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Date: | Mon, 3 May 2004 19:09:32 +0200 |
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If you have an environment with a lot of large mammals it will give a hunter 10.000 to 15 000 or more kilocalories for one hours work. This applies for savannahs, semi-deserts, tropical rain forests, temperate forests and northern latitudes and it does not matter what tools the hunter uses. In poorer environments hunting for meat will still give between 2.500 and 6.000 kcals. Several tests have been conducted at such places. Nuts can be as rewarding and fish that you can catch by the thousands in a net. The most rewarding vegetables can give the forager 5.000 to 6.000 kcals/hour but generally veggies give a lot less. Small animals and birds give 500 to 1.500 kcals/hour and cereals give about 700 to 1.300 and isn't worth working for if you don't have a beak! Shellfish give 1.000 to 2,000 kcals.
Subsistence cultivators avarage 3.000 to 5.000 kcals/hour using metal tools. Not a very good return compared with hunting large mammals when those were abundant.
My source for these figures is the 3rd chapter of "Healts and the rise of civilization" by Mark Nathan Cohen.
Eva
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