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Mitchell's avatar

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.

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Patrick Wyman's avatar

That's so goddamned cool!

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Alain Chabot's avatar

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.

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Erik D Hilsinger's avatar

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.

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c1ue's avatar

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

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Mariolopez's avatar

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

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Erik D Hilsinger's avatar

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.

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Alan Ivar's avatar

Very carefully

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David Pinder's avatar

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.

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Kenna's avatar

lol ok buddy

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