10,000 B.C. Reality Show

[John Fenna]

I think I will just go down to the library and get out a good book on the era...
It is free and probably more entertaining and informative than the TV prog.
Or I may start rereading "Clan of the Cave Bear" yet again...

 

[Swallow]

As a premise for something a lot more serious, it has good foundations, however the programme everyone on this forum would want to see (me included) simply wouldn't get the funding to make it happen.... Which is a pity.

Ever heard of crowdfunding?

how much would it cost really?

 

[Joe tahkahikew]

Did Buffalo leaps exist? If they did then the numbers killed could not have been calculated closely so therefore excess animal, rotting, corpses must have resulted sometimes.

There's a place on the Alberta plains called Buffalo Jump Head All Smashed In.
http://history.alberta.ca/headsmashedin/&sa=U&ei=9VfOVIG_OYiv7AaH6IHoBQ&ved=0CBcQFjAA&sig2=C2SWWB_lcZFOr_w5D2cyHQ&usg=AFQjCNH3NfA5u17VilafmceVp-UMtsvnUQ

There are more elsewhere. But don't forget sometimes stampeeding animals go over cliffs by accident. I've seen hundreds of Caribou do the same when made angry by mosquitoes and deer fly.

 

[Joe tahkahikew]

Incidentally Hunters at the margin: Native People and Wildlife Conservation in the Northwest Territories by John Sandlos appears to be an interesting book on the conflicts between native hunters and conservationists. [h=1][/h]

its still happening. The conservationists want to make rules that suite themselves and to suit the white hunter. It was the anglos who hunted many of the game animals to excess - The Bison on the plains was a good example. I never heard of an indian up north hunting just for the head - or just for fun like some of the trophy hunters who I've met and seen. It was also the whites who paid people bounties on wolves. When you hunt for food there is no point in wasting what you spent time tracking/trapping etc., We moved our trapping lines to different places before the animals got scarce. Its simple common sense. Why overhunt one place till it gets too hard to hunt? Now we must only hunt in registered traplines. This is the law made by white governments who don't like indians hunting for food.

Even in England I was told about the amount of fish thrown overboard because they are not allowed to land it to eat. As for you guys eating all you buy? What happens to the rest of the sturgeon after the caviar has been removed? Do you eat the bones and intestines of the animals you eat? What happens to the fat and oil from pigs and other animals?

As for farming, its -30c outside at the moment OK its winter. But you can't plant things and wait for them to grow in our short summers. Its never happened and we can't afford big greenhouses like you people down south.

 

[boatman]

You are right, by-catch is a disgrace. Catch more than your quota and it must be dumped, absolutely insane. Moves to change this but our last Hunter-Gatherers, the fishermen suffer.

At least as wrong is the reduction in fishing rights such as time at sea for inshore fishermen, despite their sustainable methods.
At least in Britain we have an established public right to fish in the sea although this is under threat.

 

[mountainm]

You are right, by-catch is a disgrace. Catch more than your quota and it must be dumped, absolutely insane. Moves to change this but our last Hunter-Gatherers, the fishermen suffer.

At least as wrong is the reduction in fishing rights such as time at sea for inshore fishermen, despite their sustainable methods.
At least in Britain we have an established public right to fish in the sea although this is under threat.

The way to do it is by crop rotation so to speak. Rotate where you fish leaving areas to recover over a decade then move fishing area.

 

[Wayland]

I've set it to record but I have very little hope that it'll actually be worth the hard drive space.

 

[Tengu]

A lot of our meat waste gets made into petfood. But you are right; we should eat it ourselves.

Which is why there are little pork petfoods. The nasty bits of the pig get made into sausages which are the most desirable pig product.

 

[Joe tahkahikew]

I didn't mean to lecture Tengu.

All food eventually ends up being eaten by something if left outside.

All those caribou I saw go over the cliff and could not eat many years ago all got ate. Wolves, wolverines, bears, eagles, insects and fungus and so on all had their share. All that is left is a few antlers which no animal can eat.

Man and food and everything else that lives are just in a circle - we just go round in it.

 

[lauriek]

Do you know I'd wondered why there was no pig based cat food, my cat goes bat**** when I give him some pork..

