Hunter-gatherers Grade 5
Ilario Grijalva
Hunter-gatherer culture is a type of subsistence lifestyle that relies on hunting and fishing animals and foraging for wild vegetation and other nutrients like honey, for food. Until approximately 12,000 years ago, all humans practiced hunting-gathering.
Anthropologists have discovered evidence for the practice of hunter-gatherer culture by modern humans (Homo sapiens) and their distant ancestors dating as far back as two million years. Before the emergence of hunter-gatherer cultures, earlier groups relied on the practice of scavenging animal remains that predators left behind.
Because hunter-gatherers did not rely on agriculture, they used mobility as a survival strategy. Indeed, the hunter-gatherer lifestyle required access to large areas of land, between seven and 500 square miles, to find the food they needed to survive. This made establishing long-term settlements impractical, and most hunter-gatherers were nomadic. Hunter-gatherer groups tended to range in size from an extended family to a larger band of no more than about 100 people.
With the beginnings of the Neolithic Revolution about 12,000 years ago, when agricultural practices were first developed, some groups abandoned hunter-gatherer practices to establish permanent settlements that could provide for much larger populations. However, many hunter-gatherer behaviors persisted until modern times. As recently as 1500 C.E., there were still hunter-gatherers in parts of Europe and throughout the Americas. Over the last 500 years, the population of hunter-gatherers has declined dramatically. Today very few exist, with the Hadza people of Tanzania being one of the last groups to live in this tradition.
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You may be under the impression that there are no more hunter gatherers living today. But there are! All over the world, in every country from Brazil to Australia, you will still find people living as hunter gatherers. This way of living is hundreds of thousands of years old. Imagine that! Living the exact same way as someone did during the time when fire was first discovered.
Through archaeological research and San oral history or storytelling we know that there were a lot of San groups living in the Southern Kalahari. Archaeologists believe that the San were the descendants of the original homo sapiens who had lived in South Africa for at least 150 000 years. That must be one very long and big family tree!
Today we still see evidence of cultural practices that are being used by Southern African hunter-gatherers. Examples are the making of ostrich eggshell beads, shell ornaments, the bow and arrow and rock art.
When the Europeans arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652, they brought advanced weapons and new diseases. The European diseases, such as Smallpox, caused thousands of San and Khoi people to die during the 18th and 19th centuries. With their advanced weaponry, the Europeans were also able to force the Khoi and San off their land. Because of this, many South African San people either died of disease or were forced to join other clans for survival.
When the Europeans came to Africa, they thought that the indigenous people were very primitive. How wrong they were! Little did the Europeans know how clever the San were! Even though the San were using Stone-Age technology, these hunter-gatherers were very skilled.
The San were able to follow the seasons and know where the plants for food would grow, making sure not to pick too many plants and damage the environment. They also had to follow the migration of the antelope for hunting to ensure that they would never go hungry, and know the different places to get water so that they would not go thirsty. If anyone became ill, they would also know which plants to use as medicine.
In the San society, the women would go out and pick the plants and herbs for food, and the men would hunt and go fishing. They would only hunt what they could eat, never hunting for sport. When an antelope was killed, they would use every part of the animal, so that nothing went to waste. This was because they respected the animal for sacrificing its life so that they could eat it. Because the San were always moving, they lived either in caves, camped out in the open or made their homes out of materials that were easily available such as long grass, thin branches and rocks.
To create their paintings the San used brushes and paint. Brushes were made using either feathers or animal hair and thin reeds. We can identify what they used by the brushstrokes that can be seen in the paint. The paint was made by mixing pigment with whatever was available, be it eggs, animal blood, water or saliva. Often they would use animal blood or special herbs to make the magic of the art more powerful. The most popular and common shade of paint used by rock artists was made of red ochre pigment, which was easy to obtain, being mined in Swaziland. Yellow ochre was also easy to find and was often used. White paint came in three different shades and researchers believe this was made from different shades of white clay or from bird poop. Black paint came from charcoal and manganese oxide.
