No it wasn't a novel. I'm trying to remember, it was someone, maybe an anthropologist? Anyway their takeaway was that they felt that the man, who they spend time with, had so much cultural knowledge that he was more able to live/survive/thrive in the world than someone in an "advanced" culture. (This isn't quite right but you get the idea.)

I think it was part of some kind of research into human adaptation or something. I think he had studied multiple people.

Wish I could remember.