Whilst watching a documentary about reindeer herders in the Siberian Taiga, the narrator said that the nomads have a ‘high capacity for adaptability’. It might just have been a throw-away comment, but it made a lot of sense and I wondered about it afterwards. Was it true?
It was more than being adaptable. What was the capacity in reference to?
- They had plenty of time.
- They had practically no obligations to anyone else except their tribe.
- They had free rein to go wherever they needed to.
- They were completely self-reliant.
- Complete knowledge of their surroundings and coping mechanisms.
Compared with most people, in an urbanised Western world, we’re the complete opposite on every single point.
As humans we are naturally adaptable (incredibly adaptable!), but most of us have little to zero capacity to be adaptable in a given situation when we need it most (a shock!).
So, perhaps, yes it’s true that there needs to be a capacity for adaptability.