There are many different shades and colours but black, brown, red, yellow and white were more easily available to the average San rock artist. Etchings of images were also very common. The artist would scrape and chip out pieces of rock from the greater surface and create beautiful art. They would use pieces of rock and sharpened sticks to create images. It is difficult for archaeologists to say exactly when any particular rock art was made because the art does not change very much with age and because most of the art is in caves, protected from being damaged by wind, rain or anything else.
They also gathered their food and needed to ensure that there was always enough to last for a long time. As the Khoi- Khoi were nomadic, their houses had to be easy to take down and put up, so they used young trees called saplings to build basic dome-like structures and covered them with woven reed mats. These mats were well-suited for covering the structures because in hot weather they would provide shade and allow air to flow in the gaps between the reeds. When it rained the reeds would swell up and prevent water from entering the structure. This meant that they were able to keep cool in hot weather and dry and warm in cold weather. For extra insulation in those cold winter months, the Khoi-Khoi would often put sheep and goat skins against the walls just as we use synthetic insulation in our houses today. In the Khoi- Khoi community, there were approximately 100 people in each village.
Unlike the San the Khoi Khoi had a hierarchical society structure. There was a chief, headman, elders, servants and other members in the village that had specific hierarchical positions based on how much cattle they owned. The wealthier members of the community would gain importance by donating cattle to be slaughtered for community celebrations such as weddings and funerals. The chief would be responsible for maintaining harmony and making decisions in the community. He would own the most cattle and was the wealthiest man in the community. The role of chief would be passed on to his eldest son when he died, thus all the chiefs would be from the same family.
The Khoi-Khoi were very good at craftwork. They made clothing, bags and blankets from animal skins. They also made pottery with pointed bases and handles that strapped easily to the backs of oxen or to their shelters. They used the reeds for making mats for their houses and sleeping mats. The Khoi-Khoi were also very skilled at making weapons. They made spears with hardened points of iron that they gained from trading with neighbouring tribes or European settlers. After any celebration or successful hunt, the meat would be shared in the community.The best pieces of meat would go to the wealthiest members of the tribe. In this way, the Khoi- Khoi looked after one another.
The San ate the animals that they hunted and the fruit and seeds that they gathered. They also ate insects, such as beetles, caterpillars, moths, butterflies and termites. Wild honey was a favourite delicacy.
Most San wore very little clothing. Men usually wore a small piece of animal skin between their legs, which was tied in the front, around their loins. The women wore a small piece of skin in the front, decorated with beads. They seldom wore anything covering their shoulders, except in cold weather. Both men and women wore ornaments such as necklaces, bracelets, earrings and hair ornaments. Necklaces were made from small berries, beads, ostrich shells, bones, teeth and animal claws.
The San made musical instruments and were skilful musicians. Dancing rituals, such as a healing or rain dance were done. These dances are often shown in the rock art. The San often went into trances during these dances.
Rock art is a term used to describe paintings or engravings on rocks or in caves. There is evidence of thousands of rock paintings all over southern Africa. The majority of this rock art was done by the San people. South African rock art was only discovered about 350 years ago and is found in rocky areas of KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern and Western Cape. Rock paintings are found in caves and rock shelters, whereas rock engravings occur in rocky outcrops, riverbeds or on flat rocks in the veld. In rock engravings, animals are more common than human figures. The Eland (an antelope species) is often seen in rock art The San rock art depicts the religious beliefs and practises of the time. The rock paintings provide us with insight into the lives of the San people. The San would draw the art in a trance-like state. This trance-like state was brought about through medicine, dancing and drumming. It was a way in which the artist could connect with their ancestors and the spiritual world.The San used brushes made from animal hair or bird feathers for painting.For engraving, the San used hard, sharp objects, for example spears orsharp stones. The San would paint with red, brown and yellow pigments.White was made from white clay or bird droppings, black from manganese minerals and charcoal. Blue and green were never used. The blood of an Eland was often mixed with the pigments. Rock art often depicts human figures with long sticks and animals galloping or leaping.