Were hunter gatherers lives the peak of human happiness?

Arghus · 30-06-2020 09:02PM

badabing106 wrote: »

They had 5 or 6 things that could make them unhappy, not 100 things

And about a 1000 things that could kill them.

Who was the last woman you knew who died in childbirth?

buried · 30-06-2020 09:02PM

badabing106 wrote: »

I'm not saying it was easy

Their goals and aspirations were simple

But sure so are mine, so are a lot of peoples today, we just want to get by and hopefully not get sick anytime soon, and if we do hopefully we will get looked after and there is a good chance we will, with indoor plumbing too.

Arghus · 30-06-2020 09:08PM

buried wrote: »

But sure so are mine, so are a lot of peoples today, we just want to get by and hopefully not get sick anytime soon, and if we do hopefully we will get looked after and there is a good chance we will, with indoor plumbing too.

And a bit of the auld drugs, from time to time.

Greyfox · 30-06-2020 09:15PM

badabing106 wrote: »

That was the peak of happiness for humankind in my opinion..

There is no crime, no jealously over property or possessions.

Your only saying that because you have no idea what life was like back then. Your forgetting about the people that starved to death because they couldn't find food or froze to death during winter. Also there was no internet, tv, films, computer games and life would be a load of sh*te without those things. I'd rather live in a world where I know where my next meal comes from. Also your deluded if you think there was no crime. If your missing out on social interactions join a club.

pgj2015 · 30-06-2020 09:18PM

They had awful punishments in the past, they wouldn't just kill you they would bury you alive and I wont even mention what else. I wonder why they were so vicious back then, animals wouldn't act the way they did.

nthclare · 30-06-2020 09:24PM

They probably knew no better and were content with their lot.
It sounds ok to someone like myself who likes roughing it up now and again and still have that Hunter gathering instinct.

Now and again I go camping and fishing etc, have enough water and some treat's.
But it's great to get in touch with my ferral side.
It keeps me grounded and gives me a break from modern living etc

I love the outdoors and like survival skills and bushcraft etc.
As a botanist, horticurist and skillful fisherman I can live for a few days on the hunt.
Especially by the coast.

It's not for everyone, but I love it more than sitting in a modern apartment and plastic and microchips everywhere...

During the covid lockdown I fished the local lake and river and caught fish easily enough...

Gregor Samsa · 30-06-2020 09:36PM

badabing106 wrote: »

There is no crime, no jealously over property or possessions.

You can be sure that as soon as one person was chewing on a tasty antelope hoof, someone else wanted that antelope hoof.

badabing106 · 30-06-2020 09:51PM

Greyfox wrote: »

Your only saying that because you have no idea what life was like back then. Your forgetting about the people that starved to death because they couldn't find food or froze to death during winter. Also there was no internet, tv, films, computer games and life would be a load of sh*te without those things. I'd rather live in a world where I know where my next meal comes from. Also your deluded if you think there was no crime. If your missing out on social interactions join a club.

Internet film computers would not have enchanced their life. How would it?their life was about living life and hunting and enjoying and celebrating the fruits of their kill, and preparing for the next season

I don't think crime was even a word back in those times! The community was one, and needed to be!

Say my name · 30-06-2020 10:03PM

Neanderthals though.

odyssey06 · 30-06-2020 10:21PM

badabing106 wrote: »

Internet film computers would not have enchanced their life. How would it?their life was about living life and hunting and enjoying and celebrating the fruits of their kill, and preparing for the next season
I don't think crime was even a word back in those times! The community was one, and needed to be!

You are forgetting what would have happened when different communities met. Murder assault fire raids... fear of outsiders... armed hunters... kill other hunters... take their women.

And the jealousy that comes within groups.

Anger, hatred, fear , mistrust, jealousy didnt start with agriculture. Thinking about words like crimes is just semantics - look deeper at the emotions that form part of human nature.

Doctors room ghost · 30-06-2020 10:23PM

They died young but they had great teeth on them.there was skeletons dug up and teeth on them as good as the day one.
Sure a good diet and no sugars stuff like we have now.

