The only way to get a true insight into the hunter gatherer way of life is to study those hunter gatherers that have somehow survived into the modern age. Admittedly there are very few true hunter gatherers left, due to the advances of modern industry and agriculture. The few that do remain are confined to a few forgotten corners of the world, in Australia and Africa they cling on to areas of land deemed unsuitable for farming or any permanent settlement. There are perhaps, a few thousand hanging on by a thread.

I wrote a hub exploring one of the last tribes in the world to live in complete ignorance of civilisation, the Sentinelese live on a small island in the Indian Ocean, and have done so for 60,000 years quite successfully. But I want to talk about another tribe that have managed to maintain a traditional existence despite the presence of civilisation close by. They are the Hadza, an extraordinary tribe that live in Tanzania, East Africa; they are the last tribe to live a traditional existence in the area that served as our evolutionary cradle. Until quite recently, the Hadza thrived in the forest surrounding Lake Eyasi in the Rift Valley, where they happily hunted wild game, gathered fruit and berries and moving from one place to the next. By 2006 however, their numbers had dwindled to less than 2000 and they had gradually been squeezed into a tight corridor of wilderness surrounded by ever encroaching farmers and settlements. The Hadza have absolutely no history of aggression, so rather than fight their corner, they retreated deeper into their forest home, hiding from the modern world as best they can.

The Hadza own nothing, and share everything. Recently, a member of the tribe was given employment as a guide showing giddy, curious tourists around the bush. Normally, somebody with a job keeps the majority of their wages; but on this occasion the guide shared all of his wages with the entire tribe. The Hadza’s lifestyle and culture is in stark contrast to a modern society, which is governed by law, order, administrators and rulers. The Hadza, instead rely on intelligence and cooperation, organising themselves into small and flexible groups. Relying on cooperation and flexibility is the key to why the Hadza have survived for so long, by owning nothing and maintaining a great amount of mobility they avoid the trappings that blight modern society.

Their language is one of the strangest you’ll ever hear, relying mostly on clicking, the vowels and consonants so familiar to us seem entirely absent from their language. Indeed some experts have postulated that their language may be similar to the ‘original’ language first spoken tens of thousands of years ago. The clicks are extremely effective during a hunt, because they allow complex information to be transmitted over considerable distances without having to resort to shouting and giving away their position.

More evidence of these remarkable peoples’ heritage comes in the form of genetic studies which show that their DNA is the most diverse of any human population yet studied. This greater diversity means that their bloodlines are extremely ancient, because genes differ from one generation to another at a constant and predictable rate. It seems that the Hadza split off from the rest of humanity early on in the history of Homo sapiens, meaning that they are the most ancient humans still alive today. It seems strange to think that every newborn Hadza is one of the youngest people on the planet, but also one of the oldest. However, it is very likely that these remarkable people and their extraordinary lineage will soon be lost, becoming merged with the encroaching modern world.

By studying the Hadza way of life, we gain an insight into just how efficient the Stone Age way of life was. Everybody in the tribe is involved in food production, they are all extremely mobile. There are no rulers or class of people that sit around waiting to be fed. They live without money, banks, loans, wages, accountants, lawyers, taxmen and merchants. There is no need for writing, electricity or any transport apart from their own two feet.

The Hadza have a knowledge of their environment that we find difficult to understand. Each one is an expert in what is edible and what is poisonous. They all carry knowledge on how to treat illnesses and other health complaints using only what nature has provided them in their forest home. This encyclopaedic knowledge has been passed down orally through the generations. The unschooled Hadza is initially perceived as ignorant, due to the lack of a modern education, but their extensive knowledge of herbal and plant remedies is sometimes greater than even the best pharmaceutical scientist.