What really got me thinking was how hard it seems to stalk deer with a high powered rifle and scope! How did our ancestors manage to get close enogh to use bow and arrow or did they rely on snares/ traps?
What really got me thinking was how hard it seems to stalk deer with a high powered rifle and scope! How did our ancestors manage to get close enogh to use bow and arrow or did they rely on snares/ traps?
its what we have being doing for century's in one form or anotherAnyone watched this series ?, if so what are your thoughts?
The native american approach to buffalo was to herd them into a narrow area and then chase them all over a cliff... gravity does the rest of the work for you and you end up with tons (literally!) of meat for the tribe.What really got me thinking was how hard it seems to stalk deer with a high powered rifle and scope! How did our ancestors manage to get close enogh to use bow and arrow or did they rely on snares/ traps?
The native american approach to buffalo was to herd them into a narrow area and then chase them all over a cliff... gravity does the rest of the work for you and you end up with tons (literally!) of meat for the tribe.
In Africa, individual hunters would chase an animal for hours... there was a BBC programme that showed some Bushmen hunters chasing kudu. Basically, because humans can sweat and deer can't, we just keep running after them for hour after hour until the deer collapses with heat exhaustion. Then you wander up and kill it without any bother. Very time consuming and knackering but effective if you have the resources.
You can see why managed agriculture has been the goal of most human societies in history... much more consistent source of meat for your family, and gives you time to do other stuff (like invent t'internet).
If anyone hasn't seen the programme it was a Life of Mammals (David Attenborough) one - Volume 4.
Great stuff!
The bushman actually use a poison (paste made from a beetle) on their arrows to take down large animals. the arrows that i have seen have no fletching and the arrow heads are detachable so when the arrowhead pieces the skin the shaft falls free and can be reused. They then chase the animal down till it drops.
The hunting-game-to-exhaustion scene is also featured in the movie/documentary "The Great dance', a beautiful film about bushmen life:
http://finebushpeople.co.za/farmstore/catalog/The_Great_Dance.html
Cheers,
Tom
What really got me thinking was how hard it seems to stalk deer with a high powered rifle and scope! How did our ancestors manage to get close enogh to use bow and arrow or did they rely on snares/ traps?