Jared Diamond, no survivalist but 17 field trips to tribal New Guinea on his CV, reckons that in terms of nutritional efficiency (calories obtained over time), there are some tribes that would benefit if all their hunters switched to gathering.
There are loads of limitations to this statement: obviously it refers to specific case studies and can't be generalised given hunter-gatherer diets and techniques vary; it doesn't address food groups/sources of calories - although he acknowledges that gathering includes protein sources such as nuts, grubs and I think shellfish.
His conclusion is that in some cases hunting is more important for its social (sexually competitive?) function than for providing food. Something to chew on.
My other thought - have you heard of trout tickling? In days of old, every young ruffian knew how to tickle trout; it went hand-in-hand with scrumping and poaching. Takes a bit of practice, but is a reliable way of fishing without any kit - apparently it works for catfish as well, and it rather charmingly called noodling in the US deep south.
Your security settings presumably won't let me post links, but there's plenty of info if you google it.
It's the experience I'm after. What ever it is I want a go. And then maybe one day I'll sit back in a padded armchair, go through the list and pick "that one". Until then it's finding out time.
Thoughts.
ReplyDeleteJared Diamond, no survivalist but 17 field trips to tribal New Guinea on his CV, reckons that in terms of nutritional efficiency (calories obtained over time), there are some tribes that would benefit if all their hunters switched to gathering.
There are loads of limitations to this statement: obviously it refers to specific case studies and can't be generalised given hunter-gatherer diets and techniques vary; it doesn't address food groups/sources of calories - although he acknowledges that gathering includes protein sources such as nuts, grubs and I think shellfish.
His conclusion is that in some cases hunting is more important for its social (sexually competitive?) function than for providing food. Something to chew on.
My other thought - have you heard of trout tickling? In days of old, every young ruffian knew how to tickle trout; it went hand-in-hand with scrumping and poaching. Takes a bit of practice, but is a reliable way of fishing without any kit - apparently it works for catfish as well, and it rather charmingly called noodling in the US deep south.
Your security settings presumably won't let me post links, but there's plenty of info if you google it.