BY MICHAEL FINKEL PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARTIN...

THEY GROW NO FOOORAISE NO LIVESTOCKAND LIVE WITHOUT RULES OR CALENDARSTHEY ARE LIVING AHUNTER-GATHERER EXISTENCE

THAT IS lITILE CHANGED FROM 10000 YEARS AGO WHAT DO THEY KNOW THAT WEVE FORGOTTEN

BY MICHAEL FINKEL

PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARTIN SCHOELLER

like his ancestors young Nija will grow up to roam

the wildlands around Lake Eyasl in northern Tanzania- il outside

pressures donl curlall his peoples freedom first

I

IM HUNGRY SAYS ONWAS SQUATTING BY HIS FIRE BLINKING PLACIDLY THROUGH THE SMOKE THE MEN BESIDE HIM MURMUR IN ASSENIITS LATE AT NIGHT DEEP IN THE EAST AFRICAN BUSH

Singing a rhythmic chant d rifts over from the womcn~ camp Onwas mentions a tree he spo tted during his daytime travels The men around the fi re push doser If is in a d iffi cult spot O nws exshyplains althe sum mit of a steep hill that rises from the grassy plain BUllhe tree he adds spreading his arms wide like branches is heavy with bashyboons nlCrC are more Illurmurs Embers lise to a sky infi nite with stars And then it is agreed Eve ryone stands and grabs his hunting bow

Onwas is an old man perhaps over 6O-ycars are not a u nit of time he uses- but thin and fi t in the Hadza way Hes maybl five feet ta ll Across his arm s and chest are the hieroglyphs of a life time in the hush scars from hunts scars from snakebiles scars from arrows and knives and scorpions and thorns Scars from fa lling out uf a baobab tree Scars from a leopard att ack Half hi s teeth remain He is wearin g t ire- tread sanda ls an d tattered brown short s A hun ting kn ife is strapped to his hip in a sheat h made of dik-dik hide I-Ies removed his shirl as have

most of the other men because he want s to blend into the night

Onwas looks at me and speaks for a few moments in his native language Hadza ne To my ea r if sounds strangely bipolar- lilting ltlnd genl le for a phrase or two then jarring and pershycussive with longue clicks and Slottic pops Its a language not closel rehlled to any other thai still ex ists to use the li nguists term an isolal e

I have arr ived in the Hadza homda nd in nort hern Tanzania gtIi lh an interpreterl HaJla WOll1aJl named Mariamu She is Onwass niece Shc attended school for II years and is one of only a handful of people in the world who can speak both English and Hadzane She i lllcrprtts

Onwass ~ords Do I want to come Merely selling this far to a traditional Hadza

encampmcnt is not an easy task Years arent the only unit of time fhe Hadza do not keep dose tnlck of-they also ignore hours and days and wee ks and months The Had7il language docsnmiddott have words fo r numbers past th ree or

Well past his prime as a hunter but in full flower as a storyteller Onwas is the father figure for one of the many groups of Hadza who st ili follow an ancient hunt er-gatherer li festyle

fou r Making an appointment ca n be a tricky matter But I had contacted the owner ofa tourmiddot ist camp 110t fa r outside the Badza territory to see ifhe could arrange for me to spen d time with a remote Had7lt1 group While on a camping trip in the bush the owner came across Onwas and asked him in Swahili if 1might visit The Hadz1 tend to be gregarious people and Onwas readily agreed He said ICi be the first foreigner evcr to live in his camp He promised to send his son to a particular tree at the edge of the bu sh to meet me when I was scheduled to arrive in three weeks

Sure enou gh three weeks later wh~ n my interpreter and I arrived b) Land Rover in the bush there wa s Onwass son Ngaola wliting for us Apparently Onwas had noted the stages of the moon and when he felt enough time had passed he sent his son 10 fhe tree asked Ngaola ifhed waited a long time for me No he said Only a few days

At first it was clear that everyone in campshyabout two dozen Hadzll ranging from infants to grand parenls- felt uncomfortable wi th m) presence There was a lot of stari ng some ncrmiddot vous laughs 1lt brought along a photo album and passing it around helped miligate the awkshywardness Onwas was inte rested in a picture of my cat How does it t aste~ he asked One photo captured cyeryones attention It was of me participating in a New Years Oa) polar bear swim leaping into a hole cut in a frozen lake Hadzil hunters ca tl seem fearless Onwas regmiddot ularly sneak s up on leopard s and races after giraffes But the idea of wi nter weather terri shyfied him He ra il around camp with the picture telli ng cYeryone 1 was a brave man and th is helped greatly with my acceptance A ma n who can leap into icc 011135 mu st have figured is certai nly a man whoCi have no trouble facing a wild baboon So on the third night of my stay he asks if I want to join the hunting trip

