A glimpse at the life of ancient foragers
We saw humans as warriors in the ancient era, farmers and industrialists in offices. Industrial revolution happened just about 200 years, and the agricultural revolution happened 10,000 years ago.
These contributory years were nothing compared to 2.5 million years ago when the first human fossils were discovered.
Why are they important?
To understand the importance of our ancestors living after the cognitive revolution 70000 and before 120000 years ago, we must look at our ecosystem and behaviors.
Hunter-gatherer DNA says, ‘the food is scarce.’
Today, scholars claim that our present behaviors are influenced by the lives of ancient hunter-gatherers. Why do we jump toward sweet foods when we find near one?
The agricultural and industrial revolutions have happened so fast that our DNA hasn’t had the time to adjust. If a forager 30000 years ago roaming in savannah and forests found a tree of figs.
The most sensible thing to do was eat as many as you can. Despite the current environment, our forager DNA thinks that FOOD IS SCARCE.
Were we monogamous?
Most Scientists believed that ancient foragers were devoid of monogamous relationships and private property. And a woman could have sex with every man of the tribe, and children were devoid of single fatherhood.
Modern examples are Bari Indians, in which people believe in collective fatherhood; Bari women believe that their children should have the characteristics of great storytellers, warriors, and passionate lovers.
Thus, these structures of societies in our ancient ancestors tend to build social structures. Scholars describe these behaviors as our natural DNA behavior and is the reason why we experience divorces and cheating.
Others scholars tend to disagree that monogamy is core human behavior. That’s why it is practiced worldwide, and our DNA show possessiveness toward our partner.
Domestication of dogs
What we can say about life and social behavior. It seems that they lived in small bands, and all were humans.
YOU SHOULD FOCUS ON THE LAST POINT.
In New Zealand, there are 5.084 million sapiens and 50 million sheep.
Archaeologists have found the evidence of domestication of dogs around 15000 years ago, although they may have been domesticated more thousand years ago.
In northern Israel, 12000 years ago a skeleton of a fifty-year-old woman is found with her buried a puppy right next to the women's head with her hand on it.
They were more healthy than us.
Sapiens fed themselves in a variety of ways. They borrowed to get termites, picked berries and roots and hunted bison, mammoths, and rabbits. Sometimes even ate leaves and wood.
Recent evidence from fossils shows that our ancestors were more healthy, tall, and robust than us and less likely to suffer from starvation and malnutrition. Their secret was their varied diet.
Today farmers eat only one kind of food, and industrialists eat a variety that is diverse in an unhealthy way. The typical peasant in the ancient period of china ate rice for dinner, breakfast, and lunch. Thus, do not take all essential nutrients.
An ancient forager has physical strength that modern sapiens cannot achieve after years of yoga and exercise.
They were more genius than us.
They didn’t just forage for food, but for knowledge as well. They didn’t have 9 to five jobs, so exploring was their favorite hobby.
It was must for a forager to know about the habits of each animal, its characteristics, and a map of its territory, which can consist of up to hundreds of kilometers.
The essentials of knowledge were how to carve a knife and build arrowheads, rabbit traps, and snakebites. The average forager had more extraordinary and diverse skills than today average programmer or doctor.
There is also some evidence that the size of the sapiens brain has decreased since the age of foraging.
Was their life adventurous?
Imagine the life of a Chinese factory worker who is operating the same machine throughout her life and operating on a fixed routine.
However, our ancestors roamed freely from the Indonesian archipelago to Australia.
They roamed around forests, deserts, and meadows, hunted bison mammoths, gathered roots and mushrooms, and occasionally ran away from tigers.
Beware: Do not idealize them
To idealize them from above mentioned description is not a wise idea. Their world could be harsh and unforgiving.
Let me share the darker side too…
The Ache people in Paraguay, 1960, offer a glimpse of their darker side.
Around 4% of adults and 60% of people of the ache tribe were killed by homicides between groups. And 14% of males and 23% of females were killed by tribes under the age of 10%. Sometimes old ache people who are not able to help the band are often murdered by other young men in the tribe or exiled from their group. Some groups also noticed the practice of cannibalism. Most notorious or killer male is more respected and encouraged.
An ache man told the stories of his youth proudly, “I customarily killed old women; I used to kill my aunts… The women were afraid of me … Now, with the whites, I have become weak.
The child girl was killed and cremated with the dead man whenever some respectful man of the tribe died; the killing of babies regularly was shared among these groups.
Peace or War?
There are two schools of thought in this context. One that aboriginal people were very peaceful and violence was introduced with the arrival of private property. Others believe that aboriginal people are ruthless and violent.
Both are castles in the air.
Today’s remaining forager societies are living in very harsh environments such as Kalahari or others and have witnessed cruel ethnic cleansing and massacres by colonizers such as aboriginal Australians and ache people. So they are not ideal.
Archeological findings in Portugal before the agricultural revolution showed that of 400 skeletons, only two skeletons showed marks of violence.
Another survey of 400 skeletons in Israel showed the mark of violence in the skull in only one Skelton.
A third archeological survey over 400 Skelton in Danube valley from which 18 skeletons shows conflict evidence. It may not seem a lot, but the percentage illustrates that 4.5% of deaths were violent in Danube valley. Today the global average of violence, including crimes and violence, is 1.5%.
Other evidence supports similar disturbing findings. 12000-year-old skeletons at Jabel Sahaba contain arrowheads and spearpoints in 40% of skeletons. Similarly, archaeologists found signs of damage, such as knives and stones on 38 skeletons thrown in burial pits.
It is clear that these groups of people were massacred cruelly thousands of years ago.
Expansion: Outside of Africa
Whatever the exact behavior of those people, it is evident that those societies were as complex as today. However, the foragers also had a devastating impact on the ecosystem as much as on industries. Following the expansion of Homo Sapiens from Africa came a series of events that made Sapiens the most KILLER SPECIE ON EARTH.
However, that’s for another article. STAY TUNED.
