JOURNEYMAN PICTURES SET TO RELEASE BILL BENENSON’S DOCUMENTARY THE HADZA: LAST OF THE FIRST

JOURNEYMAN PICTURES SET TO RELEASE BILL BENENSON’S DOCUMENTARY THE HADZA: LAST OF THE FIRST  TODAY, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3RD; FILM EXPLORES ONE OF LAST HUNTER GATHERER GROUPS ON PLANET

Alfre Woodard Narrates; Lupita Nyong’o Is Swahili Consultant on Film

Benenson Also Executive Producer on BEASTS OF NO NATION, Bringing His Films Set in Africa to Three

(Los Angeles, CA; November 3, 2015) – The Hadza: Last Of The First  chronicles the lives of the Hadzabe tribe of Tanzania, possibly the last true hunter gatherer group on the planet.  The film, to be released digitally by Journeyman Pictures starting today, is directed and produced by Bill Benenson (Sundance Official Selection Dirt! The Movie).  The Hadza: Last Of The First was shown at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and is produced in association with The Nature Conservancy, one of the most highly regarded non-profits in the world.

Benenson has produced or executive produced three projects set in Africa.  In addition toThe Hadza: Last Of The First he is an executive producer on Cary Fukunaga’s acclaimed Beasts of No Nation, distributed by Netflix and Bleecker Street Films and executive produced Mr. Johnson, which starred Pierce Brosnan and was directed by Bruce Beresford.

The Hadza: Last Of The First, narrated by Emmy® Award-winning actress Alfre Woodard,  looks at human origins in Africa’s Rift Valley, where the Hadza, one of the last remaining forager groups in the world, have lived sustainably on their land for at least 50,000 years (and possibly as long as humans have inhabited the Rift Valley).  The Hadza are among the last people on the planet who have lived continuously as our earliest ancestors did but in the Hadza’s case, they actually also have inhabited the exact place of our collective birth.  Oscar® winner Lupita Nyong’o, Ms. Woodard’s co-star in the film 12 Years a Slave, is the film’s Swahili consultant and translator. 

“We are honored that Journeyman Pictures is distributing our story of a remarkable, self-sustaining people who can help illuminate our past while teaching us unexpected lessons on how humans can live cooperatively in the future,” said Bill Benenson.

“In its clever title,’The Hadza: Last of the First’ brings mankind face-to-face with where we started and the knowledge and survival instinct we appear to have lost over the millennia. How can one of earth’s most ancient tribes know more about keeping our planet intact than the many great and modern minds that govern it today?”asks Mark Stucke, Journeyman’s Managing Director.

“This land is our true home. We can move a few meters, but we can’t leave. There is no other place we could go,” a Hadza tribesman explains in the film.  Each morning the men head out armed with spears and bows to hunt down the animals they need to survive. The women dig for roots and plants for their daily consumption. The Hadza are as much a part of the land as the animals they hunt. If they lose their land they lose their means of survival.  But this primitive existence is becoming more and more illusory each day.  The arrival of matches means they’re losing their fire-making skills, modern medicine is taking the place of traditional remedies and alcoholism is threatening their peace. Modern civilization is encroaching on their land and ancient traditions are being eroded. The Hadza now risk losing their deep connection to nature. “If things keep going the way they are, and people continue to come here, we will be finished, gone forever,” says Hadza tribesman Kaunda. The Hadza are fighting to protect their ancestral land, but unless things change they’re fighting a losing battle. Agriculture is already depriving them of resources, with cattle drinking from their water holes and even eating the thatch from their roofs.  An insight into their unique way of life, this moving film follows the Hadza as they are caught between traditions and modern ways of life. It uncovers a clash of cultures that could mean the loss of a vital connection to our past.

For more information
Watch the full film on Itunes

Press Contacts:
Benenson Productions: Maggie Begley/MBC  – ;
For Journeyman Pictures : Grace Fletcher – 

There Is No ‘Healthy’ Microbiome

LONDON — IN the late 17th century, the Dutch naturalist Anton van Leeuwenhoek looked at his own dental plaque through a microscope and saw a world of tiny cells “very prettily a-moving.” He could not have predicted that a few centuries later, the trillions of microbes that share our lives — collectively known as the microbiome — would rank among the hottest areas of biology.

