        Suddenly, it hit him.  An anthropologist wouldn’t go into a primitive culture with the latest and greatest electronics.  What tribal leader would have the slightest idea how to interact with a laptop?  At best, they’d think it was powerful magic; at worst, the work of the devil.  No doubt these aliens were lowering the bar—so to speak—in order to keep him from freaking out any more than he already had.  If they weren’t on a mission of contact, then they probably didn’t have their normal materials at hand, and were making do with what they could find.