 

[lauriek]

I plan to watch this but I don't have high expectations...

 

[DocG]

I plan to watch this but I don't have high expectations...

On the other hand, I seem to recall some excellent acting and realistic human vs dinosaur scenes the last time 10000 BC was on the screens, or have I missed something about this programme?

 

[ateallthepies]

Would have preferred the people who did Victorian, Tudor farm and that Castle program to try living Mesolithic. As it is it's just going to be Big Brother outdoors!

Like someone said, no one will fund this venture without the reality drivel that has become standard here. It's a shame the number of people who would like to watch a factual program exploring Mesolithic living are vastly outnumbered by the Jeremy Kyle class of viewers

If a game show type program had to be I would rather prefer a decent prize being fought for by several teams trying their best and being judged in their ability to do well in Mesolithic living? A bit of basic instruction then off you go sort of thing?

Temper tantrums, crying, whinging and anything modern used would all go against the team. Maybe a system of rewards would be needed for things accomplished ala Get Me Out Of Here?

Can't be set in the UK because of hunting issues-pathetic!

Will give the first episode a go, expectation will be starting low so as not to be disappointed.

 

[Toddy]

Do you know I'd wondered why there was no pig based cat food, my cat goes bat**** when I give him some pork..

When I was a very little girl, my Daddy told me that the pig was the most useful animal on the planet. That we could eat every bit of it, but things like it's skin and bones were more useful as leather and as glue. Even it's squeak as it died was caught, and it was used to make the bubble in the spirit level..….clever man my dad, if possessed of a dubious streak of humour
To this day I think of those wee bubbles as the pig's squeak.

You can buy cans of cheap stewed pork….my moggie loved the stuff.

M

 

[Fraxinus]

When I was a very little girl, my Daddy told me that the pig was the most useful animal on the planet. That we could eat every bit of it, but things like it's skin and bones were more useful as leather and as glue. Even it's squeak as it died was caught, and it was used to make the bubble in the spirit level..….
M

Is that why some levels are piggin' useless?

Sounds like a right character your Dad, that tale made me chuckle. Ta Toddy.

Back on topic.....
If I were about to write a thesis on the Mesolithic era I doubt that I would look to this style of programme for enlightenment or a glimmer of education, Mr Fenna's library approach would suit better.
I am, though, looking forward to reading about all its faults from people who know the subject well, in a kind of "Schadenfreude" manner.
Rob.

 

[Tengu]

Thanks Toddy, I always wondered what they did with the squeak.

(Put into dog toys? Use as a birdcall? a warning siren??)

 

[bambodoggy]

Temper tantrums, crying, whinging and anything modern used would all go against the team.

Do you really think these are purely modern traits in humans? Lol I know of ancient Greek writings about the trouble a father was having with his disrespectful and lazy teenage son
It's tempting to think of these things as modern because they are now given so much air time in life and on tv.....but I think we've always had our whingers, criers and tantrum throwers lol

 

[boatman]

When doing our Living History presentation I like to ask the visitors what is the main use today for pig or deer skin. The answer is of course that it stops the wobbly bits falling out when they run through a forest.

 

[Nyayo]

Not quite sure why people still think the mesolithic hunter-gatherers survived on huge slabs of meat every day - the old 'Man the Mighty Hunter/ Vegetarian is the Indian word for poor hunter' myth is still doing the rounds, for some reason. Every single bit of evidence from the European mesolithic supports the idea that people generally gained the majority of their calories from berries and roots and the huge majority of their protein from seafood.

Having no TV I won't be watching this, but am a bit disappointed it won't be more like the Iron Age house projects from years back, but I guess furry bikinis get better ratings than scholarly experimental archaeologists...!

 

[Wayland]

The "Living in the Iron Age" project was sabotaged from the start.

A good friend and I both applied and were dropped very quickly when they found out we knew what we were talking about.

Another person I know was given the commission to make the shoes for the show and they insisted on him using a pattern they provided, even though he is an archaeologist and specialist in making ancient footwear.

He took one look at the pattern and said "These won't work.."

They said, "We know, but that's how we want you to make them anyway.."

Please don't hold up the Iron Age Debacle as an example of good practice. It makes me grind my teeth.