Chapter 4 - People as Nomadic Foragers: The Communal Wave

In the Communal Wave people gather/hunt or forage for food and live together in small communal, nomadic bands bound together through strong kinship ties. This wave encompasses the emergence of modern humans around 40,000 years ago and continues today with very small numbers still practicing, although in an altered form, a foraging way of life. Also presented is a case study of the !Kung people in southwest Africa.

On the right are links to 10 categories of teacher resources.
Most are in PDF format (requires Adobe Reader)

Author's Comments

This was one of my favorite chapters to research and write about. My students appreciated that I included a chapter on foraging people and their way of life. I like the chapter so much because it provides such a contrast to our modern way of life and places our human history into a broad context. It helps us expand our notion of being human and viewing history. At the most, world history includes a couple of pages describing foraging people. But I think a full chapter is vital. After reading this chapter most of my students had a greater appreciation for the foraging way of life, and lamented that we modern folk have lost some of the connections they had to each other and the earth.

Kind regards,
Denise Ames