Ido I leavc Illy shirt on- my skin does not blend well with the night - and I foltow Onwas and ten other hunters and two younger boys out of ca mp in a si nglemiddot fi le line Walki ng

through Hadza country in the dark is challeng ing thornbusbes and spiked acacia trees domimiddot nate the terrain and even during the day there is no way to avoid bei ng jabbed and scratched and punctured A loog trek in the Hadza bush can feel like receiving a gradual full -body tattoo The Hadza spe nd a signifICa nt portion of their rest lime digging thorns out of one another with the tips of their knives

At night tbe thorn s are all but invisible and naviga tion seems impossible There arc no trails and few land marks To walk confidently in th e bush i n the dark without a flas hlight requi res the sort of fa miliarity one has with say ones own bedroom Except this is it thousand shysquare- mile bedroom with lions and leopards and hyenas prowling in the shadows

lo r Onwas such navigation is no problem He has lived all his life in the bush He can start a fire Iwirling a st ick between h is palms in less than 30 second s He can converse with a honeyguide hird whistling back and fort h and be led directly to a teem ing beehive He knows everything Ihere is to know aboullhe bush and virtually nothing of the land beyond One tim e I showed Onwas a map of the worl d I spread it open on the di rt and anchored the corners wit h stones A crowd gat hered Onwas stared I pointed out the co ntinent of Africa then the country of Ta nzania then the region where he Jived 1 showed him the United States

I asked him what he knew about America shythe name of the president the cap ital ci ty He said he knew noth ing He could not name the leader of his own country I asked him as politely as possible jfhe kllew anything about any counmiddot try He paused for a moment evidently deep in

Men butcher small antelope called dikmiddotdiks neM a hut in a traditional camp (top right) While men hunt

women crack baobab shens lor the tart flesh withIn Womens cont ributions 01 fruits and tubers are more

vital than game in the Hadza diet Several hundred oul 01 a total Hadza population of about a thousand

subsist almost exclusively on what they forage-despite long exposure to nearby agricultural societies

T H E H A LI ZA 103

WHAT THE HADlA APPEAR TO OFFER-AND WHY

THEY ARE OF GREAT INTEREST TO ANTHROPOLOGISTS-IS A

GLIMPSE OF WHAT LIFE MAY HAVE BEEN LIKE BEFORE THE BIRTH

OF AGRICULTURE

thought then suddenly shouted London~ He couldnt say precisely what London was He just knew it was someplace not in the bush

bDUl a thousand Hadza live in their tradi shy

Ational homeland a broad plain encompassshying shallow salty Lake Eyasi and sheltered by the ramparts of th e Great Rift Valley

Some have moved close to villages and taken jobs as farmhands or tour guides But approxi shymatclyoncmiddotquartcr of all Hlldza including those in Omasmiddots camp remainlruc hunter-gatherers They have no crops no livestock no permanent shelters lhey live just south of the same section of the valley in which some of the oldest foss il evidence of early humans has been found Geneshytic testing indicatcs that they may represellt one of the primary roo ts of the human fam ily tree shyperhaps more than 100000 years o ld

What the Hadza appear to offer- and why they arc of great interest tl) anthropologists- is a gl impse of what life lIlay have been like before lhe birth of agriculture 10000 years ago Anthromiddot pologists afE wary of vi eWing contemporary huntermiddotgatherers a ~ living fossilsraquo says frank Marlowe a Florida Slate Unive rsity professor of anthropology vho has spent the past 15 years st udying the Hadut T ime has not stood ~l ilI for them But they hl( maintained the ir foraging lifestyle in spitc of long exposu re to surround shying agriculturalist g roups mel says Ma dowe its possible that th ei r lives have changed vcry Httle over the ages

For more than 99 percent of the time sin ce

104 NATION Al (a (H RA I ll I f - ll llCfMliliR 2009

the genus flomo arose two million years ago everyone livedls hunter-gatherers Then once plants and animals were domesticated the dismiddot (Overy sparked a complete reorgani73tion of the globe Food production marched in lockstep with greater population densities which allowed fimll -based societies to displace or destroy huntermiddot gatherer groups Villages were formed the n cities then nations And in a relat ively brief pe riod the hunter-gatherer lifestyle was all but extingU ished Today only a handful of scattered peoples- some in the Amazon a couple in tbe Arctic a few in Papua New Guinea and a tiny number of African groups- maintain a primarily Imntergatherer existence Agricultures sudden rise however came with a price 11 introduced in fectio us-di sease epidemics social stra tifishycation intermittent famines and large middotscale war Jared D iamond the UCLA professor and writer has called the adoption of agrictliture noth ing less than the worSI mistake in human history- a mistake he Higgests from which we have never recovered

The Hadza do not engage in varfarelhyve never lived densely enough to be seriously threatened by an infectious outbreak Illey have no known history of famine rather

th e re is evidence of people fro m a farming group coming to live with them during a tillle of crop fa ilure nIe Hadza diet remai ns even today more stable and varied than that of most of the worlds citizens They enjoy an extraorshyd inar y amoun t of leis ure tim e Anthropolomiddot gists have estimated tbat they work - actively pursue food- four to six hours a day And over all these thousands of years theyve left hardly more than a footprin t on the land

