Here’s why Hunters and Gatherers would’ve been surprisingly happier than us

The Life of the Hadza Tribe

Have you ever wondered what life was like to early humans? Were they happier or was life scarier and worse?
And of course, How did they manage without toothbrushes??

This is what we’ll be exploring in this article; we’ll look at the lives of the only hunter-gatherer group still in existence — The Hadza.

The life of a hunter-gatherer

Let’s look at the life of the Hadza people who not only are the last hunter-gatherer groups still in existence, but they are also the people who have lived in the same region for longer than any other group.

The Hadza have a chill lifestyle. They only work for 14 hours a week. This leaves the rest of the time to chill, dance, do music, and listen to adventurous and edgy stories about their ancestors.

They live by the philosophy of living in the present. This is why they don’t follow agriculture or domestication of animals, because it involves sowing and watering now, only to get results much later. Agriculture also includes other problems like famine, according to them. They believe they can just take whatever they need whenever they need. If it’s for hunger, they just pick berries or shoot down some animal. If it’s for thirst they just go and sip a puddle.

Men focus mostly on honey collection and hunting a wide variety of birds and mammals. Women forage in groups and primarily focus on gathering plant foods such as baobab fruit, berries, and tubers.

While watching a documentary on the Hadza, what astonished me the most was the way they found honey. The tribe members communicate with these honey-guiding birds through some sort of whistling, after which the bird guides them to the beehive. It's unbelievably crazy. They whistle to these wild untrained birds who just show them the way to the honey.

The Hadza then go on to remove bees from the comb with the help of smoke and then feast upon the honey; the leftovers and the wax are given to these birds in return.

Another interesting thing I found was scientists collected the feces of the Hadza people. This is to observe the gut microbes. It was found that the Hadza had an average of 730 species of gut microbe per person. The average Californian gut microbiome contained just 277 species.

This means that they are healthier and happier people. This is because the gut has connections to the brain which influence mood.

The Hadza are shredded, all the guys there have the six-packs you’ve always wanted. Even the kids have six packs. This is because they have to use bows, run a lot, and climb trees which makes them fit.

Their diet along with all the running they do to hunt and find food, has lowered their risk for cardiovascular disease, which is one of the leading causes of death.

Working for only fourteen hours a week, rather than stressful sixty-hour or eighty-hour weeks(while often being stressed and sleep deprived.) Nor does dancing, singing, cracking fart jokes, and listening to stories over the fireplace, instead of having a TikTok addiction sound like a happy lifestyle, I don’t know what will.

They also need to trust each other with their lives and share almost everything with each other in order to survive. Being part of a tightly knit group is something which will also make them happier. Unlike loneliness which is ever-increasing in the modern world. This is something I’ve talked about in the article The Greatest Human Desire: To be Together if you’re interested.

Oh, and if you were wondering(like I was) how they manage to live without toothbrushes, well they manage to do so because firstly they have highly fibrous foods that help keep teeth clean, and they have far less processed food than most of us do. But they still sometimes bite certain twigs to clean their teeth.

In today’s world though it is becoming difficult for the Hadza to live their lifestyle, as the government has restricted the areas they can use, and most of the animals have been moved to reserves. Much of their water supply has also dried up. Marijuana has also made its way to the Hadza, and they are forced to wear modern clothing because they aren’t allowed to hunt for animal skin.

Ending Thoughts

It seemed harsh to think about all the early humans who have died of diseases that modern medicines can easily cure.

However, I also thought about how early humans wouldn’t have as many deaths, if any, due to obesity, heart problems, suicide, road accidents, gun violence, famine, overdoses, or wars.

Also thinking about it pandemics wouldn’t been a thing, as there wasn’t any technology to connect the world and spread diseases from one corner of the globe to another. The communities were more or less isolated from one another.

Seeing the life of a hunter-gatherer has made me feel modern development hasn’t actually made us humans any happier, compared to the times of early humans, as we would like to feel. It has made me feel development is not necessarily going to make us happier.

In the end, what I think matters most is happiness, what do you think? Would you be open to living the hunter-gatherer lifestyle?

Let me know in the comments!

Thanks for reading :)