasons, twenty
season something like that. Crazy. So, uh, we also should
mention the garb women on the island or in their
traditional grass skirts and uh, not much of anything else.
(30:25):
And the men where this is during nogal typically they
dress like in western clothing. Yeah, it's during nogal. It's
like yet another nod to like this, this is our tradition,
this is our customs. So they were like the you know,
ninety nineties Bulls NBA champion T shirt always picture stuff
(30:46):
like that there. Uh yeah, there is I think a
Planet Money series or something like that about how our
clothes end up elsewhere in the world. Uh. So yeah,
every Saturday, the women are like seeing next week bra
and top and everything. Uh. And the men, um say,
ceo clothing. Uh, and let me just get out my
(31:07):
peanut sheath which I keep in the pocket of my levies.
And that's all they're wearing. Um, they do wear. Um,
some of them wear like boars tusks around their neck
and things like that. And they're anointed with oil, coconut oil,
and but um, aside from that, they're they're not wearing
mini clothes. It's pretty neat, man, the whole thing it is.
And um, I think we didn't mention it's a twofold purpose.
(31:33):
These days. Not only are they ensuring the yam harvest,
but young boys after they are circumcised at seven or
eight years old can participate as a way of like
showing their transcendence into manhood, right, and they'll typically jump
from a lower platform and work their way up the
kid pool, but their mom's watch and apparently they hold
(31:53):
like some sort of like item from their childhood, like
their binkie or something like that. Then after their sun
lands they they throw it away because he's not like,
he's not a boy anymore, he's a man. A neat ritual.
It is very neat, except for the eight year old
getting circumcised part. Yeah. And also it said that sometimes
these boys are just trying to impress a girl, you know,
like look at me jumping from the fifteen foot platform,
(32:16):
which is adorable. It is pretty cute. Um. And one
other thing I want to say, Chuck, I thought was
pretty neat. There have been plenty of documentary companies that
have been allowed on the island to film, and you know,
it's become like a big thing. Um. But the government
of Vanuatu said, you know what, this is getting to commercialized.
(32:38):
So you guys can keep coming and see it tourists,
but um, we're not going to let on the way
out right. Well, we're not gonna let you guys film
this anymore because we don't want to. We don't want
to overexploit it. Yeah, I think it was that two
thousand six, the moratorium on filming. I thought that was
very neat. Yeah, I think it's just I mean, you
get caught up in this modern world as uh Americans,
(33:00):
and it's just amazing to think that there are still
places in the world where it's you know, unspoiled to
a certain degree. Yeah, although they do this in Iowa too.
Do you like that? That was great? Uh? If you
want to know more about um land diving, you can
(33:24):
type the word those words. It's two words into the
search bar how stiffords dot com. Since I said search bar,
time for listener mail. All right, I'm gonna call this
uh Timber episode one of my favorites of recent memory. Somehow,
are you out of your mind? I thought it was great.
You didn't like it? No, No, it's just so much
(33:47):
you say that after every episode. No, this one in particular,
I was like, oh, what do you think it was?
The trickle of blood came out of my ear. It
was so much glory. Well, we heard from the timber
industry they loved it. Oh yeah, the paper industry or
the timber industry. Timber guys lumberjacks. I'm guessing the paper
industry didn't like that one. Maybe not. Hey, guys, I'm
(34:08):
a doctoral student in environmental economics and Oregon, and I'm
close to the topic of forest both personally and academically.
Perhaps it's just a topic for another podcast. But one
oversight and the timber discussion, was that of non timber
forest products in t FPS like mushrooms, berries, and roots, like,
they're not a product. I wouldn't have thought of any
(34:30):
of those things as timber product. Yeah, that's no, it's
non timber. Oh, non timber forest products. Yes, well yeah,
woodchuck stands. These are a major source of income and subsistence, Uh.
Subsistence excuse me, uh in many lower income countries and communities,
a valuable driver tourism, and are often culturally important as well. Also,
(34:54):
wild mushroom and berry harvest here and a civic Northwest
can have high yields, and in some instance is may
have a higher economic value than that of the harvested
timber on any given plot. Sure uh, find some truffles. Uh.
These NTFP stocks, however, usually depend on the tree the
tree stand remaining in place, or at least not being
(35:16):
completely depleted. Some species even depend on forest fires or
rotting trees. Researchers just haven't spent a lot of time
on the economics surrounding this topic yet, I guess because
they're you know, they're all just like timber, timber, timber,
that's all the forest is exactly. This guy's got some
he's got he can see the forest from the trees exactly,
or the vice versa. Also, just to chime in on
(35:38):
developed versus non industrialized semantics, I prefer to use the
term low or lower income country. I feel like a
lot of the terms like underdeveloped and developing in particular,
involve a lot of value judgments about the people and
discussions on the topic of development. UH of development. People
also regularly get confused about what is meant by developer
(35:59):
developing is develop to measure of capital accumulation, median income,
poverty levels, happiness. Yeah, I'm sure there are plenty of
people UH develop development economics who would disagree with me
in my terminology, but that's what I like to use.
