10 Comments

Ayy that Dorset harpoon! I worked at Port au Choix National Historic Site on what we now call Newfoundland for 2 years! So I have a lot of experience showing those bad boys off and have worked with Tim Rast making stone blades in the traditional way! Super awesome to see them here.

Expand full comment

That's so goddamned cool!

Expand full comment

HBE as described in this episode is basically Optimal Foraging Theory, repackaged to give it a name applying only to humans. But it's not at all novel in Ecology.

Expand full comment

The problem is that OFT doesn't account for cognition and culture. OFT can provide a baseline accounting of a species on the landscape and has utility for that purpose; however, human behavior in every environment reflects non-optimal behaviors in the sense that OFT assumes a maximization of use in the manner of economic models of Rational Economic Man. Humans including in resource challenged environments make decisions not based on maximizing opportunity/calories per encounter. Inuit and Dene had strategies which risked individual well being to maintain values that reinforced group survival. Many simply assumed that there would be months where they starved, and lost members of their groups.

Thanks Linda Ellanna.

Expand full comment

Great article and thank you for cutting through the simplistic and the Rosseau-an nonsense.

Expand full comment

Wow,...How did they make rope out of sealskins?

Expand full comment

Skin the walrus, cure the hide, split it in half on the flat (like peeling apart two sheets of paper) then cut a spiral beginning in the approximate center of the hide half. Represents a significant investment in time, tools including consumable blades/cutting materials, and labor cost. Typically performed by women.

Expand full comment

Very carefully

Expand full comment

Nice fairy tale Pat. Man was created approximately 6,000, in the image of God. Of course you are free to believe in the religion of evolutionism. Free country, for now.

Expand full comment

lol ok buddy

Expand full comment