It sounds good to say that we can look at present day foraging societies as the nearest we have to early man and to point out that they do often have some agriculture etc. but really there is a big problem. These societies are likely to be atypical of pre-agricultural precisely because they did not move into more agricultural dependent societies.Suppose, hypothetically, that their sexual norms and beliefs did not fit with the inherited ownership of land, water wells etc.
I am also having a little trouble with the nomadic idea. It seems to me that humans, especially foragers require a deep and intimate knowledge of their ‘territory’. The territory may be large and the humans continually moving in patterns within it, going from one food resource to another. Leaving their territory would not be an easy option. In a new territory, if they found an unoccupied one, would mean that they would have to accumulate the knowledge of the territory with enough luck to allow them to survive until they know the territory. They may have preferred to fight. I know that humans have walked themselves all over the globe but they probably did it more by small shifts in territories then moving to completely new ones.
It sounds good to say that we can look at present day foraging societies as the nearest we have to early man and to point out that they do often have some agriculture etc. but really there is a big problem. These societies are likely to be atypical of pre-agricultural precisely because they did not move into more agricultural dependent societies.Suppose, hypothetically, that their sexual norms and beliefs did not fit with the inherited ownership of land, water wells etc.
I am also having a little trouble with the nomadic idea. It seems to me that humans, especially foragers require a deep and intimate knowledge of their ‘territory’. The territory may be large and the humans continually moving in patterns within it, going from one food resource to another. Leaving their territory would not be an easy option. In a new territory, if they found an unoccupied one, would mean that they would have to accumulate the knowledge of the territory with enough luck to allow them to survive until they know the territory. They may have preferred to fight. I know that humans have walked themselves all over the globe but they probably did it more by small shifts in territories then moving to completely new ones.
Another difference is that modern foragers don’t have access to the best land.