{"id":7037,"date":"2023-09-09T17:51:17","date_gmt":"2023-09-09T21:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/simplestead.com\/?p=7037"},"modified":"2025-12-27T17:37:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T22:37:13","slug":"epicurean-life-summer-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/simplestead.com\/?p=7037","title":{"rendered":"Being Human: Living Like a Hunter and Gatherer at Home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

I’ve been reading a book called Being Human: Adventures in Forty Thousand Years of Consciousness<\/a> by Charles Foster<\/a>. And it has definitely had an impact on the way I interact with our landscape. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Being Human, the author and his son attempt to travel back in time by way of a thought experiment and lifestyle immersion. Their first journey is into the Upper Paleolithic period (about 35,000 to 40,000 years ago) to the era of the hunter-gatherers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the introduction, Foster says: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Hunter-gatherers were — and the few that survive often are — wanderers, reverently and often ecstatically connected to lots of land and many species… For most, settlement wasn’t an option, and even if it had been, it would have been unappealing. Why chew on rusk all your life when you can graze from a vast, succulent and ever-changing buffet? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This summer, I have journeyed in a similar fashion becoming something of a hunter-gatherer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n