These microscopic partners help us by digesting our food, training our immune systems and crowding out other harmful microbes that could cause disease. In return, everything from the food we eat to the medicines we take can shape our microbial communities — with important implications for our health. Studies have found that changes in our microbiome accompany medical problems from obesity to diabetes to colon cancer. Read the full article here.

Lupita Nyong’o: What is the Hadza connection?

“And shortly before she jumped into the awards-season fray, the multilingual actress assisted on Bill Benenson’s new film The Hadza: Last of the First, a documentary about a hunter-gatherer tribe living in Africa’s Rift Valley, by helping to translate some of the footage shot in Swahili.”

STORY: How ABC’s Diversity Casting Program Spotted the Oscar Winner Before She Was a Star

“Everyone would love to sign her,” says one top agent of the impression Nyong’o has made on Hollywood. “I’ve hardly been in a meeting with directors where her name hasn’t come up. Right now, she should be having meetings with Spielberg and Scorsese. What she should do is just work with great directors.” … Read the full Hollywood Reporter story:

Lupita Nyong’o: What Happens to Her After Oscar? – Hollywood Reporter.

Q: Do we want to be the generation responsible for the loss of one of the last hunter-gatherer groups?

The Hadza, East Africa’s last remaining true hunter-gatherers and perhaps the original “indigenous people,” have lived sustainably on their land near the Rift Valley birthplace of humanity for over 50,000 years. Like other indigenous peoples around the globe, the Hadza now face grave challenges to their way of life. The film is a call to action to establish a protective land corridor for the survival of the Hadza as a community.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju89oDvtApw

You can help. Visit www.nature.org/hadza to learn more.

Thanks to:
Elizabeth Gray @DrElizabethGray of TNC.

Documentary THE HADZA: LAST OF THE FIRST to Premiere at Environmental Film Festival

Award-winning filmmaker Bill Benenson announced today that his latest documentary film, The Hadza: Last Of The First, will have its World Premiere at the Environmental Film Festival in Washington, D.C. on March 24th at 7pm. The film is presented in association with The Nature Conservancy, which is working to conserve the homelands of Africa’s Hadza tribe one of the world’s last remaining hunter/gatherer groups.

Can Forest Carbon Markets Provide for a 40,000-Year-Old Culture?

Source: The Nature Conservancy – http://ow.ly/sCSBM October 7, 2013 | A Hadza member heads out for the morning’s hunt. Photo: Matt Miller/TNC

By Matt Miller, senior science writer

Can a forest carbon offset project protect the resources and culture of indigenous hunter-gatherers in northern Tanzania?

That’s a key question being answered by Nature Conservancy staff and partners as they work to protect the land of the Hadza, who have hunted and lived in this region for at least 40,000 years.

I’m with two members of the Hadza community now, as they head out from camp for the morning’s hunt. They each carry a wooden bow and a selection of hand-carved arrows: some with blunt tips to bring down birds without damaging meat, others with sharp steel points laced with poison for large game like zebras and kudus.

The two men, true bare-foot runners, move effortlessly through the waist-high grass and woodland. They’re jogging, scanning, glancing at the dusty earth for tracks.

When a dik-dik – a small antelope that is a favored game animal – pops out of the brush, the bow is immediately in full draw, the arrow taut on the string. But the antelope disappears too quickly in the bush. The Hadzabe trot away, cocking their ears as doves call in the distance.

Later, one hunter suddenly stops at a tree abuzz with activity. He calls his friend as he examines a hole in the tree where bees fly in and out. He crouches over, pulls out a stick and small piece of wood. He begins twirling the stick, and within a minute, has generated a smoldering ash.

He ignites a clump of small grass and then blows the smoke into the bee hive. Smoke makes them drowsy, enabling the Hadza to extract honey.

Standing there, with antelope tracks on the ground and birds in the air and sticky honey on hands, it’s clear: the land here provides.

It has provided for millennia.

It can provide forever.

Well, it might seem that way. In the remote Yaeda Valley, you can be lulled into the sense that the land indeed stretches far past the horizon, that the Hadza can go on practicing their culture as they always have.

