On Wed, 30 Oct 2002 11:28:15 +0900, Tom <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Modern Papua is hardly an
>ideal place to analyze ancient food gathering habits. Most
>of the tribes there are firmly agricultural, so they have
>way overpopulated from the point of view of hunting game.

Or, it's more like this: a landscape like Papua Neuguinea
is just unsuited for population of paleo/humans who insist to
have a "game hunting point of view".

There were reports of western expeditions who ventured to enter into
the inner of the land. They thought they could live from the land
like in other landscapes by hunting with their rifles.
This was very successful in other places, because the game wasn't so shy
and could be killed on distance with rifles.
But even the best equipped  expeditions had to stop and turn around
after the food supply they brought with them was exhausted.
This land is just too harsh for hunters.
It needs the thorough knowledge of gatherers.

>Game, the big stuff that provides enough calories to support
>the population, ..

Could you mention *any* place on the world, where game is the
"big stuff that provides enough calories to support the population"?
Any place not in the arctis?
Maybe any place in Africa?

Do you think of the buffalo herds in north America and Buffalo Bill now?
They could grow so big because they were not at all endangered by hunting.
Later they enountered humans on horses (only the last few 100 years) and
with guns.
Sitting Bull and the buffalo season?
Hunted with bows, arrows, spears. And on horses.
Paleo humans didn't ride horses.
No way to get calories to support a population by waiting on foot that a
buffalo herd may pass along once a year.

Something else please.

>...hardly exists any more in Papua, and hasn't
>since the neolithic. Just like nearly everywhere else.

Could you name an animal of Papua Neuguinea that became extinct by hunting
since neolithicum? (of course old time extinctions were not neolithic who
didn't need it, but paleolithic).
In many areas hunting humans made some animal population extinct
like moas on Kiwi-Islands or apes on Madagaskar or possibly mammoths in
America. Or, nearly, whales on americas west coast.
Or, even the vast buffalo herds in America since new predators
entered - horse riding humans and humans with guns.

If a new predator manages to hunt very successfully on prey, then the prey
becomes extinct. After a short feasting time for the predator,
the predator gets into problems.
No real predator is able to endanger it's prey, they life in a balance.

Where is the african big game predating human?
Why do !Kung eat nuts instead of concentrating on the vast wild game herds?
Why did native americans (indians) eat maize, pumpkins, sunflower, beans
instead of concentrating on buffalo, deer, elks? Were they starving?
Wasn't there enough deer in the hunting grounds for all of them?
Or was it a less ideal food in some aspects (not only rabbit starvation).

Cheers,

Amadeus