The dude raises a really good point. It's virtually impossible, though,
to compare the economies of two different countries and not
(36:20):
be like, oh, this one's better, that one's better, and
it's almost all through this western lens. They got more money,
they have more access to handy technology, and there's a
lot of stuff that's not taken into account where no,
that's not necessarily true. I like this guy's outlook. Well,
I mean, at least it's good that we've gone from
you know, savages to third world to developing two. I mean,
(36:46):
he knows what the next phrase will be, but well,
you know, third world was originally used to describe a
country that wasn't aligned with the US or the USSR.
It was like a non non It was a neutral
country during the Cold War. It didn't have an economic association.
Horror military sissies. Right, So pretty interesting, great email, Michael,
(37:06):
So we're real, Michael, thank you. I think I'm gonna
teach Momo to root out truffles. You got a billion
dollar dog on your hand, then i'd be wonderful billion
and he trouffles her look wonderful to eat. I'm gonna
teach her to root out both kinds of truffles, lint
and the mushrooms. What are lint? Trump the chocolate? That
(37:27):
would be wonderful? Be careful though she should eat chocolate. No, well,
that's part of the thing. Like, if you teach a
pig to root out truffles, one of the first things
you have to teach him is not to eat the
truffles themselves. I'm sure. Or did like you need to
like put a pig in a head headlock really quick. Okay,
so oh yeah. If you want to get in touch
with us, like Michael did, you can tweak to us
(37:48):
at s y s K podcast. You can join us
on Facebook dot com, slash stuff you Should Know. You
can send us an email to Stuff Podcast at how
stuff Works dot com and has always joined us at
our home on the web, Stuff you Should Know dot com.
For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit
how stuff Works dot com. H
This episode is brought to you by square Space. Start
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Stuff you should Know from House Stuff Works dot com. Hey,
(00:23):
and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with Charles W.
Chuck Bryant. And although we haven't been in the studio
and Jerry's over there. Although we haven't been in the studio, Chuck,
can I have been together on the road, Yeah, doing
stuff you should know the podcast, calling live exclamation, leaving
our stank all over this great nation, hoping to bring
our stank into other great nations. Yeah, we're looking at you,
(00:46):
Great Britain. We have no idea whether you want us
to come over or not. We're trying to feel you
guys out. Let us know if you want us to
come to a show there. Yeah, and that goes for
other cities. Um, well, let's just recap. We went to
We had a great fun time on the Warm Climbs tour.
Big thanks to squarespace again for sponsoring the tour uh
and allowing UH the free printing and giving out of
(01:08):
posters which is always wonderful when people say how much
did these costs? And I say zero money because Uncle
squarespace pay. That's right. So we went to San Francisco.
That was fantastic. Um, you want to tell your San
Francisco story, it's so wonderful. The little kid. Yeah. So
I was on Fillmore Street, which is my new favorite
(01:28):
street in San Francisco, and there's this little girl crying
and pointing at a man. And I couldn't figure out
what the girl's problem was until I overheard her mom say, no, honey,
he's not throwing that away. That's a recycling. Then he's
putting that cup. And I swear to God that happen. Yeah,
it could not be more San Francisco than that. Oh,
(01:49):
I can top that. That same street later that day
or the next day, I saw a woman crossing at
about that point and she had her arm in a
sling and the sling was berber wow. And the cast
was probably made from like recycled bandages from you know,
patients who didn't make it or once who did. They
(02:09):
just took him anyway, right, Uh? Oh, very nice Monty
Python reference. Uh. Then we went to San Diego performed
in a church, yes ironic, Yeah, which was a little
weird but cool and fun. It was the church from
the Prince of Darkness. That's right, or at least it
was after we left. I'm virtually convinced that's what it was.
(02:32):
It might have been. I have to go back and
watch it again, but I mean it was very reminiscent
of it. Uh. Where Dallas after that? Yeah, we played
in the theater where Lee Harvey Oswald hit out. That's right.
And the Dallas crowd was great and raucous and they
actually there's a point in this show where I do
aye haw and they hold back. It was an involuntary
(02:53):
spasm from the Dallas crowd. And they also at least
two or three people shot guns into the air. And
you saw Tim Gallant hat. Yes, did it hold ten
gallons milk? At least maybe a baker's dozens of gallons. Uh.
Then we went to Austin, Texas, which is a wonderful city.
And by the way, we're gonna be back in Austin
(03:14):
for South by Southwest, uh and performing and our very
own we're getting like our own house, not of stuff
you should know house, you know, like the speakeasy we're
gonna be there. Yeah, the City of Atlanta speakeasy house
I think like fifth in Congress or something like. Yeah.