But that in part is an illusion. The harsh reality: the future here is far from secure.

Still, the forest may yet provide, this time not in the form of dik-diks or zebras — but through forest carbon credits.

Hadza Land Under Pressure

Encroachment from cattle grazing pushes out wildlife like impala that the Hadza rely on for food. Photo: Matt Miller/TNC

Tanzania’s population is growing. Fast. It’s projected that the 45 million people living in the East Africa country will grow to 90 million in the coming decades.

Already, that’s putting pressure on the Hadza’s land.

Here’s what is happening: Farming and other development is pushing pastoralists, who herd cattle, off their land. The pastoralists, in turn, are encroaching on the lands of the Hadza.

The Hadza are a consensus-based culture; in their own groups, they do not have leaders or hierarchy. As such, it’s easy for other people to come onto their land and dominate.

Pastoralists may not intentionally be taking land away. They do not directly kill wildlife that the Hadza eat, either. But the impacts are nonetheless severe.

“The expansion of farms pushes grazing into non-traditional areas and this increased grazing pressure degrades the natural habitat which wildlife and the Hadza need to survive,” says Matt Brown, deputy director of The Nature Conservancy in Africa.

“They cut trees to build houses. You’ll see cattle crowding around a water hole where there used to be game like kudu and warthog.”

As such, the Hadza are forced into smaller and smaller areas — a tenuous situation given their traditional lifestyle.

In the past, they moved with the game, living a nomadic existence. Even their homes, woven of grass, were abandoned and recycled into the earth as they moved. Now, they’re being squeezed onto a fraction of their traditional homeland.

“Will the Hadza survive as a culture?” Brown asks. “One thing is certain. Without land protection, they will not.”

Only about 1,500 Hadza remain. It was clear that something needed to be done, or this ancient, beautiful culture would vanish.

Beyond Planting Trees

A Hadza hunter straightens his arrow. Photo: Matt Miller/TNC

The Nature Conservancy recognized the threat to the Hadza, and has been working closely with local partners the Ujaama Community Resources Team (UCRT) and the Dorobo Fund to secure Hadza homelands for traditional use.

“This project is a great example of how multiple partners work together to achieve an outcome,” says Brown. “Each partner has a strength to bring and this is how we will continue to create lasting solutions for people and nature.”

The most important step was establishing Communal Customary Right of Occupancy (CCRO) for the Hadza – essentially legal title to the land where they live. Establishment of these land rights was precedent setting in Tanzania, and was critical for all subsequent conservation actions because it gives the Hadza tenure on their lands. The Hadza achieved legal title to nearly 50,000 acres.

The Conservancy and UCRT also created CCRO’s for the Datoga pastoralists, protecting more than 75,000 acres. This was in recognition of the fact that when pastoralists are displaced, they are forced onto Hadza lands.

As with any land designation, what is on paper does not always translate to what is on the ground. Just because land is legally declared Hadza homeland does not mean others won’t approach.

This point was made dramatically one afternoon in the Yaeda Valley, when I sat with Conservancy staff and Hadza members discussing the issues of encroachment. As we talked, two Datoga pastoralists — illegally on Hadza land — walked right through our group meeting to while searching for lost cows.

The Hadza need scouts to enforce boundaries and wildlife laws. They need legal protection to ensure they retain their rights to the land. And, given the realities of property use today, they need to show that this land has economic value.

Research showed a way to provide funding and protect the habitat: the forest carbon offsets market.

The Hadza need the forest to survive: it supplies their food and shelter and just about everything else. Encroachment is reducing the forest cover by 0.9 percent each year. That may not sound like a lot, but in the long term it’s unsustainable. In the short term, it’s reducing the habitat for wildlife that Hadza need to survive.

Forest preservation has a clear value through the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) incentives.

Enter Carbon Tanzania, a company devoted to producing carbon offsets through natural forest conservation.

Often, the carbon offsets market has meant planting trees — an idea that rankles Carbon Tanzania co-founder Marc Baker

“I was getting very frustrated with the idea that all we needed to do was plant trees,” he says. “You can’t rebuild an ecosystem just by planting trees. The forest in Tanzania has many values, but we don’t have the luxury of keeping nature for nature’s sake. Nature has to pay for itself. The carbon offsets market is one way to accomplish that.”

