> Joerg:
>>A clan with a high proportion of hunters roaming distant hunting >>grounds is likely to have a "trader" carrying sedentary provisions >>(spear shafts, blades, arrow shafts, textiles, gathering and >>agricultural products) to the hunters und taking their kills back to >>the clan - wandering from hunting camp to hunting camp.
> In some ways, this is completely alien to the hunting ethos,
> which is independence, few possessions, make it yourself,
> maximise all resources.
There's ethos, and then there is economic pressure.
These people don't come from a hunter-gatherer society, but from a society where possession to a considerable part defines status.
I was basing my comments on the Lapp hunters of northern Norway, who did trade their hunting surplus (not just furs, and also fishing surplus) for necessities like metal tools and other material not available in their environment. Even grain.
> A stead or market visit once a year, or a single seasonal
> trip to a hunting camp by traders or steadsfolk, would provide for
> those few necessities not available locally. And really, I'm hard
> pressed to think of more than few: bronze implements perhaps, and
> beer or mead. (That's probably the reason people founded r.w. towns
> in the first place).
Dairy products and grain - subsistence on rabbits gets you sick.
Timber needs seasoning. A good yew bow requires the staff to dry carefully over several seasons. Even arrow shafts require some seasoning. If your hunter has to feed more than just his hunting group and stay on the move, it helps to have the people you feed do this for you.
>>Just as likely, those distant parties will have permanently assigned >>carriers and preservers staying in the hunting camp, offering >>additional services like healing, repair...
> In a small camp, everyone will be a generalist. Specialists
> will tend to move from camp to camp: and they will move off
> the map fro periods as well. Folk don't hang round campfires
> waiting in case someone who might need healing.
Right. Heal, preserve, gather (both food and healing herbs).
Got to catch a bus now. More later.
> Haven't we been through all this before... in '96, '98, 2001 and
> 2003? :) No list reviews of either Champions or BOG yet (and yes,
I'm
> as lazy as anyone), yet we're resurrecting topics for the fifth or
sixth time.
> Such is <Gloranthan> life ... :)
Migration of herds in the pass is a new angle, I thought...
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