So look for us again Austin, Texas in March. Yeah.
I don't know if you guys have heard of it
(03:34):
or not. It's gonna be a south By Southwest just
look at him. Where do we go next? We went
to New Orleans. It was wonderful and uh, I want
to shout out uh ms Kristen Bell and Mr Dack Shepard,
the lovely acting couple who we know listen to our
show because they've been kind enough to tweet about us
(03:55):
in support in the past. And I was at a
bakery in New Orleans and came out. She said, Kristen
Bell's in there, and I felt like I had to
go say something and thank her. And she was delighted
to meet me and relieved seconds after I said who
I was, that you weren't just some weirdo dude. I
come lumbering like this woodland beast comes lumbering up to
(04:16):
a bakery and she was like literally shielding her children
from it. And yeah, oh, oh your chuck, thank god. Uh.
And she couldn't have been nicer and she met Ruby
and insisted I changed Ruby staper there in her booth
because there was no changing room. And so thanks for
your support, ms ms Bell, ms Bell. Yes, yeah, I
(04:40):
can't call it Kristen h. I can call dackx Dax
because he's just cool like that. Uh. And then we
went to Atlanta. That was probably the most fun show
I've ever done. That was a fun hometown show. Sold
it out, family and friends. It was just a wonderful
special night. And I stayed out until three in the morning,
drink way too much. And I can attest to this
(05:02):
because I saw Chuck the next day for the last
show in Birmingham, and both of us took it easy
that night because we both had to turn around and
drive home after the show. Two am back to Atlanta,
two exhausted little stuffers. I was impressed by the Birmingham crowd.
They showed up and they were like, Um, whatever impressions
you may have of us, they're wrong. Entertain us smartly. Yeah,
(05:24):
and when we did, we we didn't know the roof
off that sucker. It was sort of a test of
a smaller Southeastern market and they came through. So yeah,
it was a good crowd. In Birmingham too, and the
venue was really neat to the work Play space is
really neat and they were very nice. All podcasters out
there who go on tour, check out Workplay in Birmingham.
There were dogs running around after inside there, which is
(05:45):
perfect for us. That's our tour. Yeah, thanks everybody, And
if you're wondering what we did, you have to wait
until we released the live show. That's right. Oh. One
more quick announcement, um, if anyone in Atlanta wants to
come see my mediocre old man band, Oh, we are
playing February twenty six at the Starbar. Awesome. I'm super
excited because it's just the age old great venue in
(06:07):
Atlanta and they mistakenly let us on the bill. Uh
so come on out if you want to see see
you smelt some faces? Is that what you guys? Dos? Shredding?
Shredding my friend nice? So that's it. You got any
other announcements? No, great, I don't have an old man band,
so no, well you can. Dreams can't come true. Starbar
(06:30):
is one of mine, and you may places. Yeah yeah,
are we invited? No you can't. Actually you're on a
list like do not let in I think you should
have been like Atlanta minus Josh. My old man band
is going to be playing. Yeah, you can come if
you want. Nice. Great, let's see what else, Chuck, land diving.
Oh yeah, we've put it off long enough. That's right,
(06:52):
all right, the land diving. It sounds weird, and it
is a little weird. It's um this ancient cut them
they We actually know the origin story too. We know
where it started. You know, it never came across wind specifically.
It seems to have happened some point back in the
distant past. But I'm not entirely certain that the distant
(07:13):
passes like two thousand years ago or three years ago,
in which case it wouldn't be ancient. No, but it's
still be. This still distant past is ancient? Is that quantified? Uh? No?
I never even thought to see surely it's not. Why
(07:34):
Why don't you just continue? I might even look it up, okay,
which we rarely do. So Chuck's gonna look that up.
I'll keep talking. There's an island called Vanuatu. It's in
the South Pacific. Survivor did a season there, but even
before Survivor it was famous, and it was famous for
this land diving thing. Um and back in Uh, there's
(07:55):
actually specific island in Vanuatu called Pentecost Island. Uh. Clearly
the missionaries got their hands on that island and um,
Pentecost Island is where this the the origin of land
diving or something called. It's called nag hall or nag
hall h o L. Yeah, not the easiest word to pronounce.
(08:16):
You did funnog hall anyway, you say that a bunch
of times. Man, I feel rusty. No, you're great, great,
you're squeaky clean. So this land diving thing, it's not
like these guys like climb up a couple of feet
and jump onto the ground and do a summersault and
then do it. Stick it with the y their hands
(08:37):
in the air, stick the landing. It's much more intricate
than that. Primitive and dangerous, extremely dangerous. So it bears
a striking resemblance to bungee jumping. And the reason why
is because the guy who invented bungee jumping, Australian named A. J. Hackett,
went to Pentecost Island at some point in the eighties,
(08:57):
saw this stuff and said, oh, I could totally do
something like that, but with an elastic band. Yeah, that's
a big difference between bungee and land diving. Yeah, he
didn't invent it, but he popularized it. Who invented bungee jumping?
