Reflective Tag
This was a very interesting lesson to me. I love history, I am a history major, so being able to incorporate my knowledge of humanities’ nomadic origins made this assignment stick out to me. These nomads truly give us a standard to at least strive for. Yes, our lives are much more convoluted and strange, but to at least try could not hurt. Would improving our society and simplifying lead to a happier society?
Modern day life, with its conveniences and advancements, is taken for granted by so many people around the world. Having a car, cell phone, even air conditioning are fairly recent developments in human history. For the majority of humanities existence, life was very simple, lived much as animals we observe today. There are, however, vestiges of early humanity around the globe. One of the most prominently studied, and intriguing glimpse into our roots is the Jo’hansi people of Africa, a nomadic, hunter-gatherer, and most intriguingly, egalitarian society.
These nomads live off of a standard hunter-gatherer mold, with the men mostly hunting, and bringing the band live game, while the women gather plants and care for the young. In a split from modern life, men helper found the camp, with cleaning, maintainece, and preparation. The women are the main bread winners, gathering over seventy percent of the food supply of the tribe, mainly Mondongo nuts. This turns modern society, and ideals, on its head.
As an egalitarian society, the band does not treat one sex or another as more elite. The Jo’hansi live lives focusing on survival. The only difference is that women have children, which gives them a power in their society. When the band has to split, to conserve the very limited water supply of the Kalahari Desert, the numbers are equal, usually splitting along nuclear family lines. Overall, our society should strive to copy the very close to perfectly equal society of the last nomads on earth.