What We Inherited From Hunter Gatherers. (The genetic memory of the past).

LeBrok

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Did you ever asked yourself a question, why people behave in certain ways? Why it is so easy for boys to start a fight, or pretend they are knights or modern soldiers, and as a teenager volunteer for wars? Why there are generational conflicts? Why kids prefer breaks over classes? Why women talk too much? Why men are single track minded? Why are monogamous relationships so vastly popular over polygamy? Why do we eat meat, etc.?

Gross of our behavioral traits reach very far in time to the beginning of first multicellular life forms, other common traits go back to origin of mammals; like eating, feeling hunger, mating, sexual desire or even feeling of love, taste for sugar and salt, fear of snakes and bugs, many social instincts, circadian rhythm, protecting and caring for kids, having a head, hands, legs, organs, and senses.
Let’s skip these ancient and obvious ones and concentrate on interesting recent developments, the once which still baffle many people and are not well defined in their origin. Often considered and confused as cultural developments of modern times. By religious folks many of our natural wants are treated as sins, explained as a fight between good and evil.

Let’s demystify our behavior a bit.

Parts of our behavior and anatomy had the beginning in times after we have separated from Great Apes and became Hunter Gatherers (HGs), generally speaking last 4 million years. This is a very long time, 160 thousand generations (!), long enough to allow our ancestors to adjust to hunter-gatherer life style on a genetic level, which in turn gave them a big help to survive. Certain behavioral changes came in last 1-2 million years, which is the time when we got our big heads and started to talk, got abstract thinking and manage big complexities of human social life.

One can dispute genetic adaptation to new lifestyle claiming, that our behavior is only a cultural phenomenon. Having a big brain our progenitors could easily learn new behaviors from their parents or did their logical thinking themselves, rendering genetic adaptation unnecessary. It is true that we command unsurpassed, in animal kingdom, capacity for learning. It is very visible in our quick adaptation to modern technological world of last 100 years. I won't dispute that, logic and culture are sufficient to be successful, especially in fast changing environment.

However, there is another, more ancient than logic and culture way to adapt, such as adaptation to environment by means of natural selection. It changes our body to fit new environment better through beneficial DNA mutations. Likewise it can change architecture of our brain, giving us new skills, new traits, new feelings, and new instincts.

Here is how these new instincts, in other words, a new genetic memory, works:
Let’s take a fire for example, at first glance liking fire doesn’t make sense. If anything we should be afraid of fire like the rest of animals are. It is dangerous and destructive, can burn our homes with people in them, can kill us with carbon monoxide and cause cancer from long exposure of toxic fumes (I’m sure if making fire was invented these days the FDA wouldn’t approve it). However, fire happened to be extremely beneficial to HGs; keeping them warm and safe at night, letting them expand around the world, and above all, releasing more nutrients from food. Even making some foods digestible at all, doubling or tripling available calories, especially from starchy plants. For that hugely important reason we have fallen in love with fire, casting aside its dangerous dark side.

Taming fire happened a bit over 1 million years ago (40 thousand generations ago), long enough for blind genetic mutations to find useful ones, and hard-wire liking fire into our brains. This new instinct guides us by feelings. Same way any other instinct works, by guiding us with feelings of pleasure and pain. Looking at fire automatically brings feelings in us. Enjoyment of smell and crackling sound of burning wood, and pleasant feeling of comfort when we sitting close to it. We don’t need to teach our kids benefits of fire. We don’t need to wait till they slowly get used to it and stop running away from it in fear. Instead, our kids feel infatuation with fire from first site. They love playing with fire with no fear. It comes to them so naturally supported by feeling of joy and excitement, that only a genetic predisposition can explain such instantaneous and favorable behavior towards it. We don’t need to convince ourselves and our kids, to sit by fire, don’t panic, it is good for you, and repeat this teaching over and over again till we get it eventually. Genetic knowledge is instant, way faster than learned knowledge, which comes by way of constant repetition. Above all, knowledge is way more convincing than any other means, when supported by instinct and automatic positive feelings. It feels as we are drawn towards fire, like a boy to a beautiful girl, or a new born to mother’s breast. Genetic adaptation is much more energy efficient and time saving process, and we don’t need to be conscious of all benefits it brings to like it and embrace. It stands in contrast to constant repetition, to reinforce new skills in learned process.

