Early Herders Didn’t Give Up Hunting and Gathering as Quickly as Previously Thought
Recent research challenges the assumption that early herders quickly abandoned hunting and gathering for livestock farming. Instead, it suggests that these ancient pastoralists maintained a diverse diet, including wild animals, for over a millennium after adopting herding. The study highlights the resilience and adaptability of early human societies in response to environmental changes.
- ▪Researchers studied ancient livestock herders in Kenya and Tanzania, revealing they continued to consume a variety of foods for at least a thousand years after starting to herd.
- ▪Chemical analysis of ancient teeth showed that early herders had diets similar to hunter-gatherers, including both domesticated and wild animals.
- ▪The findings indicate that environmental changes influenced herders to maintain multiple food sources rather than relying solely on livestock.
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Anthropologists have often assumed that once human societies start producing their own food, they quickly abandon hunter-gatherer practices. Researchers studying some of the earliest adopters of livestock farming in eastern Africa have turned that idea on its head. The new work instead suggests that these ancient pastoralists continued to eat a wider variety of foods, including wild animals, for at least a millennium after they began herding livestock.“These early herders didn’t put all their eggs in one basket.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Discover Magazine.
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