The hunter-gatherer

[davefreer]

I'm, I guess, not much of a sport hunter or fisher. Not that don't enjoy doing both... but as an Ichthyologist friend of mine and I were saying last night, we've got to have a reason beyond 'it's fun.' 'It's dinner' is good one. 'It's eating my dinner' is another. I don't do catch-and-release, unless the critter is undersize or say I was trying to

Comments

[alphastk]

At this point in my life, I regret that my father and I were unable to connect well enough for me to learn what he knew about hunting and survival. He grew up schooled in old Kentucky hill lore and mountain marksmanship. I can't even filet a bluegill let alone skin a rabbit. Not that I need to in our modern world, but not knowing those skills or how to identify the various edible plants of the hill country makes me feel vulnerable in retrospect.

[davefreer]

Ah, Dar. You'd make an ideal 'customer'for one of my daydreams. I'd like to take people who want to learn this stuff and show them how it can be done.(and how satifying and delicious it can be) You, I think, would have a ball I've tried with my boys. I'm fairly sure you could take my younger boy, strip him buck-naked (might lose some teeth doing it ;-)) and drop him on the coast - anywhere uninhabited and not frozen, and he'd be alive and reasonably well in a week's time. And in two months he'd be back in civilization and looking to nail someone's hide to a door.

I've often wondered if there would be a market for 'taking people back.'

[brownkitty]

If I could afford a family package for something like that, I would love it. We've got several books, but haven't looked about for practical opportunities to put the knowledge into use.

[davefreer]

:-) If it ever happens I'd have to have you as test guests. I had my cousins out from Brittany - urban French (SA mother) and took the family out to catch their own food, and cook it on a fire on the beach when they were about 14. The kids - the oldest is married already - have been out to visit several times since to do it all again. They call me 'Robinson'. It's been a life-changer for them (Last trip Tristan brought his new partner out to meet his grandmother... and Robinson. I was very flattered and she's a good choice. Happy to catch her own dinner. Bloodthirsty even ;-).

[brownkitty]

I can find the sexual division of labor plausible, but mostly because of children. I see no reason why women couldn't or didn't run snares or fishing lines.

[davefreer]

Yeah, but men and women share a lot of the same genes ;-). My point is men gather, and women hunt - opportunistically. We forget prey was often very small - frogs, baby birds, field mice and caught when chanced upon. Gathered food opportunities too are often happened on. Hunters would not ignore them. Yes, small children would affect range, and the size of prey women would take on. But the idea that they sat in the back of the cave and screamed while men fought off the predators also does not hold water. Some would have, maybe. But the best surviving groups the women threw rocks too. Every medieval seige records this, and I doubt if it was 'new liberated behvior':-)

[brownkitty]

Yup, that makes lots of sense too. I hadn't thought about small prey animals such as frogs as hunting, more as "gathering animals" rather than "gathering vegetables". Though come to think of it, it is "hunting eggs", isn't it?

I wasn't thinking of small children affecting range, so much as them being more noisy and prone to wander off than is optimal on a hunt.

[davefreer]

I've watched Xhosa women, with a baby strapped to their back feeling under ledges for spiny lobster (I prefer LOOKING -there are moray eels in the same holes) and pouncing on octopus like swooping hawks. Yep, they were maybe on the rocks to gather shellfish, but the hunting instinct is there all right. You tend to find gogo (granny) on the high rocks/beach with the toddlers and little ones, as she cleans and prepares stuff, while little ones are on the back, and all the younger but reliably ambulatory ones are on the reef with mum. Usually 2-3 mums to keep an eye. And those kids are quite old and sensible and geared to the lifestyle to keep quiet if need be. From 10-ish the boys tend to go with the older boys to herd and hunt birds (I have seen them shoot swallows on the wing with a catapault - which is a bit rough on the swallows, but gives you some respect for their marksmanship), but before that they all work together.