Genetic adaptation to Hunter Gatherer’s lifestyle, persisting in modern populations, shouldn’t be much of a surprise. We only entered technological modern times recently. Before that we were farmers, for rather short time, few thousands of years (400 generations). Some of human groups are still HGs without any connection to farming or herding. By this measure we are pretty much same HGs our ancestors were, so no wonder their genetic predispositions are still guiding, and often misguiding us in today’s world. I’m sure they are behind our recent return to democracy, affair with socialism and equal rights movements, partying and drug use, or even love of shopping.

Keep in mind reading this, that most of it is based on my observations, scientific articles and research that I’ve read. When we look at population and want to conclude vital traits and trends, look at general behavior, with open statistical mind. Not all people in groups will have same behavior in all aspects. It is not a contradiction of general patterns, but rather a variety of traits nature keeps to make sure we all don’t vanish in case of dramatic environmental changes. Hence the variety of “weird” behaviors or looks in some of us.
 
Where food is there is fire.

Joy of fire.

Sitting and watching fire is still our favorite activity when camping, even if it is not needed for cooking. Almost every modern house has a fireplace, although it is not needed for heating our homes anymore. And yet fireplaces are installed, even the electronic ones, so people can relax and enjoy watching the flame flicker.

Learning how to make fire and cook is cultural, but there are strong genetic aspects how we relate to fire:
- Unlike most animals, people love fire. People are “magically” drawn to fire instead of running away.
- We like flickering flames, warmth, smell of burned wood, sound of flames, relaxing by fire, simply the whole package of fire.
- We like it, though we were never taught this behavior.
- We are guided by instinct, genetic memory, manifested by positive nice feeling towards fire.
- Fire breaks down long fibers in meat and vegetables making process efficient and food fully digestible. This is a reason why we prefer having at least one warm meal daily.
- Our fondness of fire and tolerance of smoke might be a major reason behind smoking tobacco and other substances. This phenomenon is cross racial and cross cultural.

The infatuation with fire could have started easily with tasting heated food for first time by one of our ancestors. Finding partially scorched carcass of antelope in savanna after grass fire, and tasting its meat, made HGs realize that heated meat tastes better. They already liked meat and fats, just discovered that they taste better hot. Fat and meat, when heated up evaporates releasing more nice scent and flavor. They have connected dots from heated meat to fire, and from this moment on they needed to have it. To manipulate fire must have been a scary proposition for them at the beginning. Perhaps only one fearless mutant was brave enough to manipulate fire for the whole tribe, or perhaps only his family, with fire friendly mutation, survived. And in process transferred their genes to their kids and later to us, their descendants.

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We all love meat and sugar.


It is true that even chimps hunt and eat meat from time to time, and I would be a straight faced liar claiming that hunter-gatherers invented both. However HGs kicked it up good few notches, to the point of making hunting a full time occupation and animal proteins a main staple of HGs’ diet.
By estimates of some scientists, hunting and meat consumption was needed by HGs to support our calorie hungry big brain. According to them eating only bananas and carrots wouldn’t do the trick, and such vegetarian diet would have left us still hanging on trees like chimps. Perhaps so, but surprisingly our brain’s favorite form of energy is not protein but sugar. Sugar is the fuel for thinking. Our appetite for copious quantities of sugar and sugary foods could be a result of our extraordinary brain size, calling for more and more glucose. Our love affair with fire and appetite for sugars led us to farming. Starches when heated turn into simple sugars, readily digestible by humans.
Well, there would not have been farming, if we didn't have fire first.

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Anatomy and Mobility



Kids run all the time
.
Seems like they can’t walk, they only know how to run, and we are unable to slow them down. They run and run, though there is no real need for kids to run. Walking is sufficient to get from point A to B, no wild animals are after them either, yet kids run all the time. They were never taught how to run, or purpose of running explained to them, neither parents force them to run.

What is wrong with them, to exhibit such energy wasteful behavior?
One thing is sure, they run because they like running. Running comes naturally to them. Running makes them happy.
Need for running has to be genetic in nature, same as a design of our strong legs with powerful buttocks, together with motor skills of running, hardwired into our brain. Surely, they need some practice to master running, but it is easy to learn and so joyful to do it again and again. Another example of genetic memory in action. A gift from HGs.