I didn't get a name, but I saw that the first, um,
the first bungee jumping that anyone knows about, was in England.
(09:21):
Oh yeah, Are you sure it wasn't this cat because
he traveled the world bungee jumping. Yeah. Ninety nine. The
UK based Dangerous Sports Club leapt off the suspension bridge
in San Francisco, though I think Clifton suspension Bridge near Bristol. No,
that's San Francisco. Everybody goes the famous Clifton suspension Bridge
(09:44):
in Marin County. This is uh, that's the Golden gate Bridge,
I believe. Oh yeah, uh. And I think they say
Marinus um. Yeah. I don't think they didn't give a name,
but it said uh. And this is from a Time
magazine article. Because what's going on is um or. At
least a few years ago, people and the tribes people
(10:06):
were trying to get some money out of A. J.
Hackett and his partner. They're basically like, wait a minute,
you copied our age old and I looked up ancient
by the way, UH said, it's uh belonging to the
very descent past and no longer in existence. Oh well,
then ancient wouldn't work in this case because there's still
(10:27):
land diving in Vanuatu. But it can also just mean
like really old, like that ancient jacket you're wearing. I'm
not wearing the ancient underwear you're wearing. This is very
new from last quarter your underwear. Yeah, okay, good, do
you buy your underwear quarterly? Do the texas by the underwear?
(10:51):
I gotta do that still. Um So, anyway, he didn't
invent it, but uh, and I might as well go
ahead and finish that little story about them trying to
get money. Apparently it's probably not going to happen. I
couldn't see any recent It's always one of the most
frustrating things when you see something from a few years
ago and can't find a follow up. But from what
(11:11):
I gathered, they're gonna have a really hard time getting
money out of them because there's no legal protection afforded
to traditional rituals in or outside of Vanuatu. Is what
experts say, Like, basically, you can't you can't say this
tribal ritual like we own it, right, so Westerners just
(11:32):
feel free to copy it and explore it. Our western
intellectual property laws don't apply to your tribal customs. All right,
Since we were long winded at first, why don't we
take a break, and then we'll get into exactly what
goes on with these dives. All right? Josh, you said
(12:07):
it wasn't a few feet off the ground. It's more
like just under a hundred feet where these towers are built.
The towers are are not, you know, um made of
rebar and uh what do they call the scaffolding. It's
made of stuff there in in the in the jungle.
It's made of vines, and it's made of wood, and
they build a new one each year during uh well,
(12:31):
I call it yam season, before the yam harvest, because
yam time, I call it the blood lighting. But it
is cut open the earth and remove her yams from
her breast. What in the world are you talking about
yam time? I don't get it. We're talking about the
same thing, talking differently, all right. Is what you said
(12:53):
a real thing? No, it's very maccab I know where
I yam time. Yam time, So it's during m season
or just before yam harvest. And that's one of the reasons, uh,
they take part in this ritual is to ensure a
bountiful yam harvest. I get the feeling it's yams are
a pretty big deal for them. If you're doing this
(13:15):
to ensure a bountiful yam harvest. Yes, yes, yams are
very important. And it's also um a good time to
do it because that is when the vines are most
full of sap and less likely to be brittle and break,
which is not what you want. And these are the
linear vines, right, yes, so the the linear vines. It's
(13:37):
extremely important what kind of linea vines that you select
because at any point in the linear vine that you select,
if it's dry, it can snap. And it's it's tied
to somebody's ankle and they're jumping off at about forty
five up to thirty meters or almost a hundred feet. Yeah,
you want to make sure that vine is not going
(13:58):
to snap. Yeah. So, if we haven't explicitly said it,
they jump as if they're bungee jumping. But there is
I mean there's some elasticity because I watched it, but
it's not like bungee cords. They're not rubber bands. Um.
It's generally the ideas you want to fold your arms
over your chest, make the leap, and then come as
(14:22):
close to the ground as you can without uh having
a hard impact. But you ideally do want to touch
the ground with your shoulders right so barely. You also,
as you're coming up towards the ground, you want to
tuck your head into your chest so that what's hitting
the ground is that like the tops of your shoulders basically.
