Page 69 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol I - Abraham to Coal

this fleeting world / beginnings: the era of foragers tfw-9

Shamanism is a form of religion
traced back to the foraging era.
This drawing depicts a Siberian
Shaman.

health of foragers was often better
than that of people in the earliest
farming communities.The small com-
munities in which foragers lived insu-
lated them from epidemic diseases,
and frequent movement prevented
the accumulation of rubbish that
could attract disease-carrying pests.
Modern analogies suggest that they
also lived a life of considerable
leisure, rarely spending more than a
few hours a day in pursuit of the
basic necessities of life—far less than
most people either in farming com-
munities or in modern societies.
However, we should not exaggerate.
In other ways life was undeniably
harsh during the era of foragers. For
example, life expectancies were prob-
ably low (perhaps less than thirty
years): Although many persons un-
evidence from modern foragers, that from some points of doubtedly lived into their sixties or seventies, high rates
view we could view foragers (certainly those living in less of infant mortality, physical accidents, and interpersonal
harsh environments) as affluent. Nomadism discouraged violence took a greater toll from the young in foraging
the accumulation of material goods because people had societies than in most modern societies.
to carry everything they owned; so did a lifeway in which
people took most of what they needed from their imme- Major Changes during
diate surroundings. In such a world people had no need the Era of Foragers
to accumulate material possessions. Absence of posses- The small size of foraging communities and the limited
sions may seem a mark of poverty to modern minds, but possibilities for exchanging ideas over large areas may
Sahlins argued that foragers probably experienced their explain why, to modern minds, technological change dur-
lives as affluent because the things they needed could be ing this era appears to have been so slow. Nevertheless,
found all around them. Particularly in temperate regions, change was extremely rapid in comparison with the
the diets of foragers can be varied and nutritious; indeed, changes that took place among our hominid (erect bi-
the variety of the diets of ancient foragers shielded them pedal primate mammals comprising recent humans and
from famine because when their favorite foodstuffs failed, extinct ancestral and related forms) ancestors or among
they had many alternatives to fall back on. other large animal species.To give just one example, the
Acheulian hand axes (a type of stone tool originating in
Leisurely but Brief Africa almost 2 million years ago) used by our immedi-
Studies by paleobiologists (paleontologists who study the ate ancestors, Homo ergaster, changed little during a mil-
biology of fossil organisms) have confirmed that the lion and more years. Yet, during the 200,000 years or