31 lines
1.4 KiB
Markdown
31 lines
1.4 KiB
Markdown
---
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date: 2025-10-05T20:08:25-06:00
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description: ""
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lastmod: 2025-10-05T20:08:25-06:00
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showTableOfContents: true
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type: "tils"
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title: "TIL: Hunter Gatherers Were Not Dumb"
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image: ""
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image_credit: ""
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image_alt: ""
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tags: ["history", ""]
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---
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# Context
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[As I mentioned](/tils/we-created-dogs-and-dogs-created-us), I'm really enjoying the
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[Sapiens](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapiens:_A_Brief_History_of_Humankind) book. I was shocked to discover that
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hunter gatherer societies were comprised of extremely intelligent humans!
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# Reflection
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Because of my biases (and probably seeing many depictions of foolish looking cave men), I had
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assumed that what caused the human to "pull themselves out" of the wild animal stage and into
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the industrial age was them finally reaching a point of intelligence to do so. When, [the
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reality](https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240517-the-human-brain-has-been-shrinking-and-no-one-quite-knows-why) is
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actually the opposite! The hunter gatherer people had to be so intimately familiar with their surroundings to survive.
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Weather patterns, migration patterns of many different animals, which foods were safe to eat, and how to prepare the
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foods for consumption. The variety of foods they gathered was also greater than the average person today eating cereal
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grains and one of four different meats. History is so fascinating. I find time and time again, my assumption of how or
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what something must have been is frequently proven completely wrong.
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