The Yaeda Valley made perfect sense – ecologically and culturally – for a pilot carbon market project.

“Here you have land that has value to the Hadza, and it has value in terms of carbon market dollars,” says Baker. “The alternative is poor quality agricultural land that takes away the rights of the Hadza. Can you imagine how painful it must be for Hadza to see people come here and clear land and then work so hard for little gain, when they go to the forest and hunt and eat and have leisurely afternoons? Carbon markets preserve that lifestyle by providing an economic argument for the land.”

First, though, Carbon Tanzania and conservationists had to determine exactly what potential there was for forest carbon markets.

“You Can’t Build Relationships from the Air”

Hadza members discuss the morning’s hunt. Photo: Matt Miller/TNC

The Nature Conservancy immediately brought its scientific expertise, and utilized remote sensing to get an initial handle on the rate of deforestation. Then it was time for boots, and bare feet, on the ground.

“I’m a real advocate for doing scientific research on location with the people who live there,” says Baker. “You can estimate carbon content from the air but you can’t build relationships from the air.”

Researchers conducted above-ground biomass surveys to determine the amount of carbon storage.

“We had to develop our own statistical program,” says Baker. “We had to establish how much carbon was being stored by the different tree species.”

To conduct the surveys, Baker and partners turned to the people who knew the land best: the Hadza. They joined researchers who took vegetation surveys along predetermined routes. The Hadza helped measure trees and identify plants.

“The on-the-ground work helps the community members understand the work and what we’re trying to accomplish,” says Baker.

The project calculates that more than 18,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions would be avoided annually over the project’s 20-year crediting period through improved protection and avoided deforestation. Sales of offsets are expected to generate up to $54,000 a year for the Hadzabe.

“It is hard to have to say, but we have to show a way of life, a culture, is valid. And in these times, that means a culture has to show something economically,” says Baker. “This is a project that shows an economic value, while also meeting the cultural and spiritual needs of the Hadza.”

Boutique Carbon

A Hadza hunter uses dried grass to start a smoldering fire that will be used to flush bees out of a hive. Photo: Matt Miller/TNC

Purchasers of carbon credits do so to offset carbon dioxide emissions; often, this means corporations buying large amounts of credits to help cover one of the environmental costs of industry. In the Yaeda Valley, the offsets could be funded by smaller investments by individuals, a market that Baker calls “boutique carbon.”

Tourism is a huge industry in Tanzania, accounting for more than 17.5 percent of the gross domestic product and 29 percent of export earnings. Most of those tourists come to see wildlife in places like the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater, or to enjoy outdoor adventures like climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.

Such visitors love nature, and are contributing to climate change through their flights and other travel. What if they could offset their emissions while benefiting the people and wildlife of the Yaeda Valley?

That’s possible with the carbon project, as Carbon Tanzania is working with safari companies to add fees to trips that go towards preventing deforestation. A tourist could pay $20 to offset her vacation. If a large number of tour companies signed on, it would provide significant funding for Tanzanian forest conservation — and a hopeful future for the Hadza.

One afternoon, as we talked to community members, an infant began crying. His mother picked him up walked over to a branch laden with small, hard berries, plucked it and sat it in front of the happy child. The child immediately quieted and began picking berries off the branch.

That’s how the Hadza approach life – they know that the plants and animals around them will be there and give them what they need. The forest now can provide in another way — helping protect their land and culture in a rapidly changing world.

“If we do nothing, in 20 years this area will be eaten away with nothing left for the Hadza,” says Baker. “Now think about this project. It is buffering the impacts of climate change and keeping carbon in the ground. It is supporting the livelihoods and cultures of hunter-gatherers. It protects wildlife habitat. It allows tourists to offset their carbon dioxide emissions. The project fits this place very well, and offers great hope for people who have lived here for millennia.”

Opinions expressed on Cool Green Science and in any corresponding comments are the personal opinions of the original authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Nature Conservancy.

