A day in the life of a hunter gatherer….
Natural Athlete has a really interesting post:
a fascinating article about the physical activity patterns of a couple modern hunter forager tribes something that should be of interest to anyone who believes in an evolutionary approach to fitness.
A day in the life of a Hunter forager
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March 27th, 2009 at 4:32 am
Agriculture vs Hunter Gatherer?
I just got done reading the books, Ishmael by Daniel Quinn and Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. Are there any other books that deal with Agriculture vs Hunter Gatherer life styles… and what is your personal opinion on it.
Thanks
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Michael Burns
March 27th, 2009 at 9:34 am
I don't know of any books.
Hunter/gatherer societies seem to be more at the mercy of their surroundings and move when resources are scarce, where ag cultures have found a way to manipulate their surroundings, guaranteeing that they can live off their particular land.
Whether a society is nomadic or sedentary would affect any number of things about that culture. What they eat, how they view wealth, what they do with their dead, whether and how they fight, how different groups interact/affect each other.
Neither is right or wrong, certainly. As agricultural advances have been made, people who didn't like moving around were able to settle…so I suppose you could call agriculture a sign of progress. But groups who move could be looked at as perfectly suited to what they do…and more flexible, more likely to survive under adverse circumstances. A nomadic tribe, in hard times, does what it knows to do…gets the hell out. A sedentary tribe, in the same situation, but with crops planted (and failing) and animals to tend, may not move as easily and their own wealth may hinder them trying to find better conditions.
References :