Store-bought ice cream replaced homemade

Wait for it.

Neuroscientist David Eagleman gave a public lecture in Portland on how to better manage the angel and devil on your shoulder when you’re trying to lost weight, quit smoking, quit drinking…you know the drill.

Eagleman says we have a harder time putting off pleasures for the future. We want it now.

I wondered whether such dilemmas faced our Indian ancestors.

Surely they were wise about planning for the winter months by preserving foods and getting their households and communities ready for lean seasons.

So I wondered if the dilemmas of pleasures Eagleman noted are more a function of modern times—the abundance of potato chips, television and cars to keep us fat and lazy?

Maybe it’s not so much how your brain is hardwired as it is the sheer availability at your fingertips?

I read recently how an indigenous community in North America stopped making snow ice cream after Haagen Daz appeared in local stores.

Easier to buy the store-bought version than make it yourself.

For Indians one of the most profound effects on culture occurred when our ancestors depended on commodities from settlers.

Changing the economic structure had long-lasting effects on our people.

So I’m less inclined to look at neuroscience for clues to behavior. Consider the social, macro-level effects.

[Blog 20 of Native American Heritage Month.]