(14:43):
And and a really really important point that just kind
of gets glossed over in this article is that they
till the ground below the platform. It's also a little slopey,
which helps, I think, right, so that it's cushion. Because
when you watch this stuff, people hit the ground own
really hard. A lot, yeah, a lot. And as a
(15:05):
matter of fact, one guy died in ninety four and
Queen Elizabeth happened to be there. He didn't die in
front of her. He died later of his injuries. But um,
one of the jumpers while Queen Elizabeth was sitting there watching, UM,
he did die. And it turns out that a lot
of people hit the ground, but this guy was the
only person in recent memory that anybody alive could remember,
(15:29):
um actually died. And I think it's mainly because they
till that ground so much. Yeah, there was one fatality
in two thousand six. But um, I mean, considering what
they're doing, that's a pretty good track record here in
modern times, that's not too bad. So where all this
come from? Chuck? Well, uh, years ago that Well, here's
(15:50):
the legend. And of course this smacks of legend um
in every way, but you never know, might have been
had some truth to it early on. So many legends too,
including that Tom Cruise movie legend which one was, Oh
that was the fantasy movie. Yes, and I think I
saw it, but not my favorite. No, I never saw it. Okay,
(16:14):
don't bother. I always used to confuse it with Labyrinth. Yeah,
that was better. It was featuring David Bowie, the late
great David Bowie. Al Right, here's the legend, um. There
was a woman named tom Alee t A. M. A. L.
I E. Not Tomali. It's the way do you go,
Tomi Lee. She was a woman in the village. Tomallee
(16:37):
was the man. I thought Tomallee was a woman. No,
Tomallee was her husband. I believe. All right, so it's
the husband. Yeah, maybe she was amily Emiline Tomiie who
had been the cutest couple who knew they were going
to get married on Pentecost Island. So she apparently Tomilee
was abusive. Well, she she had had an affair and
he found out about it and it was in the
(16:59):
process of a abusing her. And see I also read
this is why it's a legend because there are many versions.
But I read he was forcing himself on her sexually
and she was like the sat happen anymore, Tommie. Either way,
it's abuse. He's abusing her. Uh, And so she flees,
climbs up to a tall tree. He climbs up after her, uh,
(17:20):
intent on you know, continuing his his abusive behaviors. She
I guess has enough time to tie these vines around
her ankles and jumps fast and he says, I'm jumping
after you too, Okay again legend Either out of he
thinks that she just jumped to her death and he's sad,
so he's committing suicide. I don't buy that one. He's
lunging at her and missus I could buy that one more.
(17:43):
Or he's like I'm I'm jumping after you because I'm
Tomilee and I'm dumb. Maybe so one of those, but
at any rate, as legend goes, beat you up on
the way down. As legend goes, she actually survived the
jump thanks to the vines on her ankles. He did not. Um,
so did she craft this ahead of time? I say,
there's a lot easier ways to kill your husband than this.
(18:05):
Weird Yeah, you know, like maybe he'll follow me up
the tree then jump after me. Well, if you're a
thrill seeker, though, this is what you're gonna come up with.
She might have been. Uh. And then this is where
it also goes off into different directions. Um. Some people
say that she continued that jump every year. Uh. And
then men eventually said no, we're doing the jumping. And
(18:26):
then some say no men immediately started jumping and said
women can't jump, right, And the ladder of those two legends,
um is that men, we're like, well, we need to
start practicing in case somebody else this ever happens to me,
because clearly this is going to be a trend that starts.
And you women, you're not allowed to practice, only us,
(18:49):
That's right. And so the husbands would get up on
the platform and they would basically make a speech about
their wife's behavior and then make the jump. And the
coffee she makes is terrible, So I'm gonna jump. Watch this,
you know. The wife is just down there, like I
hate the stupid tradition. No, I don't think so they
(19:11):
embrace it now. Well, I mean when the husband's sitting there,
gripe wife, anybody about I'm sure some pitdling stuff. It's
just just jump. You don't have to add that part.
But what has remained true today is that women are
not permitted to jump. Um. It's only men. And aside
(19:32):
for him one uh white dude in the nineties seventies,
no outsider has ever been allowed to jump. No cat
cat Mueller. Cal was the cal I thought was Cat
cal Mueller. Yeah. Ended up like living with the pentecost
islanders um for at least seven months, if not longer.
I think over the course of a couple of years.
(19:52):
But the last stint was seven straight months. And he
they speak a version of Pidgeon English um, and he
like learned to speak it as well, and he gave
a really like heartfelt speech from the platform when they
finally led him, and it was apparently, by all accounts,
are very touching, well not all accounts, by cal Mueller's account,
very touching experience. Well, and you know, because he said
(20:16):
in his article land Diving with the pentecost Islanders that
was a very touching experience. I'm sure he did. Okay,
I did read uh the article. Actually that's pretty good.
He wasna Geo magazine. So he was the first two
or only outsider to jump. It's it's actually so it's
because it's so dangerous. It's it's forbidden. But they they
(20:37):
they've enshrined it in a taboo. It's like a cultural
taboo for a non van oat tour to jump, to
do the knock. Yeah, and I'm sure there have been
plenty of bungee bros really trying to get in there,
but they by all accounts have been rebuffed every time.
They have some three eleven they can play while a jump.
