Hunter Gatherers

Adam Haritan is the creator of Learn Your Land, a resource that helps people understand and connect with the place that they live. He teaches both online and in-person courses on subjects such as mushroom foraging, and plant identification. His educational videos are an excellent source of information for anyone wanting to learn more about the plants and fungi that inhabit the Eastern Woodlands of North America. In our conversation we touched on stinging nettle, hunting, nature connection and answered the important question "why did you cut your hair?"  LearnYouLand.com

Gordon Clarke, architect and creator of the popular youtube channel Nomad Architecture, joins us to talk about his experiences documenting the shelters and dwellings of nomadic peoples. Gordon has been to Siberia, the Congo rainforest, the Kalahari desert and other hard to reach places in search of exceedingly rare dwellings and the few people who still build and live in them. We highly recommend you watch some of his videos before or while listening to this podcast. Visit Gordon's website NOMADS.org to see the videos and learn more about his work. 

Vivek Venkataraman is an evolutionary biologist investigating the evolution of our human species. He is also co-founder and co-PI of the Orang Asli Health and Lifeways Project (OAHeLP). You can also see him host the Orang Asli Health and Well-being Webinar, which is archived on youtube. We speak about human adaptation to jungles, energetics, tree climbing and also how experiences with hunter gatherer people have influenced our lives. Vivekvenkataraman.com

Sophie Grig is a campaigner at Survival International, an organization that advocates for the rights of indigenous peoples. Her work has taken her to numerous indigenous communities in forests, tundras and also destroyed landscapes. She shares her insights about the disastrous effects of wildlife conservation, as carried out by large organizations such as the WWF, and forced state education programs of indigenous children. Sophie also shares some beautiful experiences of being in the forest with her Penan and Orang Rimba friends. To learn more about the campaigns to support indigenous peoples' rights and how you can contribute visit Survival International

Edith Mirante, author of THE WIND IN THE BAMBOO: Journeys in Search of Asia's 'Negrito' Indigenous Peoples, joined us to talk about her experiences visiting the various peoples who would become the subject of her book. She talks about problems of land theft and destruction and discrimination faced by theses peoples today. We also discuss the popular resistance to the recent coup in Myanmar. Edith regularly writes about Myanmar related issues and has written two more books BURMESE LOOKING GLASS and DOWN THE RAT HOLE. You can follow her on twitter @EdithMirante      

Aya Kawai, assistant professor at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, joins us to talk about the navigational system of the Batek of the Malaysian interior, who travel though jungles, mountains and river systems reliably without maps. We discuss the river centric nature of their wayfinding and also veer off on tangents of blowpipes, shelter making, durian, and Okinawan-Austronesian connections. 

Ivan Tacey, anthropologist and lecturer at the University of Plymouth, joins us again to talk about the interconnected relationships between animals, plants and humans that exist in forests and beyond. Ivan draws upon his experiences with the Batek people and with some PG13 language shares a fun creation story of theirs involving humans, a mouse deer, a frog and a lot of water. https://itacey.wixsite.com/website

Ivan Tacey, lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Plymouth, joins us to discuss conflict avoidance/resolution and religion. His research among the forest peoples of Peninsular Malaysia explores how political marginalization, rapid environmental change and historical conditions of subordination and violence have shaped changes and continuities in Batek and Manya' animistic practices and cosmologies. https://itacey.wixsite.com/website  

Elephants and humans have had interesting and mysterious relationships since prehistoric times. Once inhabiting every continent on Earth, except for Antarctica and Australia, today only two species remain and where ever they are to be found there exists conflict with humans. Teckwyn Lim discusses this topic looking at prehistoric times, recent history, and the present.

How does one define hunter gatherers? What are some commonalities between different hunter gatherer groups and how do they differ from settled peoples? Phil and Teckwyn discuss these questions and talk about their familiarity with a specific group of foragers.

We discuss how we became interested in hunter gatherers and why we chose to do a podcast about them.