Traditiona Hadza li ke Onwas and his camp mates live almost ent irely free of posseSSions Th e things they own - a cooki ng pot a water container an ax-can be wrapped in a blanshyket and carried over a shoulder Hadza women gather berries and baobab fruit and dig edible tubers Men collect hone) and hunt Nighttime bahoon stalkin g is a group affair conducted

SHIFTING GROUND The Hadza who once moved freely over 4ClOO-plus square miles of the Great Rift Valley are down to a quarter of their homeland as farms and livestock expand Some Tanzanians see the group as an embarrassment for a modernizing nallon

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only a ha ndful of times each year typically hunting is a solo pursui t TI1CY will cal almost anything they can kill from birds to wildebeest to lebras to bu ffalo They dine on wart hog and bu sh pig and hyrax TIley love baboon Onwas joked to me thaI a Hadza man cannot marry un til he has killed five baboons The ch icf exception is snakes The Hltldza hate snakes

The poison th t men smear on their arrowmiddot heads made o( the boiled sap o(the desert rose

Michael Fillkel rcporcd Oil sla11 ill Imiou esil ji)r 011r

October iss llte Award-whming photogmpller olart il1 Sch oeller is best hWWlI for his dQSe-14p pormits

is powerful enough to bring down a giraffe But it can not kill a full -grown elephant I( hunters come across a recently dead elephan t they will crawl inside and Clit out meat and organs and fat and cook them over a fire Sometimes rather than drag a lltlrge animal back to camp the entire camp will move to the carcass

Hadza camps are loose affi liations of relashytives and in-laws and friends Each cam p has a few core members-On wass IwO sons G iga and Ngaola are o h en with him - but most ot hers come and go as they please The Hadza recognize no officia l leaders Camps are trashyd itionally named af le r a senior male hellce

Til IIAO Z l OS

- Today

bull Agricultural eocroacllmet1t

Major Hadz regHJrl shy0 e I 0 0

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Onwass camp) bUl lhis hono r docs not confer any particular power Individual autonomy is the hallmark of the Hadza No HadLa adult has authority over any other Nonc has morc wealth or ralher they all havc no wealth There are few social obligations - no birthdays no religious holidays no anniversaries

People sleep whe never they want Some stay up much of the night and doze during the heat of the day Dawn and dusk are the prime hu nt shying times otherwise the Illen ofte n hang out in camp straightening arrow shafts whiUling bows making bowstrings out of the ligaments o f giraffes or impalas ham mering nails into arrow shyheads They trade honey for the nails a nd for colorful plastic and glass beads that the women fa shion into necklaces If a man rcceives one as a gift its a good sign he has a female adm irer

l -here are no wedding ceremonies A couple that sleeps at the same fire for a vhile ma)evcnshytually refer to themselves as married Most of the Had7a Illlet men and women alike were serial monogamists changing spo uses every few years Onwas is an exception he and his wife Mille have been with each other all their adult lives and they have seven living children and several g randchildre n Il1ere was a bevy of chi ldren in the Gunp with the resident grandmother a ti ny chcerfullady named Nsalu nUllling a sort of day care while the adults were in the bush Except fo r breast-feeding infan ts it was hard to determine wh ich kids belonged to which parents

Gend er ro les arc disHne t bu t for wom en there is none of the forced subservience kni t into Illany other cultures A significant number of Had7a women who m arry alit of Ihe group soon return unwilling to accept bullying treat shyment Among the Hadzltl wome n are frequently the ones who in itiate a breakup- woe to the man who proves himsclfan incompetent hun ter o r treals his wife poorly In Onwass camp some of the loudest brashest members were women

O ne in pa rt icu lar Nduku appointed herself my language teacher and spent a good percentage of every lesson teasi ng me mercilessly often rolling around in laugh ter as I fail ed miserably at reproducing the distinct tongue-tricky d icks

O llra s knows of a bout 20 Hadza groups roaming the bush in h is area constantly swapshyping members like a giant square dance Most conflicts are resolved by the feuding parties simshyply separating into different camps If a hunter brings home a kill it is shared by everyone in Ilis camp This is why the camp size is usually no more than 30 people- thats the largest number who can share a good-size game animal or two and feel decently sated

I was there during the six -month dry season May through October when the Hadza sleep in Ihe open wrapped in a thin bla nket beside a campfire- two to six people at each hearth eight or nine fires spread in a wide se micircle fronting a brush -slept com mon area The ~leep groupings were various (amilies si ngle men young women (with an older woman as minder) couples During the rain) season they construct litt le domed shelters made of inter woven twigs and long grasses basically upside-down birds nests To build one takes no more than an hour [hey m ove camp roughly Ollce a month when the be rries run low or the hun ting becom es tough or theres a severe sickness or death

No one sleeps alo ne in Onwass camp He assigned his son Ngaola the one who had wailed a few days by th e tree 10 s lay with me and Ngaola recruited his friend Maduru 10 join us The three of us slept in a tr iangle head to toe to head aro und our fire though when the mosquishytoes were fierce I slept in my tent

