I could swear I read about this story here on the SDMB some time ago, but I can’t seem to find it now…
The basic story as I remember it is that an anthropologist studied an unusual tribal group. (I want to say in Uganda, but maybe that’s just because Uganda has seen more than its share of hellish things so this seems to fit.) Children stayed with their parents for only a few years, after which they were pushed out and, with the other children, left to fend for themselves. Little or nothing was shared, everyone looked out for themselves beyond giving basic care to the babies. The anthropologist concluded that their culture had no concept of kindness.
Others who came later to study the group discovered that the first anthropologist had missed several important details. The group was a hunter-gatherer tribe which had been forced out of its traditional lands and resettled in a different part of the country. The idea was that they were supposed to settle down and become farmers, but they were given little instruction and no tools. The land they were resettled on wasn’t great for farming in any case and when the tribe was first studied the region was in the midst of a long drought. Food was scarce in the best of times and at the time of the first study they were in desperate straits.
Does anyone recognize this story? Assuming I’m remembering something real, who were these people and what is happening with them now?