Q: I need to know five reasons why hunting was a group activit[y] during [the] stone age period?
– Symon Wambua via direct message to our Facebook page
A: The evidence suggests that, more than any other reason, early humans hunted in groups in order to increase their chances of survival. Survival as a hunting community depended on five main things: comfort, cogency (success), convenience, competition, and custom.
There’s an ancient proverb which says: there is strength in numbers. When it came to the survival of early humans, this rang true as ever. Here are five reasons why hunting was a group activity during the stone age period.
1. Comfort
Social connectivity was a way to reduce the natural fight-or-flight response of the individual in a world where danger lurked around every corner. When faced with a choice between life and death, networks that satisfied our very human need for companionship and belonging were not seen as biological constraints, but instruments of power. Everything was done to ensure that the most basic network, the family unit, would continue into the next generation. The more families that could unify and collaborate to protect and to provide for each other, the better. As such, both hunting and gathering were group activities and carbohydrates, fats, and proteins were on the menu.
2. Cogency
A meat-based diet allowed humans to conserve more energy and obtain more nutrients than a plant-based diet, but if the proper strategy was not implemented, every chase could be quite exhausting – not to mention, unfulfilling. Hunting in groups proved to be an efficient strategy. Hungry humans could conserve even more energy by hunting in groups than testing their luck alone. The oldest known evidence for group hunting by the genus Homo (commonly known as humans) is located at Olduvai Gorge in what is now northern Tanzania. Recent analyses of that site by an international team of researchers show that ancient humans targeted the weakest animals in comparison to other predators. One study of the remains of the animals that these humans hunted revealed that they were different ages than the ones that lions or leopards attacked. They were usually younger, giving early humans better chances of making a kill. Hunting in groups was beneficial for the very same reason. Engaging the prey as a group would add a certain element of surprise to an attack and in this way, humans could counter their prey’s defenses more easily. The Hadza, who still inhabit this region today, are group hunters. Even in large numbers, they are satisfied with small game. This is necessarily so due to the scarcity of resources in an already shrinking landscape. Like the Dobe Kung people of Botswana, the Hadza fail to make a catch on more than half of their excursions into the African wild. The goal of each hunt then is simply to bring something home. For the Hadza, just about anything will do.
3. Convenience
With the rise of large-scale farming (in agrarian societies) and the domestication of animals (in pastoral societies), a group hunting strategy would have enabled early humans to catch young animals and to breed them in captivity. Thus, saving them even more energy, which could be devoted to other purposes. As these hunts supplied more food for the population, mothers could wean infants off of their breast milk much earlier. This enabled them to accommodate more births. Thus, group hunting led to a population increase. More people meant more workers in other areas of society, making the burdens of community maintenance lighter overall.
4. Competition
In addition to animals being utilized as a source of food, the hide and bones could be harvested for housing, clothing, weapons, and tools. All of these uses would ensure the longevity of the community. Therefore, hunters played a very central role in early communities and hunting was a way to earn respect. Like other mammals, humans developed their own ways of identifying those who were most fit to lead in their communities. Fighting was one way to establish dominance. Hunting was another. Those who were able to prove their skills in the hunt would be most worthy to benefit from its bounties. So hunters competed for bragging rights. In studies of traditional Maasai communities in Kenya, it is customary for the warrior who lands the first blow during the hunt to be granted a special place of honor in a grand ceremony upon their return. That adds a new meaning to the old saying to the victor goes the spoils.
5. Custom
Hunting as a group activity was a way to promote cooperation in other areas of early human societies. To understand this concept, we can look once more to cultures that still practice the ancient ways of group hunting in our modern era. For a long time, in traditional Maasai communities, it was considered a rite of passage for a boy to successfully bring down a lion. The male lion in his prime was known to be a fearsome creature. To subdue this beast was no simple task. It was considered to be a great accomplishment. So anyone who could do so was thought to be brave. When lions were in abundance, such hunts were usually carried out by one individual at a time and they often happened at random. According to the Maasai Association of Kenya, this ritual continues today as a way to instill in participants a sense of their responsibility to the community. However, in consideration of the decline of lion populations in Kenya, the Maasai now hunt lions primarily in groups. Group hunts are planned carefully so that only those who are to participate are made aware of the day when the hunting will commence. Those who reveal the details about the planned hunt are disciplined by other warriors. In this way, group hunting has served as a reinforcement of respect for community rules and customs, especially among the youth. The lessons learned during these hunts are applied in other areas of social life. Those who are identified as strong warriors on account of their prowess during the hunt are recognized as such by a special name and the use of that title continues long after the time that they receive it.
There’s so much that we can learn from the ways of our ancestors. Stone age hunting instilled lessons about the importance of unity and service that enabled us to survive as a species. These lessons, tested and tried over many millennia, are still valuable today. We need to comfort each other, as we work to protect and provide for our communities. We need to be thankful for even the small gains that we make as a people; they are stepping stones on the path towards the greater cogency that we seek. We need to be organized in order to make the best and most convenient use of our resources. We need to prepare our children for a cruel world of cut-throat competition and to reward them for their successes. We need to train our youth to respect the history and the customs of our people. That’s how we arrived. That’s how we will survive.
– Omri Coke, Black Researchers United Admin Team
I would like to thank our Facebook group member Dwayne Wimbley for his suggestion about how group hunting promoted the domestication of animals and the use of animal parts to make products that could be used for purposes other than food.
Read More from the books Meat-Eating and Human Evolution (2001) by Craig B. Stanford and Henry T. Bunn; Evolution of the Human Diet (2006) edited by Peter S. Ungar; Deconstructing Olduvai: A Taphonomic Study of the Bed I Sites (Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology) 2007 Edition by Manuel DomÃnguez-Rodrigo, Rebeca Barba, and Charles P. Egeland; and Stone Tools and Fossil Bones: Debates in the Archaeology of Human Origins, 1st Edition (2012) edited by Manuel DomÃnguez-Rodrigo.