Ngaola is qui et aod int ro spec ti ve and a really poor hunter Hes about 30 years old and still unmarried bedeviled perhaps by the fiveshybaboon rule It pai ns him that bis older brother Giga is probab ly the most skilled archer in

Hadza women such as Samay are Independent and powerful free to marry or divorce at will Scars on her cheeks may be from childhood cuts meant to curb crying-tears make cuts sting

Following pages As Neolo (tett) and his sister Sangu grow up they will shoulder mOte adult duties

o6

flood of people into Hada lands 1he fac t that the Hadza arc such gentle stewards of the land has in a way hurt them-the region has gen shyerally bee_n viewed by outsiders as empty and unused a place sorely in need of devcopment The Had7a who by nature are not a combative people have almost always moved away rather than fight But now there is nowhere to retreat

There arc currently cattle herders in the Hadza bush and goal herde rs and onion farmers and corn growers and sport hunters and gltlme poachers Water holes ltlre fouled by cow excreshyment Vegetation is trampled beneath catt les hooves Brush is cleared 10 make way for crops scarce water is used to irrigate them Game anishymals have migraled to national parks where the Hadta can follow Berry groves and trees that attract bees have been destroyed Over the past century the Hadza have lost exclusive possesshysion of as much as 90 percent of their homeland

None of the other ethnic groups livi ng in the area-the Datoga the Iraqw the Isanzu the Sushykuma the Immba- are hunter-gatherers They live in mud huts often surrounded by livestock enclosures Ma ny o f them look down on the Hadla and view thelll with a mix of pity and disgust the untouchables of Tanzania I once watched as a Datoga tribesman prevented several Hadza women from approaching a communal water hole until his cows had finished drinking

Dirt roads are now carved in to the edges of the Hadza busb A paved road is within a four shyday walk From many high points there is decent cell phone recepcion Most Had za including Onw3s have learned to spea k some Swa hili ill order to communicate with other groups I was asked by a few of the younger Hadza hunt shyers if I could give them gun to make it easier to harvest game Onwas hi mself though hes scarcely ventu red beyond the periphery of the bush senses that profound changes arc comshying 1his docs not appear to bother him Onwas as he repeatedly told me doesnt worry about the fu ture He doesnt worry about anythi ng No Hadza ) met in lact seemed prone to worshyry II was a mi nd-sel that astounded me for the Hadza to my way of thinking have very

112 --AT10NAL GI()CRAP HIC - n(CEMllBR l009

legiti mate worries Willi eal fomorrow Will so mething eat me tomorrow Yet they live a rema rkably present-tense existence

This may be one reason farming has never appealed to the Hadza-growing crops requires plan ning seeds are sown now fo r plants that wont be edible for mont hs Domestic animals must be fed and protected long before theyre ready to butcher To a Hadza this makes no se nse Why grow food or rea r an imals when its being done for you naturally in the bush When they want berries they walk to a berry shrub When they desire baobab fruit they visit a baobab tree Hon ey waits for them in wild hives And they keep their meat in the biggest storehouse ill the world- their land All thats reshyquired is a bit of stalking and a well-shot arrow

The re are other people however who do ponder the Had7 ls future Officials in the Ta nshyza nian government for sta rters Tan zania is a future-oriented nation anxious to merge into the slipstream of the global economy Baboonshyhunting bushmen is not an image many of the countrys leaders wish to project One lllini ster has referred to the Hadza as backward Tanza shynias president Jakara Kikwete has said that the Hadza ~ have to be transformed The govern shyment wants them schooled and housed and set to work at proper jobs

Eve n the one Hadza who has become the groups de facto spokesperson a man nam ed Ricbard Baa[ow generally agrees with the govshyern ments aim s Raalow who adopted a non shyHadza fir st name was one of the first Hadza to attend school In the 1960s his family lived in government-built hOUSi ng- an atte mpt at sell ling the Hadzl that soon failed Baalow 53 speaks excellent English He wants the Had za to become politically active to fight fo r legal prot ec tion of their land and to see k jobs as hunting guides or park rangers He encourages Hadza children to attend the regional primary school that provides room aJld board to Hadza students during the academic year then escorts them back to the bush when school is out

1he school-age kids I spoke with in Onwass group all said they had no interest in si tting in

camp Mad uru is II solid ou tdoors ma n an especially good honey finder but something of a Hadza mi sfit Wben a natural snakebite remmiddot edy was passed arou nd camp Maduru was left ont of the distribution This upset him great ly and Onwas had to spend an bour beside him an arm slung avuncula rly over h is shoulder calming him down

Maduru is the one wbo assumes responmiddot sibil ity for me duri ng the nightt ime bab oo n qu es t As we move th rou gh the bush he snltl p ~ off eyemiddot level acacia

branches with thorns the size of toot hpicks and repeated ly checks to make sure Im keeping pace Onwas leads us to the hill where hed seen the tree full of baboons