(20:59):
But any way, cal Mueller wasn't the he was the
only one to jump. He wasn't the first outsider to
see this. There were a lot of early witnesses, obviously
the Pentecostals who first came to the island as missionaries.
It didn't occur to me. That's why the island was
called that. Sure, like a dummy. I just gloss right
over that. Um, you're not a dummy, man. I hate
it when obvious things don't occur to me, though. It's
(21:21):
it's just perspective, like it could have been called Christian
Now island. What a weird name? Christian now, what's what
the exclamation? But earlier than that, earlier than cal Mueller,
there was some Uh there was an adventurer couple named
um Irving and Electra Johnson, and they just traveled the
(21:42):
world at a time when traveling the world was very difficult. Uh, well,
the fifties, and they were correspondents for National Geographic for
a while, and in nineteen fifty three they finally got
to see it. They had a friend on Pentecost Island,
probably a missionary, who was saying, like, you gotta see this, man,
it's crazy. Yeah, I'll see if I can arrange it.
And they became some of the first outsiders to ever
(22:04):
write about it. Well, and missionaries actually um talk to
them and well it says they banned the practice in
the late nineteenth century. But after World War Two, apparently
there was a big revival in Vanuatu's independence and like
reclaiming their traditions and so that's when it started coming
back into favor. And um also because they realized, and
(22:28):
we'll get to this, that the gams had shrunk in size.
Maybe also because they could make some dough from from
people who wanted to travel and watch this. Yeah. Because um,
we mentioned Queen Elizabeth has seen this. She wasn't the
it didn't go uh the Johnson's cal Mueller Queen Elizabeth.
It became like a pretty big tourist attraction and still
(22:50):
is today. Um. And as a matter of fact, the
original nogal took place once one day out of the year,
and as tourists started to um and tourist dollars started
to come with them, the pentecost Islanders said, we'll do
this more than once a year. How about that? Yeah,
I think the the one is their official special ceremony.
(23:12):
But then I think between what April and June they
do it weekly. Yeah, like a matinee on Saturday's even Yeah,
for the kiddies, the rest of them get a little blue.
So let's take a break and then we'll describe the
actual not all ceremony huh. All right, so chuck, yes, uh,
(23:49):
not all begins with a. I think they kind of
select a trusted elder of the tribe and say, this
is your year. You're the Grand Marshal of Nargnog. Hall Uh.
Here's your hat with the feather in the front. Do
some good stuff. Here's your orange soda. And the elder said,
I've been waiting for this my whole life. I'm gonna
(24:10):
do the best. Not all ever, it's going to be
an under the sea theme. No, okay, well, everything but
the last part, right, okay. So the elder is in
charge of overseeing the construction of the platform, which is terrifying.
These platforms are terrifying. Yeah, I mean just when you
look at these, climbing up to the top of that
to me is too much, let alone jumping off right.
(24:33):
I'm sure they're really good at it though, and they
very sturdy. Right. So, over the course of a few
weeks they construct these platforms again up to like thirty
meters in height, which is about a hundred feet UM,
and they'll have platforms of varying levels for people of
varying levels of courage UM. And the platforms are basically
like they select a strong, tall tree and that serves
(24:55):
as like the spine of the platform, and then they
use wood and vines to kind of create the platforms
are varying height along the tree, right, that's right. And
so that's kind of phase one, the construction phase. And
then finally the day of knock Hall comes and the
night before they jump, all the people who are going
to jump sleep out at the foot of the platform. Sex. Yeah,
(25:16):
that's a big superstation. Have sex of the night before.
They say that it'll throw off your jump. Sure. Uh.
And actually the guy who jumped and died in front
of Queen Elizabeth, Uh, he had a lucky charm on him.
I thought you're about to say he had sex with
Queen Elizabeth, Right, that's you. And so that's another table.
No sex with Queen Elizabeth. Um, he had a lucky
(25:38):
charm on him. So now lucky charms are considered bad luck. Um,
so there's some there's some superstitions considering the whole thing
or surrounding the whole thing. Um. But the the night
before they will sleep out in front of the platform,
and then when they wake up, they just immediately start
drumming and like cooking and like it's a huge party,
like the moment they wake up. And that same elder
(26:01):
that that supervises the construction is also the man who
picks out all the vines for all the jumpers. And
it says right here in the article there's there's no
maths involved. Um he Basically it said works from experience
and trial and error in selecting the appropriate length of vine. Um.
(26:21):
So hopefully you apprentice as an elder. Sure you know, yeah,
and it's not just like I've never done this before,
but let's see what happens. Yeah, but like I said,
only in the ninety four and two thousand six deaths
in modern times, so they're doing it right. They are
doing it right. I'm sure there are injuries though, broken
shoulders and and broken arms and spleen bursts is a
(26:44):
big problem. Oh the old, the old spleen versus, especially
if the vine is too short and you slam into
the platform. Yeah, like that's what you would think, is, no,
just make it super short. But because it's not a bungee,
you jump out and you swing right back into that thing.