Hunter Gatherers had to move long distances behind flocks of animals they hunted. When adults walk, kids need to run to keep up the pace. If it comes to running, there is a difference between genders. Boys run faster and more often than girls. Running was needed for man’s occupation. Boys grew up to be hunters, therefore running was needed to track and catch animals. For grown women running was not essential for gathering.
Interestingly no animal can run as long and as far as trained young men. Before invention of arrows and spears first HGs hunted only with running. They had to run long distances chasing an antelope till its exhaustion, then easily kill immobilized prey with a stone.

We might as well call running a first weapon.
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Walking, roaming and hiking.

Anatomy of our body says a lot about us. We can say for certain that we are made for long distance walking. Walking is most energy efficient activity we can do, after sleeping, I suppose.
Experts say that walking is like controlled falling. Lean forward to start falling and swing one leg to the front to catch your body and to maintain balance. Repeat again and again to walk.
Our HG ancestors walked a lot through their lives. Thanks to them we have powerful legs and upright body figure. They gave us love or roaming and hiking. All of us love going for a trip to the forest, for mountain hiking, and sightseeing trips.
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Loss of body hair and ability to sweat profusely.

Judging by all the primates in Africa human ancestors must have been also furry animals millions of years ago. According to some researchers, we lost fur when we started to run long distances after a prey. Thanks to long distance running and walking we needed to increase our ability to sweat to cool our overheating bodies. For that reason we had to lose our fur, which blocked sweat evaporation. After that our perspiration, our cooling system, worked more efficiently.

In other words, our need for long distance running and walking made us naked.
Animals who can’t sweat, like antelopes or deer, reach their overheating limit rather fast when running. Rise of body temperature can kill brain cells and cause death to the animal. In order to survive overheating antelope or deer needs to stop running to cool down. Otherwise it will die from exertion. Exhausted antelope is easy to approach and kill. To perfect this hunting technique we became long distance runners, lost our fur, and started sweating like no animal before.

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Reason for armpit and pubic hair.

What with these places where fur didn’t vanish? This must have been for a good reason, I’m guessing.
Armpits are the places were arms rub constantly against the sides of our chest, and crotch is the place where legs rub against each other and genitals. The hair protects vulnerable places against friction, which can cause skin damage and fatal infection. Without modern medicine infections used to be very lethal for humans. After all, HGs did lots of walking and running in hot sweaty climate. Additionally, these places have sweat and grease glands, to make hair more slippery, adding protection against friction.
Second reason, not less important, might be the cooling breathing factor. Hair prevents skin sticking together in these places. Through its porous structure air can move drying and cooling these places. All to prevent heat and moisture buildup causing “burned skin” damage and infection.
Going back to these first HGs who hunted by exhaustion factor. Therefore did most of running ever in human history. I think they needed all the cushioning they could get around their jewels during these long runs. Also keeping testicles cooler and off direct sunlight comes essential to sperm motility.
Interestingly there is more hair above genital, on lower belly, than directly on them. It makes me wonder whether our ancestors were very promiscuous and big fans of missionary position. Isn’t a lower belly the place where they would have experience most skin to skin friction during copulation?

It just baffles me why we don’t perceive pubic and armpit hair esthetic? Usually what is needed and important is seen as beautiful, but not in this case.

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Top of head hair.

Hair on a head plays insulating role. In hot climates it protects brain against overheating from hot sun rays, and in cold climates keeps it warm. Unlike with armpit hair we admire hair on our heads as beautiful. We don’t recognize boldness as attractive, and women love growing their hair long, even very long in many cultures. It is very important, hens beautiful.

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Little fuzz.

Most humans have very little body hair except some fuzz. It might have been left on our bodies for sensory function. To feel the wind blowing against the skin. Telling the direction from which wind blows is essential while tracking a prey. We don’t want them to smell us and run away.

However there is something about body hair, except on top of a head, that make most people despise it. Most men shave faces, wearing beards only when fashionable. Women remove body hair even with bigger passion than men.
People from amazon jungle feel hatred for hair and remove it with floss technique, even the eye brows. Generally speaking people don’t like body hair, and it’s got to be a reason why. I just can’t figure it out yet.

