Dear EarthTalk:

Are there humans on the planet today still living hunter-gatherer subsistence lifestyles? If so, how are they dealing with modern-day pollution or climate change?

P.K. via email

For the vast majority of human history, up until around 12,000 years ago, every human was a hunter-gatherer. As hunter-gatherers, humans lived with a subsistence lifestyle that relied on hunting, fishing and foraging for wild vegetation and other nutrients like honey for food. This lifestyle declined due to modern innovations and agricultural practices. Today, very few groups of hunter-gatherers exist, scattered around the globe, and all have been affected by modern-day issues.

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In Tanzania, the Hadza people are nomadic, making temporary huts and moving in accordance with local animals rather than creating permanent settlements. However, the animals and plants they need to survive, including cows and local herbs, have been disappearing rapidly, while much of their local forests have been burned to make space for crops or razed to create water holes for irrigation. In the last 50 years, the Hadza lost over 90 percent of their ancestral land to farmers and cattle herders. As Shani Msafin-Sigwaze, the first Hadza to attend university and the informal spokesperson for the group, said, “The Hadza are suffering much because the natural food is disappearing. Without the land, the Hadza will disappear.”

Similarly, the Arctic’s Inuit people face environmental issues. They have consistently adapted to difficult environments throughout history by wearing thick clothes and moving southward when ice caps melted. However, global warming has increased the rate at which ice caps are melting, forcing more frequent migration. Furthermore, the transition to modern life fostered frustration and depression, leading to alcoholism, suicide, violence, and delinquency for the first time in the group’s history. And Paraguay’s Ache people were forced to combat attempts to remove them from their ancestral homelands for other land to be developed. Similarly, the Pila Nguru of Australia faced encroaching farmlands, railways, and the use of their land for atomic testing.

Generally, hunter-gatherer groups are often threatened by pollution, climate change, deforestation and industrial projects. The presence of mineral resources and commercial land make these areas a hotspot for industry seeking to construct oil pipelines, dams or mining sites. In addition to industrial projects, the loss of biodiversity through deforestation and the subsequent extinction of animal species decreases food sources and the supply of traditional medicine. Citizens and governments must make efforts toward preserving the cultures and homelands of hunter-gatherer groups. The Brazilian government, for instance, is actively trying to protect lands from incursion and development in areas that hold uncontacted hunter-gatherers. Citizens can support such efforts by opposing the industrialization of untouched areas and advocating for policies that preserve ancestral lands.

CONTACTS

• Hunter-Gatherer Culture, https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/hunter-gatherer-culture.

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