So you like, there is a tremendous amount of skill
and look in selecting the vine length because I mean
(27:04):
you have to take into account, well, what platform are
you jumping from? How long are you? Or tall is
another way to put it. Um. And again the the
you want to have a vine that's very supple, has
a lot of sap and no dry spot in it,
because a vine is only as strong as its weakest
dry spot. That's the old thing. Uh So the first
jumper gets up there, and every jumper to follow um
(27:28):
still traditionally will say a few words um at the top.
That could be his last words, you never know. Um.
And it ranges from let me get a few things
off my chest here, um, clear up a couple of like,
you know, issues I've had with people, maybe any outstanding
beefs once stolely yam. Maybe it's really kind of up
(27:51):
to them from some people mind really like some people
really ham it up up there because the crowd is
just en wrapped by you. Is your moment, it's a
big moment like that. You can have them eating out
of your hands. Some people do. Some people sing a song,
they're like the whitey really loves this part, so let
me put on a good show. Or they tell jokes
(28:12):
or something like that. Yeah. Um, And when I say Whitey.
I mean, like, you know, people like Whitey Ford, people
that pay four dollars after spending thousands to travel here
to witness this ancient custom. Well I'm not ancient custom. Yeah.
I don't think clearing that up's gonna help. I think
you're still going to get a ton of emails for
that one. You know, if someone white writes in and
(28:34):
takes a task with me saying whitey, then come on
bring it, That's what I say. Uh So when they
make the jump, um, the crowd is silent initially right
before the leap, and then much rejoicing right afterwards, and
it's all you know, it's over in a second, especially
if the person is okay. There's a lot of rejoicing
right after. But I guess everybody rushes over and like
(28:56):
unties the vines and they're like, get okay, suck it out.
Is a salt tablet uh So we did mention the tourism,
and I think I just dropped the three fifty references,
and that's just for the actual let me pay to
witness this cost a lot more to to get there.
(29:18):
Oh yeah, and you know, if you can find a
three fifty dollar package to get you from your house
in the United States to Vanawat to you take that
package now because you have to fly in by seaplane.
They do they have an airport, right that I know of.
I wonder where you would fly into to get to
vanawa to surely there's an international airport in Vanawatt. It's
(29:38):
South Pacific, right, Yeah, yeah, who knows. I'm sure they
did the Survivor show there, so I'm sure there's just
they constructed an airport. But then they're also like nothing
but sour grapes because they tore it down right after.
They're like, well, we don't need this anymore. Did you
ever watch that show? I saw like the first season.
I think I did too. I think it's still going miraculous?
(30:00):
Is it really? Maybe? Maybe not? But I know it
went on far longer then I believed it did. I
would guess what maybe in the seventeen seventeen seasons, twenty
season something like that. Crazy. So, uh, we also should
mention the garb women on the island or in their
traditional grass skirts and uh, not much of anything else.
(30:25):
And the men where this is during nogal typically they
dress like in western clothing. Yeah, it's during nogal. It's
like yet another nod to like this, this is our tradition,
this is our customs. So they were like the you know,
ninety nineties Bulls NBA champion T shirt always picture stuff
(30:46):
like that there. Uh yeah, there is I think a
Planet Money series or something like that about how our
clothes end up elsewhere in the world. Uh. So yeah,
every Saturday, the women are like seeing next week bra
and top and everything. Uh. And the men, um say,
ceo clothing. Uh, and let me just get out my
(31:07):
peanut sheath which I keep in the pocket of my levies.
And that's all they're wearing. Um, they do wear. Um,
some of them wear like boars tusks around their neck
and things like that. And they're anointed with oil, coconut oil,
and but um, aside from that, they're they're not wearing
mini clothes. It's pretty neat, man, the whole thing it is.
And um, I think we didn't mention it's a twofold purpose.
(31:33):
These days. Not only are they ensuring the yam harvest,
but young boys after they are circumcised at seven or
eight years old can participate as a way of like
showing their transcendence into manhood, right, and they'll typically jump
from a lower platform and work their way up the
kid pool, but their mom's watch and apparently they hold
(31:53):
like some sort of like item from their childhood, like
their binkie or something like that. Then after their sun
lands they they throw it away because he's not like,
he's not a boy anymore, he's a man. A neat ritual.
It is very neat, except for the eight year old
getting circumcised part. Yeah. And also it said that sometimes
these boys are just trying to impress a girl, you know,
like look at me jumping from the fifteen foot platform,
(32:16):
which is adorable. It is pretty cute. Um. And one
other thing I want to say, Chuck, I thought was
pretty neat. There have been plenty of documentary companies that
have been allowed on the island to film, and you know,
it's become like a big thing. Um. But the government
of Vanuatu said, you know what, this is getting to commercialized.
