Justin - one thing you could do is to research the native peoples that used
to live in your area. For instance, if you live in California there is an
enormous amount of material which describes the lifeways of these stone age
h-g's.  Kroeber's book "Handbook of the Indians of California," for instance,
and Paul Campbell's book "Survival Skills of Native California" is another
fascinating read.

When you read these books, and read other books written at the turn of the
20th cent about these natives, you will begin to get a feel for their way of
life. The fact that they spent a lot of time socializing tells you that they
had very full lives. H-g gives you a lot of free time, surprisingly (see
other recent post on this).

Native peoples, and I mean most peoples who are not "sophisticated" by
western standards, have what we would describe as childlike outlook on life.
They seem to smile and laugh a lot, and play practical jokes on each other.
I've observed this on my travels in Africa, and Mexico, to some extent. We
live empty miserable lives by comparison.

As for actually trying to do it -- there was an attempt in France a few years
ago, I recall, where a group of young people did actually try to do this for
a year or so. I seem to remember they looked muddy, but if you do this in
Europe, that's what will happen! In California, it would be very pleasant,
particularly in the mountains of southern California. In fact, I am toying
with the idea of trying to construct an Indian village, and actually go
through the motions -- go hunting for quail and rabbits, and gathering
acorns, and telling stories around the campfire at night. Sounds ok to me!
(No toilet paper, though)

Of course there are modern day h-g's, such as the San of the Kalahari, the
Masai of Kenya still pretty much live this way (not h-g, but "primitive"),
Australian Aborigines still know how, some tribes in South America. I don't
think there is anything authentic in North America, but there is a great deal
of knowledge of how it used to be.

Charles