Here we stop There a re hand signals some d ipped chatter Im unsure of what is going onshymy translator has remai ned back at camp The hunt is only fo r men But Maduru taps me on Ihe shoulder and mot ions for me to fo llow Th e other hunters begin fanning out around the base of the hiU and 1 tail Maduru as be plunges into the brush and start s to cli mb middotn le slope seems practically vertical- hands are requ ired to haul you rself up- and the th ickets are as dense as Brillo pads Thorns slice into my hands m face A trickle of blood oozes into my eye We climb I follow Maduru d osely I do not want to become separated

Finally 1 understand We are cli mbing up from all sides toward the lgtaboons We are tryshying to starlle them to make them run From the baboons perch atop lhe hill there is no place to go but down Th e Hadza bave encircled the hill therefore the baboons wiU be running toward the hunters Possibly toward Maduru and me

Have you ever see n a baboon up close They have teeth designed for ripping flesh An adult male can weigh more than 80 pounds And here we are marching upward purposely trying to

provoke them The Hadza arc armed with bows and arrows 1 have a pocketknife

We move higher Maduru and 1break out of the undergrowth and onto the rocks I feet as though Ive emerged fro m beneath a blanket There is a sickJe of moon a brCCte We are near the summit- Ihe top is just over a stack ofboulshyders maybe 20 feet above our head lbe baboon tree is up there barely out of eyesight

Then I hear it- a crazed screeching sound lbe baboons are aware that someth ing is amiss The sound is piercing panicked I do not spea k baboon but it is not difficult to interpret Go away Do not come closer But Maduru clambers fa rther up onto a flat rock I fo llow The baboons are surrou nded and they seem 10 sense it

Abruptly theres a new sound middot11e crack of branches snapping overhead The baboons a re descendi ng shrieking Madu ru freezes drops to one knee slides an arrow into pOSition pulls back Ihe bowstring He is read y Im hiding behind him 1 hope I fe rvently hope that no baboons rLin at us I reach into my pocket pull out my knife unfold it The blade is maybe two inches lon g It feels ridiculoll s but that is wiull J do

The screeching intensifies And then di rectly over LI S in stark silhouette againsllhe backdrop of stars is a baboon Scrambling Moving along the rocks lip Madur u stands takes aim trackshying the baboon from left to right the arrow slotshyted the bowslring at maximum stretch Every muscle in my body tenses My head pulses with panic I grip my knife

The chief reason the Hadza have been able to maintain th eir lifestyle so long is that thei r homeland has never been an inviting place The soil is briny fresh wal er is scarce the

bugs can be intolerable For tens of thousa nds of years it seems no one else wanted to live here So the Had7a were left alone Recently however escalating population pressures have brought a

A rugged life in the bush shows on the face of Mokoa a ski lled hunter The striking genet-tail headdress

could be a flourish to Impress outsiders or it may be a local fad-Hadza arenmiddot immune to fashion

TIl H IH 1 11

a classroom If they went to sc hool many told me theyd never mas ter the skills needed for surviyal Theyd be outcasts among their own people And ifthey tr ied thei r luck in the mod shyern wo rld - what the n The women perhaps could become maids the men men ial laborers Its fa r better they said to be free and fed in the bush than destitute and hungry in the city

More Had73 haye moved to the traditionally Hadza area of Mangola at the edge of the bush where in exchange fo r money they demonstrate their hu nting skills to tourists These Hadza have proved that their culture is of significant interest to outsiders and a potent ial source of income Yet among the Hadza of Mangola there has also been a surge in alcoholism an outbreak of tuberculosis and a distressing rise in domesshytic violence including at least o ne report of a Hadza man who beat his wife to death

Though the youngsters in Onwass group show little interest in the outs ide world the world is comi ng to them After two mill io n years the age of the hunter-gatherer is oyer The Hadza may hold on to tbeir language they may demshyonstrate their abilities to tourists But its only a matter of time before there are no more tradi shytional Hadza scrambling in the hills with their bows and arrows stalking baboons

Upon th e hill Onwas has led us to clutchshying my kn ife I cro uch beh ind Maduru as the baboon moves along a fin If rock And then abruptly the baboon stops He

swivels his head He is so close we could reach out to each ot her and make contact I stare into his eyes too frightened to even blink lNs lasts maybe a second Madllru doesnt shoot possibly because the animal is too close and could atlack us if wounded- its oft en the poi son Iot the arrow that kills An instant la ter the baboon leaps away into the bllshes

There is silence for a couple of hell rt beats Then I hear frantic yelping and crash ing Its coming from the fa r side of the rock and 1 cant tell if it is human or baboon It s both We thrash through bushes half-tumbli ng ha lf -runn ing