Doctors room ghost · 30-06-2020 10:25PM

nthclare wrote: »

They probably knew no better and were content with their lot.
It sounds ok to someone like myself who likes roughing it up now and again and still have that Hunter gathering instinct.

Now and again I go camping and fishing etc, have enough water and some treat's.
But it's great to get in touch with my ferral side.
It keeps me grounded and gives me a break from modern living etc

I love the outdoors and like survival skills and bushcraft etc.
As a botanist, horticurist and skillful fisherman I can live for a few days on the hunt.
Especially by the coast.

It's not for everyone, but I love it more than sitting in a modern apartment and plastic and microchips everywhere...

During the covid lockdown I fished the local lake and river and caught fish easily enough...

Any early macks yet nthclare down yere way off the rocks?

odyssey06 · 30-06-2020 10:35PM

Doctors room ghost wrote: »

They died young but they had great teeth on them.there was skeletons dug up and teeth on them as good as the day one.
Sure a good diet and no sugars stuff like we have now.

A lot died young but that was mostly due to infant mortality... as it was for peasants until the late 19th century. Their height suggests they ate better than most succeeding generations until the 20th century.

If you reached age 15 though you could expect to live to your 50s was one stat I found on google for the era.

Kylta · 30-06-2020 11:42PM

buried wrote: »

But that's the most simplistic way of looking at how they lived. You can't say those six things were the absolute daily formula those people had to go through. They still got sick, they still had to find and war over resources, they still had to go through a whole raft of serious problems that you don't have to even think about.
I mean, you say 'hunt' like everytime it would have been a pleasure and these boys would get a definite result at the end of it. There wouldn't have been a sure fire result everytime they went out to do that so there was no insurance there either. It would have been a gigantic pain in the arse,because your very life and those back at the circle would have totally depended upon it.

I think I would've hack it back then, I mean if you fell out with the neighbour we'll you just hacked him up for dinner. And since i've a lazy streak I would've hack up all the neighbours and live like a king. Hopefully with my charisma I could join another tribe and hack me some more new neighbours.

I wonder was their serial killers back then?

GreyEagle · 01-07-2020 12:07AM

Gregor Samsa wrote: »

You can be sure that as soon as one person was chewing on a tasty antelope hoof, someone else wanted that antelope hoof.

I'd say if you were chewing antelope hoof the lads wouldn't bother you at all. They would be enjoying the steaks.

fatknacker · 01-07-2020 12:47AM

It’s all well and good til you have an incredibly painful infection from a simple cut that goes septic, a neighbouring tribe keeps taking your friend’s scalps and a sabre tooth tiger eats your babies.

Gregor Samsa · 01-07-2020 12:51AM

GreyEagle wrote: »

I'd say if you were chewing antelope hoof the lads wouldn't bother you at all. They would be enjoying the steaks.

Man, you haven’t lived ‘till you’ve sucked the marrow out of a juicy hoof from an antelope you strangled with your bare hands.

bb1234567 · 01-07-2020 01:10AM

Go to sub saharan Africa then. Millions there still living the dream

Greyfox · 01-07-2020 01:31AM

badabing106 wrote: »

Internet film computers would not have enchanced their life. How would it?their life was about living life and hunting and enjoying and celebrating the fruits of their kill, and preparing for the next season

I don't think crime was even a word back in those times! The community was one, and needed to be!

It would of, great stories enrich everybody's life. Living life involves doing things you enjoy and these days we have more time for fun then back then, if you put the effort in you could also be "living life" now. Crime was always around, even back then and if someone killed you back then they had a far better chance of getting away with it.

4068ac1elhodqr · 01-07-2020 01:31AM

The nomadic Mongolians might have the right idea, they simply pack up their yurts and pop it on a donkey when they fancy a change of scenery in their huge open lands.
Some are offered fully stocked static houses, but most express it's a burden to own so much material goods, and prefer the freedom they enjoy instead.

Rubberchikken · 01-07-2020 02:03AM

Our goals, at least mine, are still very simple - eat, sleep, work, fresh air, chance to sit occasionally.

It's the same things as then, just done that little bit differently nowadays.

