Have you ever found yourself in an “Indian line”? Probably not, but I am guessing you’ve been in a single-file line before. They’re actually the same thing, only I translated “Indian line” from the Portuguese expression fila indiana (which is unrelated to India).
If you’ve seen footage of native Brazilians, or Amerindians, on their reserves, it’s likely there were scenes shown of them sometimes with their hands on each other’s shoulders, in a single-file line, half dancing. The dance, as it were, has its origin in a war tactic where the native indians would walk through the forest stepping in each other’s foot prints, so as to not give away the size of their group.
It’s not just Amerindians that prefer it single-file. I once had a professor from Kenya who told me he always found it odd when his students would walk with him sometimes on his way to or from class since in Kenya, he said, people walk behind each other. Go figure.
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