For both types of groups-a pack of wolves or a hunter-gatherer family, it is extremely dangerous to meet a neighboring group while outnumbered and unprepared. Or did you picture an animal? Perhaps a wolf pack on route to their den, where pups safely awaited the adults’ return? Paws, fur, pricked ears, a shiny black nose. In this passage did you picture a hunter-gatherer family, traveling through the forest before encountering a neighboring tribe? Bare feet, nimble hands with strong thumbs, grasping a spear or a bow. The strangers look up from their attack, look directly at me. I stop and then run a few steps back toward her as she is slammed to the ground. I look over my shoulder and see they are nearly on top of her. Mother is ahead of us, sprinting, but sister turned the wrong way and is now surrounded by the strangers. ![]() I am immediately next to him but when we see two more strangers join the group father turns and I follow. Two, then three, at least five strangers burst through the trees. The scent hits me, father, and my sister only a second before we see them. At the same time my mother, leading the way, stops and looks intently the same direction. I hear a bird call off towards the thick trees, an alarm. Even though the sun is out, it is dark in the forest as we move quickly but silently heading towards home and the little ones waiting for us. Gray wolves still live this way: they cooperate in pursuit of food, they are social with their immediate family, but will aggressively defend themselves and their resources from strangers. ![]() Encountering a strange tribe was a tense affair and could even be deadly. It has been 10,000 years since humans commonly lived in hunter-gatherer societies, families of about 30 members, surviving by cooperating and protecting one another.
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