The material and mental effects of animal disappearance on indigenous hunter-gatherers, past and present

ABSTRACT

For indigenous hunter-gatherers, dependent for their subsistence and well-being on prey animals, animal extinction had significant and multifaceted effects, only some of which are reflected in the archaeological record. Contemporary hunter-gatherers often view animals as equal partners in a shared habitat, where these animals are simultaneously hunted and revered. We posit that this same duality existed among past hunter-gatherer groups. The disappearance of a species that supported human existence for millennia triggered not only technological and social changes but also had profound emotional and psychological effects. We present several selected case studies that reflect the complex dual relationship between indigenous hunter-gatherers and their prey under different environmental conditions. We focus on the material and mental effects of animal population decline over diverse cultures, geographies, and time scales. Our study sheds light on the vital role of specific animal taxa in human biological and cultural evolution. It also deepens our understanding of how indigenous hunter-gatherer societies expressed their awareness of coexistence with other species. In the age of the Sixth Extinction, this study might be more relevant than ever not only for reconstructing the life ways of indigenous hunter-gatherers but for all human and nonhuman species populating the planet.

KEYWORDS:

• Indigenous hunter-gatherers
• extinction
• ontology
• diet
• human-animal relationships
• adaptation

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their suggestions and remarks which improved the manuscript, and for the editors of the Journal for the efficient treatment of the manuscript. We wholeheartedly wish the editors successes in running the journal for the coming years. This work was supported by the joint UGC-ISF Research Grant (Israel-India program) entitled “The First Global Culture: Lower Paleolithic Acheulean Adaptations at the Two Ends of Asia” 2712/16. The authors are grateful to Sharon Kessler for her help in editing this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eyal Halfon

Eyal Halfon is writer and film maker. Two of his films won the Israeli academy Awards for best film and best script. He is an MA graduate of the Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures at Tel Aviv University.

Ran Barkai

Ran Barkai (PhD, 2000, Tel-Aviv University) is Professor at the Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures, Tel Aviv University. Together with Prof. Avi Gopher, he co-directs excavations at the Middle Pleistocene site of Qesem Cave and has published extensively on different aspects of Palaeolithic and Neolithic technology, subsistence, cosmology, and lifeways.