Tribes stayed alive partly by having one or more people who could see some of the future down through the ages

 If you study anthropology you might learn that the human race has gone almost extinct on several occasions already and you might wonder how they survived the different things they went through over time.

One of the ways people survived is having one or more people who could sense the future enough to keep tribes alive. 

In other words if there was a storm coming that might wash away their village one of the people in the tribe that was respected because they had foretold other things that happened before would say something like: "I dreamed our village tomorrow will be overcome with water. We need to go somewhere else before tonight."

So, sure enough, people hung out on higher ground and their village washed away but they all survived (those that listened to this person) (male or female) that told them what was coming.

Or, imagine someone had a deja Vu about and earthquake or a volcano going off that was going to wreck their village and kill most people. Same thing. One person who was respected enough was listened too and the whole tribe survived (at least the ones who listened to this person).

Or imagine someone having a dream about an invading hoard and telling people not to be someplace common where they might all die and once again the tribe (those who listened at least would be saved).

This is a gift that some people have. IN some ways I believe everyone could develop these abilities. However, often only people who have to develop these abilities to survive at all are the ones who actually develop these abilities.

But, as long as one or more respected people have these gifts, often tribes could survive almost anything that came for hundreds of thousands of years.