The And Of Southern Africa - 1095 Words

We live in an age where resources that are essential to our survival are not yielded from our immediate environment, but acquired through legal tender which we have earned through labor. This allows western societies to thrive in all types of natural habitat. Whether you live in Nevada, or Alaska, you can always walk into a local grocery store and purchase a carton of milk, despite the fact that neither is a good place to raise cattle. This kind of arrangement has simplified our lives to a certain extent, but it has also caused a disconnection between us and mother nature. For centuries, our ancestors’ survival was inorexably linked to their surrounding environment. Their survival depended on their ability to interpret and negotiate†¦show more content†¦Their survival and culture is linked in several ways. Sharing is a prominent part of their culture. They are aware that in order to survival in such a harsh environment they must look after each other and share their food equally. There is also no disparity among the sexes, because more often than not, it is the women who bring home the lion’s share of the food. The !Kung people are also keenly aware of the land’s need to regenerate, therefore they often move camp so as to not exhaust the land completely. Due to the need for these moves they have also downplayed materialism by not amassing personal effects and traveling light. These adaptations have proven to be essential to their survival in the Kalahari Desert. Elsewhere in the world, different strategies have to be developed to negotiate equally or more hostile landscapes. In the arctic tundra of the north, the Inuit people have found ingenious ways of parlaying with the land. Despite the bleak landscape, the Inuit is able to make the most out of even the most discerning environment. Since the icy tundra supports little to no vegetation, the inuit’s diet is solely dependent on game and fish. An average inui t’s diet ranges from fish, seal, to arctic foxes, and polar bears. None of which makes an easy catch, but they take what they’ve learned from their surrounding and what they have learned while observing the animals in it to succeed in catching all available food. They consume