Of the earliest social organizations that developed in the three ecological zones—the savanna, the steppe, and the forest/river—the steppe hunting societies left the strongest architectural traces, largely because of their need for sturdier habitations and also because the residues of their camps in the form of bones and tools are easier to locate archaeologically than sites in jungles or grasslands, where traces of human existence quickly disappear. Steppe society also left stronger evidence for burials. Among forest cultures, death was usually seen more informally, making it more difficult for archaeologists to access the inner workings of these early cultures. For that reason, anthropology, which studies living societies, can assist us just as much as archaeology in coming to terms with early human history. The First Societies that still exist today—some of which have already been mentioned—are, of course, only the leftovers. First Societies disappeared in Mesopotamia around 5000 bce, in Europe around 3000 bce, in China and India, maybe around 1000 bce. In the Americas, 90 percent of the population was wiped out by diseases in the sixteenth century,. First Societies that made it into today’s world are thus a rare breed. But they are not all gone, at least not yet.
This means that just as the archaeological record has to be understood as incomplete at best, so too should the anthropological gaze be taken somewhat cautiously.1 It is a fallacy to think that current cultural formations are identical with historical ones. For example, even in places where First Societies did survive, the supposition of continuity between the present and the past is often just a working hypothesis. Furthermore, those societies that survived into the present rarely arrived on the doorstep of modernity unchanged. Contact with agriculturalists, traders, armies, colonizers, missionaries, and even twentieth-century anthropologists must be factored in. Yet, surprisingly, a number of pre-agricultural societies have survived into modern times, giving us a partial picture of their life, culture, and architecture.
The names of these groups are significant, since, as we shall see, many mean the same thing: people. They see themselves not as “hunter-gatherers” and certainly not as “foragers”—an even more disparaging term often encountered in the literature—but as having a social cohesion that emanates from their tribe outward into the world. The indigenous name for a member of the Chukchi, who live in the far northeast of Russia, is, for example, Luoravetlan, which means “true person.” This is also the case with the Paiwan, the indigenous people of Taiwan. The Pacific Eskimos are actually called Sugpiaq, which means “real person.” In Paraguay the Ava-Chiripa call themselves Ava-Katu-Ete, meaning “the true men.”2 And the list goes on.
As the foregoing chapter hoped to show, we can difierentiate types of pre-agricultural societies based on difierent ecological circumstances. In some places by 8000 bce, these various cultures might be living in proximity to each other, creating blendings and overlappings. One should, however, not assume that one type of society was more “advanced” than the other.
1. Savanna and scrubland societies: Examples of residual populations today are the! Kung in southern Africa and the Australian aboriginal peoples; the Klamath, Shasta, and Modoc in North America belonged to this group until the nineteenth century.
2. Steppe and cold-weather hunting societies: Examples of residual populations today are the Sami in Sweden and Norway; the Kets and Nenets in Russia; the Inuits in Alaska; and the Tehuelche in Argentina (now extinct). The Plains Indians in the United States belonged to this group until the end of the nineteenth century.
3. Forest and river societies: Examples of residual populations today are the Bambuti in central Africa, the Andaman Islanders of India, the Batek in the Philippines, and the Nanai in Siberia. The Yu’pik in Alaska, the Nlaka’pamux of British Columbia, and the Northwest Indians in Canada belonged to this group until the nineteenth century.
World History