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Beards

Caucasians are sporting the thickest beards ever. Possible gift from Neanderthal, who lived up north for 700 thousand years, and through the thick of many ice ages. Definitely it is more economical in energy expenditure when blessed with thicker beard. Thick “European” face hair was definitely needed to keep face warm. When dressed in thick skins, only face sticks out. More face hair and had hair the warmer and lesser heat and energy loss.
So why Caucasian women don’t have beards?
Maybe, because we wouldn’t be able to see their rosy cheeks and strawberry lips? …and that would be a crime. :)

I have a feeling that having a beard has to be connected to hunting. Perhaps beard makes a face unrecognizable to animals, confusing them, making them less alert?
Neck is a favorite place to be attacked by predators, like lions and wolves. I suppose, that neck must have been a perfect place to strike by saber tooth tiger, who roamed Europe till almost recently. Strong bite in a neck can break spine or cuts the main arteries. It is the fastest way to deliver a fatal blow to a prey. Having a long beard and complementing long hair on one’s head hides a neck very successfully, I must say. Have a look at this picture below. There is no neck, no place to bite and kill. It was the safest “fashion” for our hunters.

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Lower Back problems.

Our back problem has started when our ancestors stood upright about 4 million years ago. Till then our spine was meant to be supported by four limbs. It went through evolutionary changes to accommodate our upright walking and standing style, and now it works pretty good but not completely perfect. For that reason almost all of us will develop lower back problems sooner or later. Lower back is where most of upper body weight is supported, place were spine is more vulnerable to wear and tear. Doesn’t matter if we do heavy physical work, light exercises, or only sit all day in the office. Lower back gives up on most of us. It is a genetic problem, and our long lifespan, these days, doesn’t help much either.
Thanks for standing up hunter-gatherers!

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PS. The big brain, big head, big flat feet, small toes and alike, were skipped for obvious and already explained, in school books, reasons.
 
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Skills and Personalities

Men are single track minded. Great concentration on one subject.

Long concentration on one subject was essential during hunting and fishing. It takes hours to track a prey and make a successful kill, or sit and wait in one secluded spot for prey to show up, or to ambush enemy warriors. It has to be done very quietly, without talking and other noises, and with big dose of concentration not to miss the best chance to strike. Wrong move, loud voice, and a prey is gone, or a surprise attack wasn’t surprising at all.
Couple of millions of years of this lifestyle surely generated useful genetic mutations to make hunting easier and more natural for men. This “quietness” of men and concentration on one subject, accompanied by often solitary behavior of men can be confirmed by simple observations of many cultures around the globe. Men don’t mind being alone and concentrate on one subject for hours at the time. Men eagerly dives into hobbies, but avoids domestic chores. Thanks to new technology men can “escape” in a perfect hobby, playing war games on a computer in every spare moment. Men talks less and less frequently than women. There are more male nerds than female counterparts. Men interacts with kids less than women, and finds them often a destruction in a pursuit of enjoyable interests.
Great concentration on one subject makes men good inventors and philosophers, but often lousy husbands and fathers.

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Women are good in multitasking.
Good attention on many subjects at once.

HG women spent most time around the camp collecting needed items, like water, wood, fruit, nuts, or cleaning animal skins, tending to fire and cooking. During all these activities they also needed to keep careful eye on children all the time. With variety of concurrent activities constant concentration on one subject was not useful, and rather destructive. Switching their attention from subject to subject, from berries to directing kids, or planning next meal with other women, was a crucial adaptation. I believe this multitasking was heightened by feeling of worry about kids. This heightened emotional state about kid’s welfare wouldn’t let women to concentrate too long on one subject, and made their mind wonder constantly to check on kids, or other women in the group.
Modern women are very suited to run businesses and families, where multitasking and good communication skills are extremely useful. It also makes them often too emotional for men’s liking and overprotective for kids.
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Women talk more than men
.

Exactly for above mentioned reasons, hunter-gatherer women activities, they needed to keep line of communication open with kids. Unlike hunting men, who needed to keep quiet while hunting, women could talk to kids and other women freely and all the time. This vital skill was needed for constant communication, telling stories, teaching and reprimanding kids. Talking, as any other positive interaction, creates tighter bonds in a group. There was another positive side of constant talking. It alarmed animals to human presence and kept them away, which was a positive thing for kids and women safety.

