re-install perl in addition to system installation?

When installing texlive, macports insists on installing its own version of perl 5.8.8, even though I already have perl installed (comes with Leopard). How can I avoid that? I have read the FAQ with respect to maintaining separate libraries in / opt, and that's acceptable to me for libraries, but not for big interpreters like perl (or python, or...), which I prefer my OS to manage rather than macports. How do I tell "install" to avoid a particular dependency? Thanks for your time - David PS.: The macports-users Archives are not searchable - is that correct?