EVER SEEN ABABOON UP CLOSE THEIR TEETH ARE DESIGNED FOR RIPPING FLESH

AND WE ARE PROVOKING THEM THE HADlA ARE ARMED WITH

BOWS AND ARROWS IHAVE APOCKETKNIFE

until we reach a clearing amid a copse ofacacias And there it is the baboon On his back mouth

open limbs splayed Shot by Giga A Iludge with a toe confirms it- dead Maduru whistles and shoulS and soon the other hunters arrive Onwas kneels and pulls the arrow out of the baboons shoulder and hands it back to Giga lhe men stand around the baboon in a ci rcle examinshying the kill There is no ceremony The Hadza are not big on ritual TIlere is nol much room in their lives it seems for mysticism for spiri ts for pondering the unknown There is no speshycific belief in an afterlife- eyery Hadza I spoke with said he had no idea what might happen after he died there are no Hadza priests or shashymans or medicine men Missionaries have proshyduced few converts lance asked Onwas to tell me about God and he said that God was blind shyingly bright extremely powerful and essential (or all life God he told me was the sun

The most impo rt ant Hadza r itua l is the epeme dance which takes place on moonless nights Men and women divide into separate groups TIle wo men sing wh ile the men one at a time don a feat hered headdress and t ie bells around their ankles and stfllt abOlll stomping their right foot in time wilh the sing ing Supshyposed ly on epeme nights ancestors emerge from the bush and join the dancing One night when I watched the epeme rspotted a tee nOlge boy Mataiyo sneak into the bush with a young woma n Othe r men fell asleep after their turn danci ng Like almost eve ry aspect of Hadza li fe the ceremony was informal with a strictly ind ividual choice of how deeply to participate

C H I H A D Z A II I

A hunting party tracKS a warthog thaIs been sholscouting the blood trail using sKills passed down

through genera tions Here near the edge of the Serengeti P~ln Hadza hunters also take bigger game such

as glralfe The successful bowman Garach (at right) will share much of the warthog mea

4

With the Hadz god not due to r ise for sc shyeral hours Giga grabs the baboon by a rea r paw and drags the animal through the bush back 10

camp TIle baboon is deposited by Onwass fi re while Giga sits quietly aside with the other men It is I-fadra custom that the hunter whos made the ki ll docs not show off There is a good deal of luck in hunting and even the best archers will occasionally face a long dry spell Thi s is vby th e Badza share th eir meat communally

Onwass wift Mi lle is the firs t to wake Shes wearing her only set of clothes a slee veless T-shi rt and a flower -patterned cloth wrapped about her like a toga She sees the baboon and with the merest sign of pleasure a brief nod of her chin she stokes the fire Its time to cook The rest of camp is soon awake- everyone is hungryshyand NgaoJa skins the baboon and stakes out the pelt with sharpened twigs The skin will be dry in a few days and will make a fine sleepin g mat A couple of m en butcher th e ani mal and cuts of meat are distributed Onwas as camp cider is handed the greatest delicacy the head

Ihe Hadza cooking style is simple-the meat is p laced directly on the fire No gr ill no pan Had711 mealtime is no t an occasion lar politeshyness Personal space is generally no recogni7l(I no matter how packed it is a round a fiee there always room for onc more ce n if you end up 011 somcones lap Once a Cli t of meat has finshyished cooking anyone can grab a bi te

And J m ea n g rab When the meat is re ady knives ltIre unsheathed and the frenzy begins There is grasping and slicing and chewing md pulling The idea is to Illg at a hun k of meat with your tee lh then use your knife to slice away your share ElbOWing and shoving is standard beh avior Bones are smashed wilh rocks and the marrow sucked Olll G rease is rubbed on the ski n as a sort of moistu rizer No one speaks a word but th e smacking oflips and gnash ing of teet h i~ almost comically loud

Im ravenous so I dive into the sc rum and snatch up som e meat Baboon steak 1 have to say isnt terr ible - a tOllch gamy but its been a fe w days since Jve eaten protein and I ca n feel my body perking up with every bite Pure

TIt H Z li S

IENVY HOW FREE THE HADlA APPEAR TO BE

FREE FROM POSSESSIONS AND MOST SOCIAL DUTIES

FREE FROM SCHEDULESJOBS BOSSES LAWS NEWSMONEY

FREE FROM WORRY

fat rather than meal is what the Hadza crave though most coveted arc the baboons paw pads J snag a bit of one and pop it in my mouth but its like trying 10 sIllow a penci l eraser When J sp it the go b of paw pad oul a youn g boy instantly picks it up and swallows it

Onwas with the baboons head is comfort shyably above the fray He sits cross-legged at his fire and eats the checks the eyeballs the neck meat and the forehead skin using the soles of his sandals as a cutting board He gnaws the skull clean to th e bone thcn plunges it into the fire and call s me and the hun ters over for a smoke

rt is impossible to overstate just how much Onwas- and most Hldza- Iove to smoke The four possessions every Hdza man owns are a bow some rrows a knife and a pipe mad e from a ho llowed-out soft stone TIle smoking material tobacco or cannabis is acquired fro m a neighboring group us uall y the Datoga in exchange for honey Onwas has a smaU amount of tobacco which is tied into a ball inside his shirttail He retrieves it stuffs it all into his pipe and lhen holdi ng the pipe vertically plucks an ember fro m the fire and places it atop his pipe Pulsing his cheeks in aud out like a bellows he inhales the greatest quanti ty of smoke he posshysibly can He passes the pipe to Giga

