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We must (page 128), but many of the primitive groups he we have considerable knowledge of the
realize that studied were in many ways modern civilizations limited number which are designated by
the first half dozen letters of the alphabet
of their own, such as the Roman Catholic inhabit-
Price ants of the Swiss villages and the islands of the (page 258).
emphasized Outer Hebrides, and he had great admiration
that wisdom for some greatly expansive civilizations like the This led him to pronounce that “great harm
ancient Peruvians and the Chinese. And as stated is done, in my judgment, by the sale and use of
was above, he spoke highly even of white colonialism substitutes for natural foods” (page 294).

accumulated, when it had in fact done something positive for Some seventy years later, the scientific
and the only the native populations under it, as in the case of field is beginning to acknowledge that foods
may provide more than the sum of their parts,
the Tongan islands.
way to and that there may be other important “organic
accumulate KNOWLEDGE VS. WISDOM catalysts” besides vitamins, such as polyphenols,
Price drew a distinction between wisdom which may provide important benefits through a
wisdom is by and the mere accumulation of knowledge. Con- process called hormesis.
8
undergoing sider the two possible programs he outlined for
extensive trial the prevention and cure of tooth decay (page 301): THE NATURAL SELECTION OF WISDOM
We must naturally ask why, if primitive
and error that There are two programs now available for groups were so wise, so many of them abandoned
involves many meeting the dental caries problem. One is their wisdom in favor of the modern diets that
mistakes and to know first in detail all the physical and destroyed them.
We must realize that Price emphasized that
failures. chemical factors involved and then proceed. wisdom was accumulated, and the only way to
The other is to know how to prevent the dis-
ease as the primitives have shown and then accumulate wisdom is by undergoing extensive
proceed. The former is largely the practice trial and error that involves many mistakes and
of the moderns. The latter is the program failures.
suggested by these investigations. We can imagine that every change of envi-
ronment that humans encountered would require
Modern science is excellent at accumulat- the development of new knowledge and wisdom.
ing knowledge. But insisting on knowing every This would include migrations out of Africa or
detail of an approach before acting is not wise. into the Arctic, as well as the development of ag-
Indeed, it is quite stupid, because we have been riculture. Before these transitions could stimulate
practicing science for centuries and even with the accumulation of wisdom, they would first
modern techniques we still only understand a have to stimulate the occurrence of error and
tiny smidgen of what can potentially be under- physical degeneration as a consequence.
stood about the universe. Of course, we would also expect there to
Many traditions may be unwise, and it would be variation in how each group might respond
be wise to test them all rigorously and discard to such a transition, and for those that adapted
them if they prove to be useless or counter-pro- themselves more successfully to thrive, some-
ductive. Discarding them all at once and starting times at the expense of groups that fail.
from scratch with the scientific method, however, The advent of modern industrial foods is
adding nutrients one at a time to refined flour another similar transition. Some groups adopted
as they are slowly proven beneficial is a great modern foods and lifestyles because they were so
example of human stupidity. delicious and appealing, some because of the use
Price had enormous respect for the vastness of force. Some opposed them in varying degrees.
of the unknown: Price recalled how the inhabitants of New
Caledonia, a South Sea island, had their access
I do not use the term “vitamins” exclusively to seafoods cut off when the French attempted
because as yet little is known about the to establish a colony and sugar plantation there.
whole group of organic catalysts, although The natives “swept down on the French colony
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