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Mimicry and speech.


Imitation of animals, role playing, pointing with finger.
Homo Sapiens are the only primates able to express information through mimicry using hands, facial expression, body movement and voice. These skills got acquired somewhere during last 4 million years, and definitely fully developed closer to one million when capacity of human brain increased dramatically to current size. Our ancestors started communicating well about incoming danger, group activities or types of animals when planning a hunt.
Before we spoke proper words we communicated by mimicry. Imitation of animals or functions using body language. It seems logical to assume that “body language” superseded development of speech. If proper speech was established first, before mimicry, there wouldn’t have been a real need for mimicry afterwards. We would just speak like computers or Siri, and communicate everything with words only. After all, spoken language is sufficient to communicate everything, even abstract ideas. Yet, we love to supplement speech with “language” of hand movement and facial expressions. Some people can talk with their whole bodies. We definitely act and show what we talk about.
On these grounds, I would assume that mimicry, sort of roll playing abilities or acting, popped into existence some time before we started to speak words. Actually, first speech was probably a vocal form of mimicry too, accompanying body mimicry in telling important messages. For example they could express a lion with bend fingers like claws and mimicking the sound of lion’s roar. Swinging an arm in front of a face and making trumpet sound to express an elephant, or putting palms up as pointy ears and making “awoo” sound to mimic a wolf. Many words in today’s languages still carry an imitation of animal sounds or sounds of physical world: wolf, owl, chirp, chop, drop, clap, etc. There are plentiful examples throughout all languages on Earth.
This whole mimicry experience of our past might be behind our love of movies and a theatre, the story telling by imitation of others.

Surprisingly a simple and ubiquitous pointing with finger, or a stretched arm, indicating direction or pointing to important object, is only obvious to humans. Not even chimpanzees can understand what stretched one finger means, or points to. Conversely small, 8 month old, kid knows exactly its meaning and follows the finger in pointed direction. Soon they start pointing by themselves. We do it all the time in all cultures, but it is not a cultural phenomenon, instead it has to be a genetic memory, an instinct. Pointing the figure was a vital part of human communication for a long time. That’s why it is engraved in our genome. Maybe not the hand movement, but grasping its meaning, for sure.
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Kids
have hard time sitting hours in school, especially boys.

We all went through school and for most of us it was, more or less, uncomfortable experience. It is not a big surprise, because schools are a fairly recent invention. Sitting in a classroom our thoughts were often on different subjects like running, playing games, having fun in general. School was rarely fun, except physical education classes and breaks. The movement, running, playing games gives us a lot fun and pleasure, and points to genetic predisposition in this regard, therefore to the way our ancestors lived. In schools most of us were waiting anxiously for the end of classes to run back home, drop the books off, and run outside to play with other boys (group of hunters and warriors), run and battle with other clans, from other streets. Most games were based on wars, sticks became swords or machine guns, stones or balls were projectiles, or just played hide and seek (very useful for kids running for protection during invasion of other warriors or wild animals).
Later, after puberty our minds were preoccupied with opposite sex way more than mathematical functions or naming cell parts. Although our modern world can’t exists without the latter.
Nature wired us to feel pleasure when learning vital functions important to HG’s lives. Running is good for hunting and protection, so is fighting or throwing stones. Throwing, catching, fighting, hiding, tracking, hunting, dancing, and singing if fun. Sitting behind a desk without movement, only listening and memorizing for hours, is not.
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Women are more emotional than men.


Women were directly responsible for kids’ protection. More protective instinct requires heightened emotional state. Women always needed to be more vigilant to keep an eye on kids, to protect them from danger. Being a good protector needs a skill of imagining probable danger before it happens. This “hyper” imagination, the strong believing in possibility of any danger, could have been behind women being more emotional and more spiritual than men. Let’s be on a safe side just in case.
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Women love shopping.