A Hadza community member relaxes after a morning of hunting and gathering. Photo: Matt Miller/TNC

– See more at: http://blog.nature.org/science/2013/10/07/hadza-forest-carbon-africa-nature-conservancy-science/#comment-543247

Powwow in the Yaeda Valley – by David Banks, TNC

Alyssa Crittenden: How honey helped to make us human….

Most discussions of the evolution of the human diet implicate meat as the proverbial smoking gun responsible for many hallmarks of human evolution such as brain expansion, cooperation, family formation, pair bonding, tool making, and even selection of marriage partners. Some alternative interpretations discuss the importance of plant foods, like tubers (starchy underground storage organs – similar to potatoes), and suggest that the collection and consumption of plant foods is what made us human. The debate of the significance of meat versus potatoes, so to speak, appears to be rooted in deep evolutionary time.

More recently, however, there has been a trend in incorporating a wider range of foods in evolutionary reconstructions of the human diet. With the popularity of the “Paleolithic Diet” and “caveman cooking” steadily on the rise, it is increasingly important to turn to different lines of evidence to inform our thinking on the history of humans and their food. As new lines of evidence converge, it is becoming clear that the ancestral human diet was varied and included a combination of both animal protein and fat as well as plant foods; a Paleolithic menu that included meat, potatoes…..and dessert!

It appears that the human sweet tooth has a long history in human evolution. New research proposes that honey may have been important in human evolution. Upper Paleolithic (8,000 – 40,000 years ago) rock art from all around the world depicts images of early humans collecting honey. The images range from figures climbing ladders to access hives residing high in trees to figures smoking out hives filled with honeycomb. Honey and bee larvae are important foods consumed by many populations of hunters and gatherers worldwide. Foragers in Latin America, Asia, Australia, and Africa include honey and bee larvae as major components of their diet. The Hadza hunter-gatherers of Tanzania, the population with whom I work, even list honey as their number one preferred food item!

The Hadza consume honey and larvae of both stingless bees and stinging bees, including the African killer bee (Apis mellifera). The Hadza locate the hives with the assistance of a wild African bird, the aptly named honey guide (Indicator indicator). The honey guide bird and the Hadza honey hunter communicate back and forth through a series of whistles and the bird guides the honey hunter, tree by tree, to the bee hive. Once the honey hunter has located the hive, he pounds wooden pegs ito the trunk of the tree, climbs to the top where the hive is located, chops into the tree to expose the hive, and smokes it out by placing burning brush into the opening. Smoking the hive acts to pacify the bees by dulling the senses of the guard bees who protect the opening of the hive. The bees see the smoke as a habitat threat and focus on collecting enough honey to rebuild their hive elsewhere. This allows the hunter to collect the honeycomb without being stung by the killer bees. The honey guide bird patiently waits outside of the hive and as the honey hunter obtains his honeycomb prize, the honey guide bird is rewarded with its delicious prize – wax from the comb and bees.

Honey is a highly nutritious (and delicious!) food source, composed primarily of fructose and glucose. Combined with larvae, which is high in protein, fat, and B vitamins, honeycomb is nature’s energy bar. The ethnographic cross-cultural evidence of honey consumption, combined with depictions of honey hunting portrayed in rock art around the world, suggest that honey has long been been a part of human history. Early humans, and their expanding brains, would have greatly benefited from consuming honey and bee larvae because the human brain needs glucose to fuel the high metabolic demands of neural development and function. The Paleolithic diet likely included meat, plant foods, and honeycomb…..one of the sweet secrets to human evolution!

By:

Lincy Assistant Professor of Anthropology (and honey enthusiast!)

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Crittenden, A.N. (2011). The Importance of Honey Consumption in Human Evolution. Food and Foodways 19:4, 257-273.

Creature Feature: The Dik-Dik

A dik-dik, pronounced “dĭk’ dĭk”, is a small antelope in the Genus Madoqua that lives in the bushlands of eastern and southern Africa. Dik-diks stand 30–40 cm (approx. 12–16 inches) at the shoulder, are 50–70 cm (approx. 20–28 inches) long, weigh 3–6 kg (approx. 7–16 pounds) and can live for up to 10 years. Dik-diks are named for the alarm calls of the females. In addition to the female’s alarm call, both the male and female make a shrill whistling sound. These calls may alert other animals to predators.