Then the fun begins Onwas starts to cough

slowl y at first then rapidly then uncolll rolla shybly with tears bursting from his eyes then with palms pushing against his head and then fi nally rolling onto his back spitting and gasping for air In the meantime Giga has begun a sim ishylar hacking session and has passed the pipe to Maduru who then passes the pipe to me Soon all of us the whole circle of men a rc hacking and crying and rolling on our backs The smoke session ends when the last man sits up gr in shyning and brushes the dirt from his hair

With the baboon skull still in the fi re Onwas rises to his feet and claps his hands and begins to speak Its a giraffe-hunting story- Onwass favorite kind I know this even though Mariamu my translator is not next to me I know because Onwas like many Hadza is a story performer There are no televisions or board games or books in Onwass camp But there is enterta in shyment The women sing songs And the men tell campfire stories the Kabuki of the bush

Onwas elongates his neck and moves around on all [ours when hes paring the part of the giraffe He jumps and ducks and pantomimes shooting a bow when hes illustrating his own role Arrows whoosh Beasts roar Children run to the fire and stand around listening intently this is their schooling The story ends with a dead giraffe-and as a finale a call and response

Am I a man asks Onwas holding out his hands

Yes shouts the group Yo u are a man Am 1 a man asks Onwas again louder Yes shouts the group their voices also

louder You are a man O nwas then reaches into the fire and pulls

out the skull He hacks it open like a coconut exposjng the brains which have been boili ng fo r a good hour ins ide the sku ll They look li ke ramen noodles yellow ish wh ite light ly steaming He holds the skull out and the men

Baboon hunters (top right) team up 10 haul quarry back to camp at sunrise Arrows tipped with

poison from desert rose plants help bring down prey TIssue near wounds is excised so diners don

ingest the toxin The arrival of meat in camp may spur a line dance (bottom right) but Ihe Hadza also dance deep in the night as a ritual or at any hour tOl sheer pleasure

With the Hadta god not due to r ise for sevshyeral hours Giga grabs the baboon by a rear P1W

and drags the animal through the bush back to camp The baboon is deposi ted by Onwass fire while Giga sits quietly aside with the other men It is Hadza custom th at the hunter whos made the kill does Dot show ofT There is a good deal ofluck in hu nt ing and even the best archers will occasionally face a long dry spell This is why the Hadza share their meat com munally

Onwass wife Mille is the first to wake Shes weari ng her o nly set of clothes a sleeveles~ T-shirt and a flower-patterned cloth wrapped about her like a toga She sees the baboon and with the merest sign of pleasure a brief nod ofher chin she Slakes the fire II s time to cook The rC$t of camp is soon awake- everyone is hungryshyand Ngaola skins the baboon and stakes out the pdt with sharpened twigs The skin will be df in a few days and will make a fi ne sleeping mat A co uple of men butcher the an imal and cuts of meat are distributed Onwas as camp elder is handed the greatest delicacy the head

The Hacl7a cooking style is simple- the meat is placed directly on the fi re No grill no pan Hadza mealtimc is not an occasion for politemiddot ness Personal space is generally not recogniud no matter how packed it is around a fire theres always room for one more even if yo u end up on someoncs lap Once a cut of meat has fi04 ished cooki ng anyone ca n grab a bitt

And 1 mean grab When the meat is ready kn ives are unsheathed and the frenzy begins There is grasping and slici ng and chewing and pulling fhe idea is to IlIg al a hunk of meat with your teeth th en use you r kn ife to slice away your share Elhowing and shovin g is standard behavior Bones are smashed with rocks nd th e marrow sucked out Grease is rubbed on the skin as a sort of moisturizer No one speaks a word but the $macking ofli ps and gnashing of teeth is almost comically loud

Im ravenous so 1 dive in to the serum and snatch up some meat Baboon steak l have to say isnt terrible- a touch gamy but its been a few days since Ive ea ten protein and r can feel my body perking up with every bite Pure

THEU AI)1A tt S

including myself surge forward and st ick ou r fi ngers inside the skull and scoop up a handful of brains and slurp them don With this the night at last comes to an end

The baboon hunt it seems was something of an in itiat ion for me The next day Nyudu hacks down a thick branch from a mUlateko tree then carefu lly carves (I

bow for me long and gracehlily curved Several other mell make me arrows Onwas presents me with a pipe Nklliu handles my shooting lessons J begin to carry my bow and arrows md pipe with me wherever I go (along with my watershypurification kit my su nsc reen my bug spray and my eyeglass-cleaning cloth)

