ABSTRACT
Our hunter-gatherer ancestors were fit, active people who went around on foot. They frequently moved their camps to follow wild game or to take advantage of seasonally available plant food, and when they did, they generally had to carry everything they owned, sometimes for long distances and over difficult terrain. Even if they remained in one location, foraging for plants involved a lot of walking, carrying, cutting, and digging, while hunting and fishing required walking, running, throwing things, cutting up game and carrying prey back to camp. These were important kinds of work that our pre-agricultural ancestors performed, along with the making of clothing, tools, and personal possessions, caring for one another, preparing food and engaging in ritual and recreational activities. In most cases, they got a great deal of exercise. The most important aspect of their lives, however, in which overwhelming physical force might have been of greatest use-the capture and killing of prey animals-was usually accomplished not through raw power, but through ingenious technologies and learned hunting skills. These included cooperative hunting strategies, sharp points and cutting blades that could injure or kill animals without first physically over-powering them, and devices like traps, snares and weirs that could hold prey captive until hunters returned.
