Thomas Bridgeland wrote:

> On Friday, November 18, 2005, at 06:42  AM, Tim Rowell wrote:
>
>>  Bottom line is foragers are often
>> in good shape and they look it. They sprint, jog, climb, carry, jump,
>> ect. all day long..."
>
> I saw that too. Very interesting in that it shows the outer limits of
> human ability. But I don't think it has much to say about how ancient
> paleo people usually lived. Modern hunter-gatherers are outlying groups
> forced to make do in the poorest environments. All the most productive
> lands on earth have been given over to agriculture. These are the same
> areas that would have been prime hunting grounds for paleo people. When
> humans were much more thinly spread out hunting etc would have been far
> easier and more productive, so those sorts of extreme activities would
> not have been necessary.
>

The Ache live in the rainforest of Eastern Paraguay.  Nothing marginal
about it in terms of flora and fauna (for a hunter gatherer).  Many of
the extant S.American hunter gatherers existed in this environment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Paraguay


> I would like to see the age breakdown for these hard-working foragers.
> My guess is that this is a young man's game, and that middle aged men
> have other jobs. A healthy and uninjured middle aged man can do this
> kind of work, but not if he has had any bad luck. Injuries build up
> over time, and healing is often less than perfect. Besides, young men
> enjoy proving themselves, showing off their hunting prowess for the
> girls. Older men have less need for that.


Age dependency of strength, skill, and hunting ability among the Ache of
Paraguay <http://www.unm.edu/%7Ekimhill/papers/walker2002a.pdf>
http://www.unm.edu/~kimhill/papers/walker2002a.pdf

Lots of good publications here:

http://www.unm.edu/~hebs/pubs_hill.html

Tim