It is a common picture in our malls and stores to see mostly women shopping, and if not buying then checking, trying, and looking at. In HG societies women were the gatherers. They gathered whatever was needed to survive. By nature the gathering instinct gives pleasant emotions, therefore hard to resist. In our modern world we invented very special places for women to gather needed things: stores, markets and big shopping malls. No wonder women love to gather the essentials (or not) in these gorgeous, safe, and full of products places.
Love of gathering might be responsible for shopaholic and hording addictions.
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Sexual beauty and partner selection.
 
Spirituality
 
War and games.
 
Arts and music.
 
One more for future.
 
I`m with you on the fire watching. We usually open our fire at Christmas [ just for the holidays ] and you`re absolutely right regarding the dancing of flames and crackling of wood, really cosy.
Again, I agree about the sugar [ too much so ] but not the meat..wont have that. I expect the HGs would have used honey as one of their sweet foods or added it to other foods for the sweetness.
As for adding to the list, you already put most of what I had in mind, I`ll have to think about something different to add ;)

EDIT...Hold on, what do mean about women talking too much !....cheeky :LOL:
Actually I think I read men talk as much...I may have to look that up.
 
Again, I agree about the sugar [ too much so ] but not the meat..wont have that.
When I say all, I mean the statistical general trends. Sounds like you are adapted to the future when we run out of meat. ;) You will start new vegetarian race.
Here is a scary thought. What if we run out of rice and veggies first? :))

EDIT...Hold on, what do mean about women talking too much !....cheeky :LOL:
Actually I think I read men talk as much...I may have to look that up.
When time comes we can all talk a lot, however women will purposely look for any occasion to talk to others. Did you call your mother today?
 
At least in Europe, before being replaced by farmers Hunter-Gatherers ate Fish not Meat - "A Stone Age tribe in Central Europe maintained its hunter-gatherer way of life for 2,000 years after the arrival of farming, surprising anthropologists.

The tribe in Central Europe ate almost exclusively freshwater fish until around 3000 B.C., University of British Columbia researchers discovered by doing a chemical analysis of bones found in a German cave." from http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/s...ed-beside-farmers-didn-t-interbreed-1.1991430

If you live in the Forest zone full of lakes, swamps, springs and rivers, fishing is so easy and women are equally good about it, what is needed is observation and patience, not physical strength for a good fisher ...
 
Thanks for starting this interesting topic, LeBrok.

I don't have time to share all my thoughts now. Just one little correction. Our ancestors did not start eating meat until about 2.5 million years ago (except insects which go back at least to the common ancestor with chimps).

True hunting in itself may not have appeared until 500,000 years ago, when Homo erectus developed the first stone-tipped spears. Before that they may have killed birds or rabbits by throwing stones at their heads, but that wouldn't have worked for big game.
 
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At least in Europe, before being replaced by farmers Hunter-Gatherers ate Fish not Meat - "A Stone Age tribe in Central Europe maintained its hunter-gatherer way of life for 2,000 years after the arrival of farming, surprising anthropologists.

The tribe in Central Europe ate almost exclusively freshwater fish until around 3000 B.C., University of British Columbia researchers discovered by doing a chemical analysis of bones found in a German cave." from http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/s...ed-beside-farmers-didn-t-interbreed-1.1991430

If you live in the Forest zone full of lakes, swamps, springs and rivers, fishing is so easy and women are equally good about it, what is needed is observation and patience, not physical strength for a good fisher ...
Ha, what a story! Two thousand years side by side and each of them going their own ways. It is a fairly long time of coexistence, so I don't believe there wasn't interbreeding going from time to time. A long survival of HGs doesn't dispute some minimal but still interbreeding. I would say that this would be humanly impossible. We have recent example of Jewish culture surviving about 2 thousand years in Christian Europe with not much intermixing. However, we know now that they have surely mixed with locals, though on a small scale.

Yes, women can fish easily with or without men, but in very culture that I've looked around, women are also responsible for gathering wood, water and take care of children, and whatever else men hates to do. In this case I'm not sure how much time women can spare for fishing?
There is well known "male phenomenon" still existing, when man takes a fishing rod and goes fishing by himself. Sitting lonely or with a male friend by a river or a lake trying to catch a fish. Personally I don't know any women liking such adventure.
 