I think it's simplistic to envy them, I'm guessing it wasn't easy to have to hunt for your food - shopping in Tesco's is hard enough somedays, but imagine not being certain you'll actually catch something today or even tomorrow.

Real cold, with only animal skins and maybe a fire to keep warm.

kowloon · 01-07-2020 02:07AM

There wasn't any crime because there were no laws, people murdered each other left, right and centre. Skeletons show up with many a healed injury from other humans.

Quantum Erasure · 01-07-2020 05:04AM

i'd say the first lad to decide 'fck this, I'll plant these seeds beside where I am, and I'll bulid a fence to keep those pigs close, but not too close' thought he had it made

guitarhappy · 01-07-2020 07:05AM

unhappys10 wrote: »

Nah, I'd be happier winning the euro millions and retiring to my very own desert island to get away from all you fcuks.

We can say "****s" on here?

M.T. Cranium · 01-07-2020 07:15AM

You had me going there for a second.

_Brian · 01-07-2020 08:06AM

I’d say the biggest contribution to their happiness was the lack of vegans and their rhetoric.

Wibbs · 01-07-2020 08:51AM

odyssey06 wrote: »

A lot died young but that was mostly due to infant mortality... as it was for peasants until the late 19th century. Their height suggests they ate better than most succeeding generations until the 20th century.

If you reached age 15 though you could expect to live to your 50s was one stat I found on google for the era.

Pretty much and regularly older than that. Neandertals and early modern humans had at best lifespans that hit their 50's, but for some reason modern humans started living longer about 40,000 years ago, or had the potential to.

It's a common fallacy they "were dead by 25". It was their infant mortality that skews the stats, much as it did right up until the middle of the 20th century. The biggest change in human mortality came not from adding ten fifteen years to the end of life, but through medicine, vaccines and sanitation getting the vast majority of kids to adulthood. If this was the "Stone Age" only about one of four reading this thread would be live adults.

It also depends where you might be doing your hunting and gathering. In colder and temperate climes they showed regular periods of famine in their teeth, in more stable tropical and sub tropical regions this was much less likely. It's like the guys, and it's usually guys, who got into the BroScience of the so called "paleo diet", which one? Never mind that other than things like nuts and seeds and shellfish there are almost no foodstuffs in shops today that are like their Palaeolithic counterpart. And never mind that most of the biggest changes to the human genome in the last 20,000 years have been dietary adaptations. Most humans today are no longer "Palaeolithic".

On the other hand if we were hunter gatherers and made it to 20 we'd have better teeth, stronger bones, zero obesity, zero diabetes, cardiovascular disease would be an extreme rarity and our cortisol levels would be much lower. That said most Stone Age skeletons show pathologies dodgy enough to leave signs on the bones. Every Neandertal older than 30 had arthritis, many modern humans too. Injuries were common, some were devastating and would have resulted in chronic and severe pain. If you could be a hunter gatherer and have access to good antibiotics, analgesics and anti inflammatories then yeah, good healthy lifestyle.

Brendog · 01-07-2020 11:25AM

We're still hunger gatherers.
Every week I scout tesco tirelessly....

until.....

finally I leap upon the last bottle of 50% Fairy liquid.

murpho999 · 01-07-2020 11:44AM

I don't think life was good for them. Constant search for food, shelter problems, rival tribe wars and then at any moment you could get eaten by a dinosaur.

Plucked into the air by a teradactyl is not a nice way to go as shown in below scene from a documentary of the time .

giphy.gif?cid=ecf05e47f19ddc3677e8540c114f162bfc151298b20b11ee&rid=giphy.gif

giphy.gif?cid=ecf05e47f19ddc3677e8540c114f162bfc151298b20b11ee&rid=giphy.gif

Kylta · 01-07-2020 11:50AM

murpho999 wrote: »

I don't think life was good for them. Constant search for food, shelter problems, rival tribe wars and then at any moment you could get eaten by a dinosaur.

Plucked into the air by a teradactyl is not a nice way to go as shown in below the scene from a documentary of the time .

Stoneage fried pterodactyl what a feast. Kfc my bollox

Were hunter gatherers lives the peak of human happiness?

Comments