Quote (Tear @ Mar 27 2024 08:45pm)
Persistence hunting, look it up.
But okay my man, you sit on the couch and do nothing and enjoy your sedentary lifestyle.
Sounds like fun.
thx 4 advice, first result from google :
This is a fringe idea which gained a cult following after the publication of "Born to Run", a book that became very popular in the media. It inspired TV shows and book reviews in the NYT, got a lot of people talking.
So far as actual evidence goes, you can divide it 3 ways:
Evidence from pre-historic hunter-gatherer societies: zip
Evidence from historic hunter-gatherer societies: zilch
Evidence from modern hunter-gatherer societies: n = 1 (kinda sorta)
To my knowledge, the only time persistence hunting has been observed and written about in a peer reviewed journal is in the case of four San hunters from the Kalahari, who performed 8 persistence hunts, 2 or 3 of which were successful. I'm not sure if they could honestly be called "persistence", because they involved a leisurely stroll with the animal dead in a couple hours, or else gone for good.
We do have zillions of examples of both modern and historic hunters not persistence hunting. Common methods appear to be stalking, ambushing, waylaying animals when they cross a steam or choke point, traps, etc.
Perhaps persistence hunting is not possible outside the Kalahari, in other environments which are cooler, more shady, harder to track. Perhaps it only works in a semi-desert where it's really really hot and there are no trees for shade and the ground preserves nice tracks so you don't have to worry if the deer runs out of sight, you can just keep following its tracks until you find it.
At any rate, this fortunate set of circumstances appears to be rare enough that we don't see persistence hunting much at all. I recall that those successful Kalahari hunts didn't produce much meat in return for the man hours invested. Probably they'd have gotten more meat if they just stayed home and set up traps in suitable spots nearby.