Ha, what a story! Two thousand years side by side and each of them going their own ways. It is a fairly long time of coexistence, so I don't believe there wasn't interbreeding going from time to time. A long survival of HGs doesn't dispute some minimal but still interbreeding. I would say that this would be humanly impossible. We have recent example of Jewish culture surviving about 2 thousand years in Christian Europe with not much intermixing. However, we know now that they have surely mixed with locals, though on a small scale.

Yes, women can fish easily with or without men, but in very culture that I've looked around, women are also responsible for gathering wood, water and take care of children, and whatever else men hates to do. In this case I'm not sure how much time women can spare for fishing?

Well, I don't know answers to these questions...
Regaring fishing I think even children fish, remember myself starting from 5 years old, and by 10 I was already quite experienced :) I was reading somewhere that hunter gatherers "worked" not more than 2 hours per day and did not have a lot of duties -so one could do some fishing for an hour or so on the dawn when it is best to fish and be free for the rest of the day...
 
And yes, thank you LeBrook about starting the topic! It would be fascinating to know more about Hunter-Gatherers

In this regard I found an intereting research project about Neolitisation of Coastal Lithuania
http://www.stoneage.lt/Coastal.htm (the bad think I can't find yet the findinds that they made so far...


About the project
An aim of the project is to renew and elaborate a conceptual framework of neolithisation of coastal Lithuanian ecosystems based on extensive interdisciplinary research. Transitional period from hunter-gatherers' economy to farming, i.e. 4000-1800 cal BC is under question. The idea is to integrate traditional archaeological and bioarchaeological methods with modern techniques of biochemistry. When did the transition happen, what was the role of first domesticates, how economy was related to socialorganisation and ideological transformations? What was an importance of mobility and trade, and what of innovations? All these questions should be examined in contexts of freshwater lagoonal ecosystems rich in wild food resources as well as climate and natural environment change. A problem of neolithisation, i.e. process itself as well as its environmental and social background, and outcomes, is very relevant to entire Baltic region due to rich coastal ecosystems that could provide Mesolithic fishermen and seal hunters with large amounts of food and other natural resources. Explanations emphasizing a conscious shift to farming as more productive way of subsistence seem not convincing there. Very likely the process was prolonged and complicated. Therefore it needs for a complex research. SE Baltic wetland sites present a great possibility to investigate the problem by interdisciplinary approach. Science-based archaeology offers a wide palette of diverse methods and enables examination of economic changes from different perspectives thus providing us with more reliable arguments than usual typologies of artefacts could do. Current research is divided into two directions. Settlement pattern should be studied in a coastal area between Palanga city and Būtingė village. Changes in settlement system and their relations social and economic transformations should be identified and explained. Bioarchaeological research should help to learn of paleodiet and its changes. Many methods and techniques should be applied during the research, i.e. GPR and magnetometric surveys, boreholes, test-pitting and more detailed excavations, analysis of use-wear traces on flint tools, taxonomic analysis of osteological materials, anthropological and stable isotope analyses, lipid analysis in ceramics and food crusts, and AMS 14C dating. Materials from old excavations as well as newly excavated artefacts and ecofacts will be analysed. Project results will be published and presented in Lithuanian a nd English languages by various means. They should be significant on national and European level, especially in contexts of other coastal regions of the Baltic and other seas.

 
Thanks for starting this interesting topic, LeBrok.

I don't have time to share all my thoughts now. Just one little correction. Our ancestors did not start eating meat until about 2.5 million years ago (except insects which go back at least to the common ancestor with chimps).
Chimps are known to hunt smaller monkeys and eat meat rather regularly. I would be surprised if it was different 4 million years ago with our common ancestor and early hominids.

True hunting in itself may not have appeared until 500,000 years ago, when Homo erectus developed the first stone-tipped spears. Before that they may have killed birds or rabbits by throwing stones at their heads, but that wouldn't have worked for big game.
There is another, more primitive, hunting technique. Well trained humans can run many animals to their exhaustion. It is an easy kill at the end when the prey have no strength to run anymore and collapses. I wrote about this, and other complementing evolutionary changes, in "Anatomy and Mobility" chapter. Just posted.
 
