Coolest Gift Ever

[Atlatlista]

Do you know what wood the bow is made from?

Well, sorta.  We know that the Hadza have a name for it, but we've never been able to get someone to definitively ID it.  I do know that the arrows are made from a berry bush.  Don't know the scientific name for that one either.  When I go to Tanzania in the summer, I'll take samples of the foliage of the trees they use for their bows and get a botanist to give me a definitive ID.

[rps3]

Interesting bow and story to go with it.

[Atlatlista]

Just had a talk with my advisor today and he says that he thinks the hair is not warthog, but Greater Kudu.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&docid=JT8crxbSzYXjxM&tbnid=kxRO8D9ujY1uBM:&ved=0CAUQjBwwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2Fe%2Fe4%2FMale_greater_kudu.jpg&ei=tNp2UvvvBPGA2AWIwYCQDw&psig=AFQjCNFmwwMptOTsBJW3FYq7bukpOlO1Sw&ust=1383607348277180

[CherokeeKC]

That is one heck of a gift!  How old is the bow and arrows?

[Atlatlista]

That is one heck of a gift!  How old is the bow and arrows?

They're only two years old.  The Hadza still live by the bow out in the bush in Tanzania, so they're constantly making these.  They tend to wear out and break over time, as they're a cylindrical self bow, with violated growth rings and all the rest of it.  Also, they're built to be extremely heavy draw - up to 100 pounds in some instances.  So, they do break from time to time, but this is the way the Hadza have been making them for decades (maybe a lot longer than that), and they've stuck with it.

[mikekeswick]

Thanks so much for sharing this. I'd love to have your job. Being able to talk to these people would be fantastic. Do you know if they still use persistance hunting or is it all bow and arrow now?

[Del the cat]

Thanks so much for sharing this. I'd love to have your job. Being able to talk to these people would be fantastic. Do you know if they still use persistance hunting or is it all bow and arrow now?

+1
Del

[RyanR]

That is really cool. Love that decoration on the bow.

[Parnell]

That is absolutely fascinating.  I really like the way the African bow design looks with that round or cylindrical cross section but have wondered what kind of wood they use to taper the ends so thin without them breaking and extreme violation.  But it sounds like you gave the answer. I'll be watching closely for more pictures of your journey there next summer.  I'm fascinated!

Thanks for sharing the post.  Do the Hadza actively use money, that is, do they sell these bows and other things?  Do they have access is some way to shipping?  I can only imagine costs...
I suppose this is part of the African economic dilemna.  Again, very interesting, load us up with pictures next summer!

P.s.  Shame to hear about the maker being killed by poachers.  Curious though, do the people have access to killing giraffes frequently?  Is that sustainable for bowstring material?  I wonder if they have other animal sources they use...

Also, does the bow appear to be crafted from a sapling roughly that diameter or does it look to be split stave?

[Dan K]

Definaty awsome post. Thanks for sharing. Sure wish we'd see more posts like this one!

[Atlatlista]

So I'll try to address all the points in one post.

Persistence hunting - no they use the bow and arrow.  The idea of hunting through persistence running was first put forth by Harvard anthropologist Dan Lieberman.  My professor, Henry Bunn, along with another professor at my university, Travis Pickering, pretty much debunked that hypothesis as the method of hunting in the paleolithic through the use of mortality profile analysis.  Here is the PDF of the paper they wrote in the Journal "Quaternary Research":

http://diyhpl.us/~bryan/papers2/paperbot/Bovid%20mortality%20profiles%20in%20paleoecological%20context%20falsify%20hypotheses%20of%20endurance%20running–hunting%20and%20passive%20scavenging%20by%20early%20Pleistocene%20hominins.pdf

The Hadza nearer the roads do use money, but the ones in the bush do not.  These bows are largely obtained through trade - a t-shirt, a pair of sneakers, or some tire sandals, or maybe a bunch of six inch nails which they use to make their arrowheads - that kind of thing.  Other groups trade more directly with Tanzanian currency, like the Maasai for example.

Giraffes are not infrequently killed by the Hadza.  That is the largest of their routine prey animals.  They certainly don't make a giraffe kill every day, but they do kill them frequently enough to use their parts for tool-making.  They also kill zebras pretty frequently, as that is a favorite meal for them.  But they'll kill pretty much anything smaller than a giraffe if it gets in front of their bows - including lions and other carnivores.

The bow is, so far as I know, not made from a sapling per say.  It's more like a medium-sized tree that they cut down to the dimensions they want with ax and knife work.  I'm not positive exactly on tree selection.  I've seen some stuff on youtube, but I haven't had a chance to get out there myself yet.  This summer will be my first one in Tanzania (couldn't be more excited).

I'll definitely post pics and probably videos.  One of my research plans is to bring a 3D archery target to the Hadza and have them shoot it at different ranges so I can assess their accuracy.  I'll definitely get video of that.

[criveraville]

cool!!!

[Buckeye Guy]

WOW !!

[Atlatlista]

Was finally able to shoot this through a chrono.  I could only draw it 24 inches, because it was already 60 pounds at that draw length, and the draw force curve is NOT gentle.  I suspect at a full 28 inch draw it's probably in the 75+ pound range.  However, at 24 inches of draw, it was shooting a carbon arrow 160fps, and it shot the huge, heavy, big-fletched Hadza bird arrow at 131 fps.  I was super impressed, though the giraffe tendon string at that draw weight is hard on the fingers.