The Dik-dik lives in shrublands and savannas of eastern Africa, and can blend in with their surroundings because of their dusty colored fur. Dik-diks have adapted to arid conditions, and can live through hot temperatures.

Dik-diks are herbivores. Their diet mainly consists of foilage, shoots, fruits and berries, but little or no grass. Dik-diks receive sufficient amounts of water from their food, making drinking unnecessary.

Dik-diks are monogamous.Conflicts between territorial neighbors seldom occur. When this is the case the males from each territory dash at each other, stop short, vigorously nod their heads and turn around. They will repeat this process increasing the distance each time until one stops. Males mark their territory with dung piles, and cover the female’s dung with their own.It has been proposed that monogamy in dik-diks may be an evolutionary response to predation; surrounded by predators, it is dangerous to explore, looking for new partners.Pairs spend approximately 64% of their time together. Males, but not females, will attempt to obtain extra-pair mating when the opportunity arises.

Dik-diks are hunted primarily by monitor lizards, and smaller cats such as the caracal, as well as lions, hyenas, wild dogs, and humans. The dik-dik’s other predators are leopards, cheetahs, jackals, baboons, eagles, hawks, and pythons. Dik-diks’ adaptation to predation include excellent eyesight and the ability to reach speeds up to 42 kilometers (26 mi) an hour.

Dik-diks are also hunted by the Hadza. Usually the younger boys will find the smaller animals to hunt, but dik-diks are fair game for all hunters when meat is scarce. Considering their small size, they must be the equivalent of a chicken dinner for a small family.

source: Wikepedia

Alyssa Crittenden, UNLV – Microbiota of the Hadza Tribe

The old saying goes: you are what you eat. This appears to carry through into the microbial content of one’s gastrointestinal tract as well.

Dr. Alyssa Crittenden, an anthropologist at The University of Nevada Las Vegas, compared the bacteria living inside an indigenous African tribe with that of an urban dwelling control group to study the differences.

Dr. Alyssa Crittenden is a behavioral ecologist and nutritional anthropologist at UNLV. She works among the Hadza hunter-gatherers of Tanzania, East Africa.

Her research interests include the evolution of the human diet, the evolution of childhood, the development of children’s prosocial behavior, and the origins of the division of labor between the sexes. She applies the principles of evolutionary theory to the study of human behavior and cultural diversity. Her work crosses several disciplines, including anthropology, ecology, nutrition, and biology. Read the full article here.

Not Everyone Needs Probiotics, Suggests Study of Hunter-Gatherer Guts

Gut response. These Hadza women have different gut bacteria than Hadza men, probably because they eat a lot of high-fiber tuberous root vegetables.

After taking an antibiotic or catching an intestinal bug, many of us belt down probiotic drinks to restore the “natural balance” of organisms in our intestines. Probiotics are one of the fastest growing products in the food industry, now added to yogurts, drinks, and baby food. Yet, not everyone needs them to stay healthy. A new study of the gut bacteria of hunter-gatherers in Africa has found that they completely lack a bacterium that is a key ingredient in most probiotic foods and considered healthy. What’s more, the Hadza don’t suffer from colon cancer, colitis, Crohn’s, or other diseases of the colon that are found in humans eating modern diets in Western nations.

The new study is the first to report on the gut bacteria of hunter-gatherers, who hunt and forage for most of their foods, just as our ancestors did before the invention of agriculture 10,000 years ago. Read the full article here

National Geographic: First Look at the Microbes of Modern Hunter-Gatherers

…Things are changing. Stephanie Schnorr from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and a team of international scientists have, for the first time, published the microbiomes of modern hunter-gatherers—27 Hadza people from Tanzania.

These Hadza don’t grow crops or keep animals. They get all their food from hunting and gathering, and their diet consists of tubers, fruit, foliage, honey, and meat from both big and small animals. They provide us with the closest approximation to (but not an exact replica of) the lives that our ancestors lived some 10,000 years ago. That’s what makes their microbiomes interesting….

By: Ed Yong

Read the full article here. 

What Works for Sharks and Honeybees …

The Hadza people of Tanzania are among the last hunter-gatherer groups on earth, foraging on foot for most of their food. Now scientists have analyzed their movements and determined that they fit a mathematical pattern that also works for sharks, honeybees and other foraging animals.

