|
|
|
||
Line 64:
This sentence"..and early humans' hunting abilities were relatively limited[dubious – discuss], compared to modern hunter-gatherers, as well..." needs a source. Also, it may imply something different than it actually states in context. Not having bows and arrows could be considered "more limited" than having bows and arrows technically, but it would seem to imply that they were much less effective hunters as well, which may not be the case. For instance, find a cliff, charge at buffalo while holding a stick with fire from direction opposite cliff, cause a stampede sending many buffalo to their death over said cliff, climb down and eat dead buffalo has been claimed to be a primary hunting method - and while not very complex, it could be quite effective. So all in all, this statement needs reevaluationg. <span style="font-size: smaller;" class="autosigned">— Preceding [[Wikipedia:Signatures|unsigned]] comment added by [[Special:Contributions/128.227.15.173|128.227.15.173]] ([[User talk:128.227.15.173|talk]]) 10:48, 14 August 2011 (UTC)</span><!-- Template:Unsigned IP --> <!--Autosigned by SineBot-->
:That was, in fact, the primary method of hunting employed by humans before they learned how to use bows and arrows. According to Jared Diamond in 'The Third Chimpanzee', it worked on elands, but it did not work on buffalos. As to having "limited hunting abilities", here's a direct quote from current reference 87 (Marlowe et al): "Even though game may have been more plentiful in the Pleistocene, without nets or the bow and arrow, iron points and poison, it is difficult to see how earlier hominins could have matched the hunting success of contemporary foragers. The bow was such a technological leap forward that it could have led to an increase in meat consumption and population growth rates, eventually reducing game populations in certain areas and hastening the adoption of agriculture."--[[User:Itinerant1|Itinerant1]] ([[User talk:Itinerant1|talk]]) 07:52, 23 August 2011 (UTC)
::They could have run game to death. There are still some hunters in Australia capable of doing this, and they have been the subject of various papers, for example Liebenberg, L.W. (1990) The Art of Tracking: The Origin of Science. Cape Town and David Philip. Liebenberg, L.W. (2006) Persistence hunting by modern hunter-gatherers. Curr. Anthropol. 47, 1017-1025.
| |||