On Mon, 15 Nov 1999, Nicholas P. Schultz wrote:

> Also, I think that there is evidence of extensive use of other subsistence
> strategies for man during this time.  The idea here is that  if we were so
> successful at hunting would we need to make such use of other methods?  Why
> would we spend so much energy harvesting tine little seeds if we are so adept
> at felling large nutrient rich game?

Jared Diamond, in _The Third Chimpanzee_, argues that the Big
Game Hunter theme is overworked, at least in terms of man's
evolutionary history.  His argument, based in part on his
personal experience with modern HGs in New Guinea, is that even
though modern HGs have better weapons than were available to
paleolithic HGs, they are not particularly effective hunters.
That is, while they talk a lot about the big animals that they
hunt, their typical yield consists of small animals such as
turtles, rabbits, frogs, etc.  This is not to say that paleo
people did no hunting of megafauna, but I agree that the jury is
still out on whether this hunting was responsible for their
extinction.

Todd Moody
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