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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!!
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To: epicure who wrote (3013)2/7/1997 4:35:00 PM
From: Thomas C. White   of 108807
 
I believe they probably hold true in almost all cases, with some limited exceptions. Some comments on yr post:

1. Eskimo culture is something of an exception due to the nature of the food source. Relatively speaking, seal hunting on ice is "kid stuff" compared to say, hunting a deer with a spear. Also hunting marine mammals in the water such as seal and walrus is compariatively not so difficult either, as marine mammals do not seem to have a natural fear instinct towards predators not in the water with them. A seal will nonchalantly swim right by a boat as he does not consider it a threat.

2. As to Indian cultures of America, first of all, hunting capability is much higher than was the likely case in early man due to technological advances. High powered bows capable of downing an animal at 50 - 60 feet were probably not developed until around the latest Ice Age stage (very likely in fact the time frame when Indians began to populate North America). Many isolated present day hunter gatherer cultures (such as those I mentioned earlier) did not develop these weapons. Most likely among the Indians, the secret of making these weapons passed from tribe to tribe. Effective trapping techniques are also probably a relatively recent phenomenon. As another example of the technology aspect, the Plains Indians did not rise to prominence until the introduction of the European horse (another quantum leap in technology most likely not available to most societies of early man). Before this, tribes which inhabited the Plains areas were most likely those who had been pushed out of the more verdant areas by stronger tribes. They barely eked out an existence and probably a number of Plains tribes became extinct. The primary food source of the Plains was buffalo, and prior to the advent of the horse it was nearly impossible to hunt buffalo even with high power bows.

In trying to draw analogues with the likely situation of early man, you probably have to look the few societies left that have been virtually isolated from outsiders.
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