Shikar Te Sheti (Hunting To Farming)

The present industrial human society is two to three hundred years old. Earlier, humans were doing agriculture for ten thousand years. Before that, for thirty five million years, human was hunter, forager and fruits finder. And was completely dependent on nature for food like other animals. For four thousand or more generations he was in the hunter state. We do not know how he lived during that time. But till the last century, in many places, he was hunter and fruits finder.

For example, although the aborigines have lived in the continent of Australia for thousands of years, they did not discover agriculture or pottery until the arrival of Europeans. Aborigines of the island of Tasmania used stone tools even in the nineteenth century, similar to those used by humans three hundred thousand years ago. Millions of years ago, people had not even invented the idea of ​​putting a shaft on stone tools. Also, it has now been proved by carbon fourteen analysis that it has been four hundred thousand years since man discovered fire. Yet till the nineteenth century there were three tribes on this earth who did not use fire at all. All this might sound surprising but it is true. By the evidence collected from them, we can imagine the hunter-gatherer life of humans. Today, even in the twenty-first century, one lakh human beings remain in a hunter state.

Of course this is a very small part of the population. Because the number of human beings on this earth has now reached eight hundred crores. An attempt has been made in this book to draw a true picture of the life cycle of hunters and gatherers over millions of years.

Human tendency is not to change the routine. If the Earth’s climate had not changed after the last ice age, man would have remained hunter and a gatherer only. The book also tries to trace how agriculture might have started in the post-ice age period. Although this subject is scientific, an attempt has been made here to make it interesting.

For thirty-five million years, human was hunter and gatherer! That is, the human species has survived for thirty five million years. However in the last two to three hundred years, it has been realized that the earth and mankind have come to the brink of destruction due to minkind's own deeds. We can definitely learn a lot from this book!

Note: This book is available only in Marathi language.

Also Read: Ahead To Nature, Samyak Vikas