The pattern, called the Lévy walk, involves a series of short movements in one area combined with a few longer treks to more distant areas.

“This helps avoid repeated visits to the same spot,” said an author of the study, David Raichlen, an anthropologist at the University of Arizona.

For the study, which appears in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Raichlen and his colleagues asked Hadza men and women to wear GPS wristwatches so their movements could be tracked from dawn to dusk as they hunted for meat, berries, tubers, honey and other food. Read the full article

The Evolution of Diet

As we look to 2050, when we’ll need to feed two billion more people, the question of which diet is best has taken on new urgency. The foods we choose to eat in the coming decades will have dramatic ramifications for the planet. Simply put, a diet that revolves around meat and dairy, a way of eating that’s on the rise throughout the developing world, will take a greater toll on the world’s resources than one that revolves around unrefined grains, nuts, fruits, and vegetables.

Until agriculture was developed around 10,000 years ago, all humans got their food by hunting, gathering, and fishing. As farming emerged, nomadic hunter-gatherers gradually were pushed off prime farmland, and eventually they became limited to the forests of the Amazon, the arid grasslands of Africa, the remote islands of Southeast Asia, and the tundra of the Arctic. Today only a few scattered tribes of hunter-gatherers remain on the planet.

That’s why scientists are intensifying efforts to learn what they can about an ancient diet and way of life before they disappear. “Hunter-gatherers are not living fossils,” says Alyssa Crittenden, a nutritional anthropologist at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who studies the diet of Tanzania’s Hadza people, some of the last true hunter-gatherers. “That being said, we have a small handful of foraging populations that remain on the planet. We are running out of time. If we want to glean any information on what a nomadic, foraging lifestyle looks like, we need to capture their diet now.” Read the full article here.

Director’s Statement

Excerpted from the Director’s Statement found in the downloadable press kit here.

In the summer of 2004, I went on safari for the first time, to the Serengeti in Northern Tanzania. It wasn’t the “Big Five” animals, as magnificent as they were, that most struck us, nor was it the vast and stunning plains of East Africa. No, what made the most profound impression on us was seeing and being with a very small tribe of nomadic hunter-gatherer-foragers called the Hadza.

We spent two days out with the Hadza, in a “fly camp” up in the mountains overlooking Lake Eyasi, just south of the Ngorongoro Crater, where mankind first walked upright.

During the day, we went out with the men hunting and honey-gathering, often led to the beehives by a bird known as the Honeyguide. Later we watched the women pound the fruit of the Baobab tree into a cornmeal-like mush for their children’s dinner.

There are now only about 300 Hadza left practicing their timeless ways. Still living as our earliest ancestors did when they began their (and our) sojourn on Earth in the Rift Valley around two million years ago, the Hadza get no food from agriculture, grow nothing themselves and have no domesticated animals. They eat only what they can shoot down, dig up, or pick off the trees on their annual rounds through their rocky terrain. The men are extraordinary archers who can kill anything with their poisoned arrows except elephants. The women are tireless gatherers of the essential tubers that they mine from the rocky landscape with their sharpened sticks.

Their lives are as primal and practical as they are beautiful and pragmatic. Along with Swahili, they still speak Hadzine, a “click” language spoken by no one else on the planet. I knew I wanted to make a documentary film about them because it was clear that their way of life is being threatened into near extinction by a variety of national and international pressures. I felt that perhaps by bringing the world’s attention to the Hadza I could help protect their unique lives from oblivion.

We have formed a partnership with the invaluable Nature Conservancy to politically help secure land rights for the Hadza—because if I’ve learned anything at all, it’s that if any rural or bush people lose their lands, for whatever reasons, they are finished as a unique, self-sustaining and thriving society.

To help the Hadza survive we must help secure their homeland.

–Bill Benenson, March 2012

National Geographic “The Hadza”

They grow no food, raise no livestock, and live without rules or calendars. They are living a hunter-gatherer existence that is little changed from 10,000 years ago. What do they know that we’ve forgotten?

By Michael Finkel

Photograph by Martin Schoeller

Read the article and see more photos here.