(32:38):
So you guys can keep coming and see it tourists,
but um, we're not going to let on the way
out right. Well, we're not gonna let you guys film
this anymore because we don't want to. We don't want
to overexploit it. Yeah, I think it was that two
thousand six, the moratorium on filming. I thought that was
very neat. Yeah, I think it's just I mean, you
get caught up in this modern world as uh Americans,
(33:00):
and it's just amazing to think that there are still
places in the world where it's you know, unspoiled to
a certain degree. Yeah, although they do this in Iowa too.
Do you like that? That was great? Uh? If you
want to know more about um land diving, you can
(33:24):
type the word those words. It's two words into the
search bar how stiffords dot com. Since I said search bar,
time for listener mail. All right, I'm gonna call this
uh Timber episode one of my favorites of recent memory. Somehow,
are you out of your mind? I thought it was great.
You didn't like it? No, No, it's just so much
(33:47):
you say that after every episode. No, this one in particular,
I was like, oh, what do you think it was?
The trickle of blood came out of my ear. It
was so much glory. Well, we heard from the timber
industry they loved it. Oh yeah, the paper industry or
the timber industry. Timber guys lumberjacks. I'm guessing the paper
industry didn't like that one. Maybe not. Hey, guys, I'm
(34:08):
a doctoral student in environmental economics and Oregon, and I'm
close to the topic of forest both personally and academically.
Perhaps it's just a topic for another podcast. But one
oversight and the timber discussion, was that of non timber
forest products in t FPS like mushrooms, berries, and roots, like,
they're not a product. I wouldn't have thought of any
(34:30):
of those things as timber product. Yeah, that's no, it's
non timber. Oh, non timber forest products. Yes, well yeah,
woodchuck stands. These are a major source of income and subsistence, Uh.
Subsistence excuse me, uh in many lower income countries and communities,
a valuable driver tourism, and are often culturally important as well. Also,
(34:54):
wild mushroom and berry harvest here and a civic Northwest
can have high yields, and in some instance is may
have a higher economic value than that of the harvested
timber on any given plot. Sure uh, find some truffles. Uh.
These NTFP stocks, however, usually depend on the tree the
tree stand remaining in place, or at least not being
(35:16):
completely depleted. Some species even depend on forest fires or
rotting trees. Researchers just haven't spent a lot of time
on the economics surrounding this topic yet, I guess because
they're you know, they're all just like timber, timber, timber,
that's all the forest is exactly. This guy's got some
he's got he can see the forest from the trees exactly,
or the vice versa. Also, just to chime in on
(35:38):
developed versus non industrialized semantics, I prefer to use the
term low or lower income country. I feel like a
lot of the terms like underdeveloped and developing in particular,
involve a lot of value judgments about the people and
discussions on the topic of development. UH of development. People
also regularly get confused about what is meant by developer
(35:59):
developing is develop to measure of capital accumulation, median income,
poverty levels, happiness. Yeah, I'm sure there are plenty of
people UH develop development economics who would disagree with me
in my terminology, but that's what I like to use.
The dude raises a really good point. It's virtually impossible, though,
to compare the economies of two different countries and not
(36:20):
be like, oh, this one's better, that one's better, and
it's almost all through this western lens. They got more money,
they have more access to handy technology, and there's a
lot of stuff that's not taken into account where no,
that's not necessarily true. I like this guy's outlook. Well,
I mean, at least it's good that we've gone from
you know, savages to third world to developing two. I mean,
(36:46):
he knows what the next phrase will be, but well,
you know, third world was originally used to describe a
country that wasn't aligned with the US or the USSR.
It was like a non non It was a neutral
country during the Cold War. It didn't have an economic association.
Horror military sissies. Right, So pretty interesting, great email, Michael,
(37:06):
So we're real, Michael, thank you. I think I'm gonna
teach Momo to root out truffles. You got a billion
dollar dog on your hand, then i'd be wonderful billion
and he trouffles her look wonderful to eat. I'm gonna
teach her to root out both kinds of truffles, lint
and the mushrooms. What are lint? Trump the chocolate? That
(37:27):
would be wonderful? Be careful though she should eat chocolate. No, well,
that's part of the thing. Like, if you teach a
pig to root out truffles, one of the first things
you have to teach him is not to eat the
truffles themselves. I'm sure. Or did like you need to
like put a pig in a head headlock really quick. Okay,
so oh yeah. If you want to get in touch
with us, like Michael did, you can tweak to us
(37:48):
at s y s K podcast. You can join us
on Facebook dot com, slash stuff you Should Know. You
can send us an email to Stuff Podcast at how
stuff Works dot com and has always joined us at
our home on the web, Stuff you Should Know dot com.
For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit
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