Anatomy and Mobility chapter is updated. Feel free to disagree. ;)
 
LeBrok:Yes, women can fish easily with or without men, but in very culture that I've looked around, women are also responsible for gathering wood, water and take care of children, and whatever else men hates to do. In this case I'm not sure how much time women can spare for fishing?
There is well known "male phenomenon" still existing, when man takes a fishing rod and goes fishing by himself. Sitting lonely or with a male friend by a river or a lake trying to catch a fish. Personally I don't know any women liking such adventure.

It's a question of time, not necessarily inclination. While men were at their ease other than when hunting and raiding (dangerous activities, to be sure) or taking care of their weapons, women were gathering food as well as firewood and water, preparing food, preparing skins and making clothing, and coverings, all while pregnant or watching children. Once gender roles become hardened, they persist. That said, you obviously didn't know my Aunt Caterina. She was famous for her ability to find all the best streams and spots on the lake, and never shared the locations with her many brothers. :grin:The tradition sort of continued in my own generation. I used to go camping with my cousins, and I liked fishing. I refused to hunt, however. I'm a hypocrite, I know, as I was perfectly willing to eat the meat, while not being willing to kill it. My brother wouldn't hunt either, though. He killed one doe and said that was it. Of course, we have the luxury of being squeamish, because we can just go to the supermarket!

LeBrok:When time comes we can all talk a lot, however women will purposely look for any occasion to talk to others. Did you call your mother today?

One of the more annoying things about some men is how little they talk. I think women are hard wired to be better verbally. You can see it in the skew in IQ tests, or SAT scores by gender. I also sometimes think that's a contributing factor to how much more prevalent violence is among men, and the fewer women around, the more violent the group. When people are incapable of expressing themselves verbally or emotionally, they will lash out physically in frustration or anger. That's why so many parenting skills guides and school guides emphasize teaching children to use words, not their fists.

Again, all of that said, I think these are generalizations. I've spent my professional life in careers where verbal skills are at a premium, and yet where men were by far the majority until very recently. I assure you that their verbal skills are excellent, and they are, and were, great raconteurs. I, on the other hand, am a great talker in spurts. I really like to talk, and tell stories, and discuss, and debate, but I also need " down" time, "quiet" time, if you will. Too much conversation and I feel as if I'm "overloaded", or "overstimulated". True story...I used to spend a lot of time with my in-laws, a large, boisterous, and very "talky" Italian-American family. I loved them all to death, but I found it exhausting. At first they thought I was a bit anti-social, but they came to respect that every once in a while during our marathon three or four day visits I would need to go for a walk, or go to my room to read or listen to music by myself.

This also raises the issue that people in different cultures are more or less verbal depending on the culture. I've been in countries where I'm aghast at how little people of either gender communicate in public or private. In my opinion, the less communication (which leads to bonding) you have in a culture, the more alienation you will find, and the emotional and psychological and societal problems that are associated with it.

As to body hair, I think there's a difference between why, in terms of evolution, we have more hair on certain parts of our bodies, and why in modern cultures we may remove it. In terms of the latter, I think a lot of this has to do with fashion, particularly nowadays. A famous actor wears a beard in a movie, all of a sudden it shows up in fashion magazines, and et voila', every other man is wearing them. It's very unfortunate, in my opinion. I never minded a little scruffiness, but a beard? (In the interests of full disclosure, I can't stand them. I tolerated a mustache for a good while, but that's the limit. Beards trap food particles and sweat, and they scratch! What woman wants to look and feel as if she just kissed a Brillo scrubbing pad??!!:petrified:)

The same goes for underarm hair. It's a question of cleanliness and odor. As to body "fuzz", it can be a lot more than "fuzz", and again, fashion has a lot to do with it. What man who spends hours in the gym wants to obscure his body contouring and muscle definition with hair? When he goes to the pool or the beach in just trunks does he really want to give the impression that he's part gorilla? :startled: The leg hair on some women is scary...not attractive when nylons came into fashion and you could really see it, even if it was light. Plus, there's nothing sensuous about *****ly leg hair. The goal is for skin smooth as silk, yes? The same goes for bikinis...

I've sometimes thought that there's a correlation between the level of civilization and the removal of body hair. Perhaps in very sophisticated societies there's more of an interest, whether conscious or unconscious, in delineating us from animals? I'm reminded of the great lengths to which the Greeks in later periods, and the Romans too, used depilatories. There were a few periods when beards were in fashion during the Roman era, but not many.
 

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