I am al so invited to bat he with the me n We walk to a shallow muddy hole- more of a large puddle with lumps of cow manure bohshybing about - and remove our clothes Hand shyfuls of mud are rubbed aga inst the sk in as an exfoliant and we splash ourselves clean While Hadza have a word for body odor the men tell me that they prefer their wornen not to batheshythe longer they go between baths they say the more attractive they arc Nduku my Hadza lan shyguage teacher sltlid she sometimes waits months between baths though she cant understand why her husband wants her tbat way I also discover by listening to Mille and Onw3s that bickering with ones spouse is probably a un ive rsa l human trail Isnt it your turn to fetch water HWhy arc you napping instead of hunting Can you explain why the last animal brought to ca mp was skinned so poorly It occu rs to me that these same arguments in this same valley have been taking place for thousands of years

There are things I envy about th e Hadza - mostly how free they appear to be Free from possessions Free of mOSI social duties Free frOIll religious strictures Free of1l111ny family remiddot sponsibilities Free (rom sched ules jobs bosses

bills traffIC taxes laws news and money Free from worry Free to burp and art without apolshyogy to grab food and smoke and run shirtless through the thorns

But I could never live like the Hadza llleir ent ire life it appears to me is one insanely committed camping trip Its incredibly risky Medical help is far away One bad fall from a tree one bite from a black mamba snake one lunge from a lion and youre dead Women give birth in the bush sq uatting About a fift h of all babies die withi n their first year and nearly half of all children do no t make it to age 15 They have to cope with extreme heat aud frequen t thirst and swarming tsetse flies and malaria shylaced mosquitoes

The days I spent with the Hadza altered my perception of the world They instilled in me something I call the Had13 effect - they made me feel calmer more attuned to the momen t more self-sufficient a little braver and in less of a constant rush I dont care if this sounds maudli n My lime with the Had za made me happier It made me wish th ere was some way to prolong the reign of th e hunter-gatherers though I know ifs almost certainly too late

It was my body more than anything that let me know it was time to leave the bush I was bitshyten and bruised and sunburned and stomach shyachy and exhausted So after two weeks I told everyone in camp I had to go

There was li ttle reaction The Hadz3 are not sent ime ntal like that Ihey dont do ex tended goodbyes Even when one of their own d ies there is not a lot of fllss They dig a hole and place the body inside A generation ago they did nt even do that- they simply left a body out on the ground to be eaten by hyenas Jllere is sti ll no Hadza grave marker There is no funeral Theres no service at all of any sort This could be a person they had lived with their entire life Yet they just toss a few dry twigs on top of the grave And they walk away 0

Holo Onwass daughter will raise her own l ive children in intimate touch with the land that supports them

CUriously indifferent to most vestiges 01 modernity the Hadza continue to survive on their own terms

s

IM HUNGRY SAYS ONWAS SQUATTING BY HIS FIRE BLINKING PLACIDLY THROUGH THE SMOKE THE MEN BESIDE HIM MURMUR IN ASSENIITS LATE AT NIGHT DEEP IN THE EAST AFRICAN BUSH

Singing a rhythmic chant d rifts over from the womcn~ camp Onwas mentions a tree he spo tted during his daytime travels The men around the fi re push doser If is in a d iffi cult spot O nws exshyplains althe sum mit of a steep hill that rises from the grassy plain BUllhe tree he adds spreading his arms wide like branches is heavy with bashyboons nlCrC are more Illurmurs Embers lise to a sky infi nite with stars And then it is agreed Eve ryone stands and grabs his hunting bow

Onwas is an old man perhaps over 6O-ycars are not a u nit of time he uses- but thin and fi t in the Hadza way Hes maybl five feet ta ll Across his arm s and chest are the hieroglyphs of a life time in the hush scars from hunts scars from snakebiles scars from arrows and knives and scorpions and thorns Scars from fa lling out uf a baobab tree Scars from a leopard att ack Half hi s teeth remain He is wearin g t ire- tread sanda ls an d tattered brown short s A hun ting kn ife is strapped to his hip in a sheat h made of dik-dik hide I-Ies removed his shirl as have

most of the other men because he want s to blend into the night

Onwas looks at me and speaks for a few moments in his native language Hadza ne To my ea r if sounds strangely bipolar- lilting ltlnd genl le for a phrase or two then jarring and pershycussive with longue clicks and Slottic pops Its a language not closel rehlled to any other thai still ex ists to use the li nguists term an isolal e

I have arr ived in the Hadza homda nd in nort hern Tanzania gtIi lh an interpreterl HaJla WOll1aJl named Mariamu She is Onwass niece Shc attended school for II years and is one of only a handful of people in the world who can speak both English and Hadzane She i lllcrprtts

Onwass ~ords Do I want to come Merely selling this far to a traditional Hadza

encampmcnt is not an easy task Years arent the only unit of time fhe Hadza do not keep dose tnlck of-they also ignore hours and days and wee ks and months The Had7il language docsnmiddott have words fo r numbers past th ree or

Well past his prime as a hunter but in full flower as a storyteller Onwas is the father figure for one of the many groups of Hadza who st ili follow an ancient hunt er-gatherer li festyle













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BY MICHAEL FINKEL PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARTIN...

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Transcript of BY MICHAEL FINKEL PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARTIN...