begin quote from:
What a hunter-gatherer diet does to the body in just three days
Photos: Africa's ancient hunter gatherers struggle for survival
Living with the Hadza – Until
30 years ago, the Hadza frequently hunted large animals like zebra,
giraffe and buffalo. Most large mammals have now decreased in number,
leaving them to depend on smaller animals, such as local antelope and
birds.
Hide Caption
5 of 8
Photos: Africa's ancient hunter gatherers struggle for survival
Living with the Hadza – Finding
food is a daily chore for the Hadza, and there is a division of labor
along gender lines. Men hunt wild animals while women gather roots and
berries. Both tasks are becoming harder, however, as the Hadza are
losing their land to farmers, pastoralists and cattle herders. Their
berry bushes have been cleared for crops and their forests have been
razed for charcoal and water holes used for irrigation.
Hide Caption
6 of 8
Photos: Africa's ancient hunter gatherers struggle for survival
Living with the Hadza – The
Hadza value equality highly, recognizing no official leaders. Hadza
women have a great amount of autonomy and participate equally in
decision making with men.
Hide Caption
7 of 8
Photos: Africa's ancient hunter gatherers struggle for survival
Living with the Hadza – Hadza men hunt with hand-made arrows. They do not use snares or traps, so as not to harm other wildlife populations.
Hide Caption
8 of 8
Photos: Africa's ancient hunter gatherers struggle for survival
Living with the Hadza – The
Hadza people live in a remote part of Northern Tanzania. They have
lived in the area for thousands of years, and represent one of the
oldest lineages of mankind.
Hide Caption
1 of 8
Photos: Africa's ancient hunter gatherers struggle for survival
Living with the Hadza – The Hadza face mounting challenges. In the past 50 years along, they have lost up to 90% of their land.
Hide Caption
2 of 8
Photos: Africa's ancient hunter gatherers struggle for survival
Living with the Hadza – The
Hadza do not store food or cut trees to build houses. Instead, they
make finding sustenance a daily activity, and build temporary huts made
from dry grass.
Hide Caption
3 of 8
Photos: Africa's ancient hunter gatherers struggle for survival
Living with the Hadza – Wild
honey makes up a large part of the Hadza diet. They rely on the
honeyguide bird to direct them to beehives, and use smoke to chase the
bees away. Their techniques have been passed down though generations.
Hide Caption
4 of 8
Photos: Africa's ancient hunter gatherers struggle for survival
Living with the Hadza – Until
30 years ago, the Hadza frequently hunted large animals like zebra,
giraffe and buffalo. Most large mammals have now decreased in number,
leaving them to depend on smaller animals, such as local antelope and
birds.
Hide Caption
5 of 8
Photos: Africa's ancient hunter gatherers struggle for survival
Living with the Hadza – Finding
food is a daily chore for the Hadza, and there is a division of labor
along gender lines. Men hunt wild animals while women gather roots and
berries. Both tasks are becoming harder, however, as the Hadza are
losing their land to farmers, pastoralists and cattle herders. Their
berry bushes have been cleared for crops and their forests have been
razed for charcoal and water holes used for irrigation.
Hide Caption
6 of 8
Photos: Africa's ancient hunter gatherers struggle for survival
Living with the Hadza – The
Hadza value equality highly, recognizing no official leaders. Hadza
women have a great amount of autonomy and participate equally in
decision making with men.
Hide Caption
7 of 8
Photos: Africa's ancient hunter gatherers struggle for survival
Living with the Hadza – Hadza men hunt with hand-made arrows. They do not use snares or traps, so as not to harm other wildlife populations.
Hide Caption
8 of 8
Photos: Africa's ancient hunter gatherers struggle for survival
Living with the Hadza – The
Hadza people live in a remote part of Northern Tanzania. They have
lived in the area for thousands of years, and represent one of the
oldest lineages of mankind.
Hide Caption
1 of 8
Photos: Africa's ancient hunter gatherers struggle for survival
Living with the Hadza – The Hadza face mounting challenges. In the past 50 years along, they have lost up to 90% of their land.
Hide Caption
2 of 8
Photos: Africa's ancient hunter gatherers struggle for survival
Living with the Hadza – The
Hadza do not store food or cut trees to build houses. Instead, they
make finding sustenance a daily activity, and build temporary huts made
from dry grass.
Hide Caption
3 of 8
Photos: Africa's ancient hunter gatherers struggle for survival
Living with the Hadza – Wild
honey makes up a large part of the Hadza diet. They rely on the
honeyguide bird to direct them to beehives, and use smoke to chase the
bees away. Their techniques have been passed down though generations.
Hide Caption
4 of 8
Tim Spector is professor of genetic epidemiology at King's College London. The views expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer. CNN is showcasing the work of The Conversation, a collaboration between journalists and academics to provide news analysis and commentary. The content is produced solely by The Conversation.
(CNN)Mounting
evidence suggests that the richer and more diverse the community of
microbes in your gut the lower your risk of disease. Diet is key to
maintaining diversity and was strikingly demonstrated when an undergrad
student went on a McDonald's diet for ten days and after just four days experienced a significant drop in the number of beneficial microbes.
Similar results have been demonstrated in a number of larger human and animal studies.
Your gut microbiome is a vast community of trillions of bacteria that has a major influence
on your metabolism, immune system and mood. These bacteria and fungi
inhabit every nook and cranny of your gastrointestinal tract, with most
of this 1kg to 2kg "microbe organ" sited in your colon (the main bit of
your large intestine).
We
tend to see the biggest diet-related shifts in microbes in people who
are unhealthy with a low-diversity unstable microbiome. What we didn't
know is whether a healthy stable gut microbiome could be improved in
just a few days. The chance to test this in an unusual way came when my
colleague Jeff Leach invited
me on a field trip to Tanzania, where he has been living and working
among the Hadza, one of the last remaining hunter-gatherer groups in all
of Africa.
A Hadza man hunting with bow and arrow, Lake Eyasi, Tanzania.
My microbiome is pretty healthy nowadays and, among the first hundred samples we tested as part of the MapMyGut
project, I had the best gut diversity -- our best overall measure of
gut health, reflecting the number and richness of different species.
High diversity is associated with a low risk of obesity and many
diseases. The Hadza have a diversity that is one of the richest on the planet.
The
research plan was devised by Jeff who suggested I should have an
intensive three days of eating like a hunter gatherer during my stay at
his research camp. I would measure my gut microbes before heading to
Tanzania, during my stay with the Hadza, and after my return to the UK. I
was also not allowed to wash or use alcohol swabs and I was expected to
hunt and forage with the Hadza as much as possible -- including coming
in contact with the odd Hadza baby and baboon poo lying about.
To help us record the trip I was accompanied by Dan Saladino, the intrepid presenter and producer of BBC Radio 4's The Food Programme, who was preparing a Hadza microbe special.
After
a long tiring flight to Mount Kilimanjaro Airport in Tanzania, we
stayed overnight in Arusha, a city in the north of the country. Before
setting off the next morning, I produced my baseline poo sample.
After
an eight-hour journey in a Land Rover over bumpy tracks, we arrived.
Jeff beckoned us to the top of a huge rock to witness the most amazing
sunset over Lake Eyasi. Here, within a stones throw of the famous fossil
site of Olduvai Gorge and with the stunning plains of the Serengeti in
the distance, Jeff explained that we were never going to be closer to
home as a member of the genus Homo, than where we were standing at that
moment.
The million-year-old diet
The
Hadza seek out the same animals and plants that humans have hunted and
gathered for millions of years. Importantly, the human-microbe tango
that played out here for aeons probably shaped aspects of our immune
system and made us who we are today. The significance of being in
Hadza-land was not lost on me.
Unlike
the Hadza, who sleep around the fire or in grass huts, I was given a
tent and told to zip it up tight as there were scorpions and snakes
about. I had to be careful where I stepped if I needed a nocturnal pee.
After an interesting but restless night's sleep, a large pile of baobab
pods had been collected for my breakfast.
Photos:
Maasai, spitting – Spittle
is an essential part of life for the Maasai of East Africa, as it acts
as a blessing. "People have different views about where the power and
essence of somebody resides," explains Lewis. For some, "spit represents
an essence of you as a person."
To spit is "a way of blessing people by giving something of yourself; your own power to someone else." It starts at an early age, when newborn babies are spat on to wish them a good life. "If you leave a place, elders will come and spit on your head in order to bless your departure, and that whatever you do you're safe and kept well," adds Lewis.
To spit is "a way of blessing people by giving something of yourself; your own power to someone else." It starts at an early age, when newborn babies are spat on to wish them a good life. "If you leave a place, elders will come and spit on your head in order to bless your departure, and that whatever you do you're safe and kept well," adds Lewis.
Hide Caption
7 of 12
Photos:
San, healing dance – The San of South Africa, Botswana, Angola and Namibia are, according to some researchers, the world's oldest people.
Their hunter-gatherer culture stretches back tens of thousands of
years, and integral to it is the trance dance, also known as the healing
dance. Historically an all-night affair, the practice brings the whole
community together, led by healers and elders dancing around a fire,
chanting and breathing deeply until they induce a trance state. It
offers the chance to commune with ancestral spirits of the departed and
for healers, cure sickness within other dancers.
Lewis says that this tradition is under threat: "In some places in southern Africa the San now perform their traditional culture exclusively for tourists, because they've been forced out of all their territories as hunter-gatherers by conservationist organizations. This means that by extension... these performances are not the original initiations but a facsimile of them."
Lewis says that this tradition is under threat: "In some places in southern Africa the San now perform their traditional culture exclusively for tourists, because they've been forced out of all their territories as hunter-gatherers by conservationist organizations. This means that by extension... these performances are not the original initiations but a facsimile of them."
Hide Caption
8 of 12
Photos:
Bantu-speaking tribes, lobola – A feature of marital affairs for many Bantu-speaking tribes in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Swaziland, lobola is practiced by, among others, Zulus (pictured). Lobola
is also referred to as "bridalwealth", with the prospective groom's
family negotiating with the bride's for her hand in marriage. The dowry
comes in many forms, including money, but some choose cattle. There were
reports in 1998 that Nelson Mandela (of Thembu lineage) paid the marital lobola of 60 cows to the family of new wife Graca Machel.
"It's the cause of much conflict," says Lewis, "because in order for a man to get married he must provide often quite a substantial head of cattle, and so he's in indentured labor to his father until the herd he's caring for is big enough." In societies that are cattle based, men tend to marry in their mid-forties, he adds, explaining that "there's always a backlog of women who are available but unable to marry" because men of a similar age have not yet raised the required bridalwealth.
"It's the cause of much conflict," says Lewis, "because in order for a man to get married he must provide often quite a substantial head of cattle, and so he's in indentured labor to his father until the herd he's caring for is big enough." In societies that are cattle based, men tend to marry in their mid-forties, he adds, explaining that "there's always a backlog of women who are available but unable to marry" because men of a similar age have not yet raised the required bridalwealth.
Hide Caption
9 of 12
Photos:
Tuareg, tangelmust – Tuaregs are the only tribal communities in which men wear veils instead of women.
The tangelmust, a wrapped headdress up to eight meters in length, is
ubiquitous among the "blue men of the desert." The name does not allude
to the muslin headdress, dyed with indigo, but rather because the dye
gradually leeches out into the skin of the wearer. Tuaregs use the
tangelmust for practical reasons: it protects from the sun and sand, but
men will still wear them at night, and even during meals. Men cover
their faces with the tangelmust in front of strangers and women, while
women are free to show their face.
Hide Caption
10 of 12
Photos:
Bodi, Ka'el obesity pageant – Every June or July in the Omo Valley, Ethiopia, the Ka'el
-- the Bodi lunar new year -- takes place. With it comes an
extraordinary show of pageantry. In the months before the event men live
in isolation and drink to excess a mixture of cow milk and cow blood
for months in order to become vastly bloated and overweight. Each clan
will then present an unmarried male to compete for the title of fattest
man -- and with the glory, the greater chance of finding a wife. With
stomachs swollen, balance and fatigue can be an issue, but once the
event is over, contestants return to their normal size in a matter of
weeks.
Hide Caption
11 of 12
Photos:
Dassanech, recycled jewelry – "It's
important to remember that tradition doesn't mean 'the same'," says
Lewis, "cultures will adapt and add elements all the time." A perfect
example of this is the Dassanech tribe, another group found in
Ethiopia's Omo Valley on the border with Kenya. Rubbish of all manner,
but particularly bottle tops, have begun to be recycled by Dassanech
women, who weave the metal caps into vibrant jangly headdresses. Other
women have adapted broken watches and trinkets for similar purposes -- and a sure fire way of getting yourself noticed.
Hide Caption
12 of 12
Photos:
Wodaabe, Gerewol – At the end of the rainy season near Lake Chad, northern Niger, Wodaabe people come together for Cure Salee, the "Festival of Nomads." At the center of celebrations is Gerewol,
a male beauty contest and courtship ritual. Young men -- traditionally
herdsmen -- wear full makeup, jewelry and their finest clothes and stand
in line to await inspection by female onlookers. White teeth and white
eyes are highly prized, so participants will grin broadly and pull all
manner of expressions in the hope of attracting attention. It's
flirtation en masse, in the hope of winning a night of passion with one of the judges.
Hide Caption
1 of 12
Photos:
Mursi, lip plates – Circular lip plates called dhebi a tugion
are worn by some Mursi women near Jinka in Ethiopia's Omo Valley. They
are one of the few tribes that continue the practice in East Africa, but
archaeologists have discovered lip plates in the region stretching back
30,000 years, says anthropologist Dr Jerome Lewis of University College
London. "It's a body modification that people find beautiful," he says.
"It's also very striking and a distinctive way of marking your
difference from other people around you."
The bottom lip is pierced with a wooden peg inserted, which is replaced with larger pegs thereafter. Once the hole is big enough the first of a succession of ornamental ceramic saucers are inserted, stretching it over a period of years -- one example from the neighboring Surma tribe measured 19.5cm wide.
The bottom lip is pierced with a wooden peg inserted, which is replaced with larger pegs thereafter. Once the hole is big enough the first of a succession of ornamental ceramic saucers are inserted, stretching it over a period of years -- one example from the neighboring Surma tribe measured 19.5cm wide.
Hide Caption
2 of 12
Photos:
Himba, otjize – Women of the semi-nomadic Himba tribe in northern Namibia are famous for their reddish hair and complexion. It's the result of otjize, a paste of butter, fat and red ocher, applied daily to their hair and skin. It was once speculated that the otjize
served as a form of sun protection and to ward off insects, however the
women say it's purely for aesthetic reasons -- which makes sense, given
that Himba men don't take part in the practice.
Hide Caption
3 of 12
![Herdsmen become hurdlers in the Omo Valley, Ethiopia. Young men of the Hamar tribe, one of many in the valley, prove their manhood by jumping on prize bulls and then running across their backs -- all while naked. The purpose? It's a coming of age ceremony, and only when the participant has traversed the bull run four times will he be allowed to marry. Slip and you risk a hard fall: "Because it's a manhood initiation ritual, [failure] is likely to affect the perception of someone's manhood and that of course can have all sorts of dire consequence," adds Dr Lewis.](http://i2.cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/161110162545-hamar-tribe-bull-jump-small-169.jpg)
Photos:
Hamar, bull jumping – Herdsmen
become hurdlers in the Omo Valley, Ethiopia. Young men of the Hamar
tribe, one of many in the valley, prove their manhood by jumping on
prize bulls and then running across their backs -- all while naked. The
purpose? It's a coming of age ceremony, and only when the participant
has traversed the bull run four times will he be allowed to marry. Slip
and you risk a hard fall: "Because it's a manhood initiation ritual,
[failure] is likely to affect the perception of someone's manhood and
that of course can have all sorts of dire consequence," adds Dr Lewis.
Hide Caption
4 of 12
Photos:
Xhosa, Ulwaluko – In Eastern Cape, South Africa, young Xhosa men take part in a coming of age initiation called Ulwaluko. The youths, known as abakhwetha,
are first circumcised without anesthetic, before being sent away from
their village and into the bush, with minimal supplies and wrapped in a
blanket. Wearing white clay on their faces, initiates will fend for
themselves for up to two months, living in a structure built by the
village's adult community specifically for Ulwaluko. Upon their
return they are no longer referred to as "boy" and receive a new
blanket. The initiation has not been without its criticisms, due to complications and malpractice surrounding the circumcision process.
Hide Caption
5 of 12
Photos:
Chewa, matriarchy – Women
of the Chewa tribe may not be quite on equal footing as men, but they
do hold the key to one thing: inheritance. Descent and succession for
the Bantu-speaking tribe, spread across Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and
Mozambique, is matrilineal, with property and land inherited from their
mothers. "Although inheritance passes down the female line, which
definitely gives women more power in society, it's still male-dominated
and patriarchal in the sense that men are still at the apex of power,"
explains Lewis. "People have an assumption that matrilineal societies
are somehow favorable to women -- and they are certainly more favorable
than some of the extreme patrilineal societies -- but they're not
societies that give women equal power."
One thing Chewa women are shut out of is the Nyau brotherhood (pictured), a secretive society who can channel spirits and performs a ritual dance called Gule Wamkulu around harvest and at weddings and funeral.
One thing Chewa women are shut out of is the Nyau brotherhood (pictured), a secretive society who can channel spirits and performs a ritual dance called Gule Wamkulu around harvest and at weddings and funeral.
Hide Caption
6 of 12
Photos:
Maasai, spitting – Spittle
is an essential part of life for the Maasai of East Africa, as it acts
as a blessing. "People have different views about where the power and
essence of somebody resides," explains Lewis. For some, "spit represents
an essence of you as a person."
To spit is "a way of blessing people by giving something of yourself; your own power to someone else." It starts at an early age, when newborn babies are spat on to wish them a good life. "If you leave a place, elders will come and spit on your head in order to bless your departure, and that whatever you do you're safe and kept well," adds Lewis.
To spit is "a way of blessing people by giving something of yourself; your own power to someone else." It starts at an early age, when newborn babies are spat on to wish them a good life. "If you leave a place, elders will come and spit on your head in order to bless your departure, and that whatever you do you're safe and kept well," adds Lewis.
Hide Caption
7 of 12
Photos:
San, healing dance – The San of South Africa, Botswana, Angola and Namibia are, according to some researchers, the world's oldest people.
Their hunter-gatherer culture stretches back tens of thousands of
years, and integral to it is the trance dance, also known as the healing
dance. Historically an all-night affair, the practice brings the whole
community together, led by healers and elders dancing around a fire,
chanting and breathing deeply until they induce a trance state. It
offers the chance to commune with ancestral spirits of the departed and
for healers, cure sickness within other dancers.
Lewis says that this tradition is under threat: "In some places in southern Africa the San now perform their traditional culture exclusively for tourists, because they've been forced out of all their territories as hunter-gatherers by conservationist organizations. This means that by extension... these performances are not the original initiations but a facsimile of them."
Lewis says that this tradition is under threat: "In some places in southern Africa the San now perform their traditional culture exclusively for tourists, because they've been forced out of all their territories as hunter-gatherers by conservationist organizations. This means that by extension... these performances are not the original initiations but a facsimile of them."
Hide Caption
8 of 12
Photos:
Bantu-speaking tribes, lobola – A feature of marital affairs for many Bantu-speaking tribes in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Swaziland, lobola is practiced by, among others, Zulus (pictured). Lobola
is also referred to as "bridalwealth", with the prospective groom's
family negotiating with the bride's for her hand in marriage. The dowry
comes in many forms, including money, but some choose cattle. There were
reports in 1998 that Nelson Mandela (of Thembu lineage) paid the marital lobola of 60 cows to the family of new wife Graca Machel.
"It's the cause of much conflict," says Lewis, "because in order for a man to get married he must provide often quite a substantial head of cattle, and so he's in indentured labor to his father until the herd he's caring for is big enough." In societies that are cattle based, men tend to marry in their mid-forties, he adds, explaining that "there's always a backlog of women who are available but unable to marry" because men of a similar age have not yet raised the required bridalwealth.
"It's the cause of much conflict," says Lewis, "because in order for a man to get married he must provide often quite a substantial head of cattle, and so he's in indentured labor to his father until the herd he's caring for is big enough." In societies that are cattle based, men tend to marry in their mid-forties, he adds, explaining that "there's always a backlog of women who are available but unable to marry" because men of a similar age have not yet raised the required bridalwealth.
Hide Caption
9 of 12
Photos:
Tuareg, tangelmust – Tuaregs are the only tribal communities in which men wear veils instead of women.
The tangelmust, a wrapped headdress up to eight meters in length, is
ubiquitous among the "blue men of the desert." The name does not allude
to the muslin headdress, dyed with indigo, but rather because the dye
gradually leeches out into the skin of the wearer. Tuaregs use the
tangelmust for practical reasons: it protects from the sun and sand, but
men will still wear them at night, and even during meals. Men cover
their faces with the tangelmust in front of strangers and women, while
women are free to show their face.
Hide Caption
10 of 12
Photos:
Bodi, Ka'el obesity pageant – Every June or July in the Omo Valley, Ethiopia, the Ka'el
-- the Bodi lunar new year -- takes place. With it comes an
extraordinary show of pageantry. In the months before the event men live
in isolation and drink to excess a mixture of cow milk and cow blood
for months in order to become vastly bloated and overweight. Each clan
will then present an unmarried male to compete for the title of fattest
man -- and with the glory, the greater chance of finding a wife. With
stomachs swollen, balance and fatigue can be an issue, but once the
event is over, contestants return to their normal size in a matter of
weeks.
Hide Caption
11 of 12
Photos:
Dassanech, recycled jewelry – "It's
important to remember that tradition doesn't mean 'the same'," says
Lewis, "cultures will adapt and add elements all the time." A perfect
example of this is the Dassanech tribe, another group found in
Ethiopia's Omo Valley on the border with Kenya. Rubbish of all manner,
but particularly bottle tops, have begun to be recycled by Dassanech
women, who weave the metal caps into vibrant jangly headdresses. Other
women have adapted broken watches and trinkets for similar purposes -- and a sure fire way of getting yourself noticed.
Hide Caption
12 of 12
Photos:
Wodaabe, Gerewol – At the end of the rainy season near Lake Chad, northern Niger, Wodaabe people come together for Cure Salee, the "Festival of Nomads." At the center of celebrations is Gerewol,
a male beauty contest and courtship ritual. Young men -- traditionally
herdsmen -- wear full makeup, jewelry and their finest clothes and stand
in line to await inspection by female onlookers. White teeth and white
eyes are highly prized, so participants will grin broadly and pull all
manner of expressions in the hope of attracting attention. It's
flirtation en masse, in the hope of winning a night of passion with one of the judges.
Hide Caption
1 of 12
Photos:
Mursi, lip plates – Circular lip plates called dhebi a tugion
are worn by some Mursi women near Jinka in Ethiopia's Omo Valley. They
are one of the few tribes that continue the practice in East Africa, but
archaeologists have discovered lip plates in the region stretching back
30,000 years, says anthropologist Dr Jerome Lewis of University College
London. "It's a body modification that people find beautiful," he says.
"It's also very striking and a distinctive way of marking your
difference from other people around you."
The bottom lip is pierced with a wooden peg inserted, which is replaced with larger pegs thereafter. Once the hole is big enough the first of a succession of ornamental ceramic saucers are inserted, stretching it over a period of years -- one example from the neighboring Surma tribe measured 19.5cm wide.
The bottom lip is pierced with a wooden peg inserted, which is replaced with larger pegs thereafter. Once the hole is big enough the first of a succession of ornamental ceramic saucers are inserted, stretching it over a period of years -- one example from the neighboring Surma tribe measured 19.5cm wide.
Hide Caption
2 of 12
Photos:
Himba, otjize – Women of the semi-nomadic Himba tribe in northern Namibia are famous for their reddish hair and complexion. It's the result of otjize, a paste of butter, fat and red ocher, applied daily to their hair and skin. It was once speculated that the otjize
served as a form of sun protection and to ward off insects, however the
women say it's purely for aesthetic reasons -- which makes sense, given
that Himba men don't take part in the practice.
Hide Caption
3 of 12
Photos:
Hamar, bull jumping – Herdsmen
become hurdlers in the Omo Valley, Ethiopia. Young men of the Hamar
tribe, one of many in the valley, prove their manhood by jumping on
prize bulls and then running across their backs -- all while naked. The
purpose? It's a coming of age ceremony, and only when the participant
has traversed the bull run four times will he be allowed to marry. Slip
and you risk a hard fall: "Because it's a manhood initiation ritual,
[failure] is likely to affect the perception of someone's manhood and
that of course can have all sorts of dire consequence," adds Dr Lewis.
Hide Caption
4 of 12
Photos:
Xhosa, Ulwaluko – In Eastern Cape, South Africa, young Xhosa men take part in a coming of age initiation called Ulwaluko. The youths, known as abakhwetha,
are first circumcised without anesthetic, before being sent away from
their village and into the bush, with minimal supplies and wrapped in a
blanket. Wearing white clay on their faces, initiates will fend for
themselves for up to two months, living in a structure built by the
village's adult community specifically for Ulwaluko. Upon their
return they are no longer referred to as "boy" and receive a new
blanket. The initiation has not been without its criticisms, due to complications and malpractice surrounding the circumcision process.
