Where does the oldest tattooist live, and what does it mean to think through the body?

Do indigenous peoples match our romantic idea of people untouched by civilisation? How hard is it to be accepted into their tribe? Does a different language mean different thinking? And what does it mean to "think through the body"? We discuss these and many other questions with Assoc. Prof. Martin Soukup in a new episode of the Neuron Podcast, made in cooperation with Brain We Are.

Do indigenous peoples match our romantic idea of people untouched by civilisation? How hard is it to be accepted into their tribe? Does a different language mean different thinking? And what does it mean to "think through the body"? We discuss these and many other questions with Assoc. Prof. Martin Soukup in a new episode of the Neuron Podcast, made in cooperation with Brain We Are.

Kde žije nejstarší tatérka a co znamená myslet skrze tělo?

The guest of the new podcast was the culturologist and cultural anthropologist Assoc. Prof. Martin Soukup, a laureate of the Neuron Award for young scientists in the social sciences, who studies the development of the population of the largest tropical island, Papua New Guinea.

Asked what we could take inspiration from in the cultures he studies, Martin Soukup answers: "It would be good to take inspiration in the approach to death. Here, public mourning for someone close is very much reduced. Dead bodies are quickly and hygienically removed from public space. Public mourning lasts about half an hour. In Javan, by contrast, the community comes together to mourn for more than a week."

Just as we avoid pain by taking a pink pill, so we push the experience of death into the background. Martin Soukup believes this is very unhealthy for society. He also connects this phenomenon with the growing demand for so-called dark tourism (that is, tourism to places associated with death or suffering).

"Today we say he is still too young to attend a funeral. I think, on the contrary, that a child should be confronted with it. When we are confronted with the loss of people close to us later in life, a lack of experience with death can make the whole situation even harder," Martin Soukup adds.

One of the podcast's themes is the significance of tattooing. Tattooing is often seen today as a relatively new phenomenon and as something rather unsuitable. Martin Soukup notes that people may have been tattooing themselves as far back as the Upper Palaeolithic. In any case, tattooing has been with us for thousands of years. In different cultures it had different meanings — one of them was the formation of one's own identity. Martin Soukup revealed that he has no tattoo himself. "I wasted my chance when I was in the Philippines with colleagues," he explains. There, reputedly, works the oldest tattooist in the world, who claims to have tattooed even the last head-hunters.

For more information we invite you to listen to the podcast.