 |
| Foraged apple and hazelnut muesli |
You have all heard of 'hunters' and 'gatherers'. It's often used to describe pre-agricultural societies- people who lived off the land. The hunters would head out with their bows and arrows and spears or whatever and try to catch some game. The gatherers would comb the woods for plants, fruit, and nuts. Lately I've been thinking that we still fit in these archetypes.
Hunters intersperse long periods of waiting with short periods of intense activity. Gatherers have a continuous low activity level.
If you're a modern 'hunter' you would, for example:
-reflect for a long time on a project for work, then pull everything off in one all-nighter
-prefer sports such as climbing, tennis, or martial arts
-eat large meals, but less often
-might think of life as a series of big important events with some in-between time
If you're a modern 'gatherer' you would:
-complete tasks at work by breaking them down into multiple sub-tasks and work on them one after another
-prefer sports like biking, hiking, swimming
-eat small amounts often
-might think of life as an agglomeration of tiny little happenings
Are you a hunter or a gatherer? I am clearly a gatherer. But lately I was wondering about the advantages of the hunter style. I watched a movie, The Snow Leopard, which showed the work of the nature photographer Vincent Munier: it's 99% waiting. The author Sylvain Tesson, who was part of the movie, wrote a book afterwards describing how he made peace with the idea of doing nothing (even at -40°C). And learning to be OK with doing nothing, like I wrote in my last post, is probably a good thing to learn in these hectic times.
The hunter waits, quietly, observing the area. She has to be still in order to see another animate life form. Her glance takes in the whole territory indiscriminately. She doesn't think about what she has to do next, because when the time comes, instinct will take over. The gatherer is constantly changing places, because plant life doesn't. She focuses only on the patch of ground at hand, identifying what is edible, deciding which direction to move. But she might miss out on important things happening because she is so concentrated on her own activity (this might be me)
But I'll leave that metaphor for now. More literally, a hunter eats meat, a gatherer eats plants (although hopefully everyone shares). This past autumn, we've been foraging for many things- apples, hazelnuts, chestnuts, and mushrooms. It is such a pleasure to nibble on something you've scrounged for yourself from the woods.
 |
| An ENORMOUS porcini |
 |
| Chestnuts roasting on an open fire... |
And we have also experimented with fasting. I have met multiple people who enjoy fasting. Well, I'm not sure if they actually enjoy it persay, but they are convinced enough of its benefits to want to do it multiple times. I was curious, and after reading some books from the library, Al and I decided to test. So after a couple of 'transition days', we had five days of liquids only: fruit juice, herbal tea, and vegetable bouillon.
Two things I learned: the cold can get to you much more than hunger, and 'gatherer' eating habits are not as compatible with fasting as 'hunter' eating habits. According to one book I read, we were supposedly supposed to detox, feel lighter, more clear-headed, and empowered. I didn't really feel any different or notice much change in the way my body operated, except for being intensely sensitive to cold. I didn't really suffer from hunger pangs or anything, but at the end of the five days, I felt like my internal furnace had shut down and my body was no longer producing heat for itself.
Reflecting back, it makes sense if we look at the different eating habits of the animal world: animals that eat meat tend to intersperse their meals with periods of fast, whereas herbivores are constantly grazing. So maybe humans that eat meat or lots of animal products would benefit from fasting, whereas humans with plant-based diets don't really benefit.
Also, maybe it wasn't that smart to test at the beginning of winter, the time when most animals are trying to fatten up! Obviously I wouldn't make a good polar bear.
I'll keep my squirrely habits instead. Where did those nuts go?
Comments
Post a Comment