Hide Caption
5 of 12
Photos:
Chewa, matriarchy – Women
of the Chewa tribe may not be quite on equal footing as men, but they
do hold the key to one thing: inheritance. Descent and succession for
the Bantu-speaking tribe, spread across Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and
Mozambique, is matrilineal, with property and land inherited from their
mothers. "Although inheritance passes down the female line, which
definitely gives women more power in society, it's still male-dominated
and patriarchal in the sense that men are still at the apex of power,"
explains Lewis. "People have an assumption that matrilineal societies
are somehow favorable to women -- and they are certainly more favorable
than some of the extreme patrilineal societies -- but they're not
societies that give women equal power."
One thing Chewa women are shut out of is the Nyau brotherhood (pictured), a secretive society who can channel spirits and performs a ritual dance called Gule Wamkulu around harvest and at weddings and funeral.
One thing Chewa women are shut out of is the Nyau brotherhood (pictured), a secretive society who can channel spirits and performs a ritual dance called Gule Wamkulu around harvest and at weddings and funeral.
Hide Caption
6 of 12
The
baobab fruit is the staple of the Hadza diet, packed with vitamins, fat
in the seeds, and, of course, significant amounts of fibre. We were
surrounded by baobab trees stretching in the distance as far as I could
see. Baobab fruit have a hard coconut-like shell that cracks easily to
reveal a chalky flesh around a large, fat-rich seed. The high levels of
vitamin C provided an unexpected citrus tang.
The
Hadza mixed the chalky bits with water and whisked it vigorously for
two to three minutes with a stick until it was a thick, milky porridge
that was filtered -- somewhat -- into a mug for my breakfast. It was
surprisingly pleasant and refreshing. As I wasn't sure what else I would
be eating on my first day, I drank two mugs and suddenly felt very
full.
My next snacks were the wild
berries on many of the trees surrounding the camp -- the commonest were
small Kongorobi berries. These refreshing and slightly sweet berries
have 20 times the fibre and polyphenols compared with cultivated berries
-- powerful fuel for my gut microbiome. I had a late lunch of a few
high-fibre tubers dug up with a sharp stick by the female foragers and
tossed on the fire. These were more effort to eat - like tough, earthy
celery. I didn't go for seconds or feel hungry, probably because of my
high-fibre breakfast. No one seemed concerned about dinner.
Hadza woman and child sitting at a fire, Lake Eyasi, Tanzania.
A
few hours later we were asked to join a hunting party to track down
porcupine -- a rare delicacy. Even Jeff hadn't tasted this creature in
his four years of field work.
Two
20kg nocturnal porcupines had been tracked to their tunnel system in a
termite mound. After several hours of digging and tunnelling --
carefully avoiding the razor-sharp spines -- two porcupines were
eventually speared and thrown to the surface. A fire was lit. The
spines, skin and valuable organs were expertly dissected and the heart,
lung and liver cooked and eaten straight away.
The
rest of the fatty carcass was taken back to camp for communal eating.
It tasted much like suckling pig. We had a similar menu the next two
days, with the main dishes including hyrax -- a strange furry
guinea-pig-like hoofed animal, weighing about 4kg -- a relative of the
elephant, of all creatures.
Harvested
high from a baobab tree, our dessert was the best golden orange honey I
could ever imagine -- with the bonus of honeycomb full of fat and
protein from the larvae. The combination of fat and sugars made our
dessert the most energy-dense food found anywhere in nature and may have
competed with fire in terms of its evolutionary importance.
In
Hadza-land nothing is wasted or killed unnecessarily, but they eat an
amazing variety of plant and animal species (around 600, most of which
are birds) compared with us in the West. My other lasting impression was
how little time they spent getting food. It appeared as though it took
just a few hours a day -- as simple as going round a large supermarket.
Any direction you walked there was food -- above, on and below ground.
Massive increase in microbiome diversity
Twenty-four
hours later Dan and I were back in London, him with his precious audio
tapes and me with my cherished poo samples. After producing a few more, I
sent them to the lab for testing.
The
results showed clear differences between my starting sample and after
three days of my forager diet. The good news was my gut microbal
diversity increased a stunning 20%, including some totally novel African
microbes, such as those of the phylum Synergistetes.
The
bad news was, after a few days, my gut microbes had virtually returned
to where they were before the trip. But we had learnt something
important. However good your diet and gut health, it is not nearly as
good as our ancestors'. Everyone should make the effort to improve their
gut health by re-wilding
their diet and lifestyle. Being more adventurous in your normal cuisine
plus reconnecting with nature and its associated microbial life, may be
what we all need.
No comments:
Post a Comment