It might be hard to take in just how different we have it to the people of the past, what with all the conveniences of the modern age. We have fridges and freezers that keep our meat and other food fresher longer. We have supermarkets and butchers that allow us to pick meat nearby without having to go through the effort of hunting and killing an animal by ourselves before serving it up for dinner, as a result, this allows us to focus more on other things in our life instead of spending most of it on where our next food source is going to come from.
History before today
As you have probably already gathered, it wasn’t always like this. Before modern technology allowed us to make meat last longer, before agricultural techniques and breeding allowed us to domesticate animals for easy consumption, our ancestors from the Stone Age had to rely on good ol’ fashioned hunting and gathering. There wasn’t a supermarket in any nearby tribe. Heck, butchers didn’t even come into existence most likely until the domestication of livestock.
Back then, every day was a battle of survival, as humans needed to survive not only against hunger, but against competition or even predators that might try to go after them. As such, hunting was a necessity, and our ancestors were basically predators as well. Clever ones, as they could use stone tools to injure and kill animals from afar, but predators nonetheless.
Being fit in the past
History was not very forgiving against those who lagged behind in their fitness. While hunters generally kept to their own and even cared for their sick and frail, the necessity for hunting made the hunters naturally fit as a result. And this isn’t just speculation either, research has noted that past humans had bones denser than the bones of humans today. These early humans likely ran for much longer and covered considerably long distances as well, which is most likely due to the fact that they had to chase their prey down.
They didn’t have any fancy weapons like rifles or even bows. At best, they could chuck giant stones and hope it strikes through, as this was before throwing spears became a thing as well. Humans were quite adept at it too, but it didn’t always work, which is when they would have to chase after their prey.
Humans, being bipeds without the locomotion and flexibility of monkeys, lacked in speed when chasing prey, who would quickly be able to escape any human in sight. However, what they didn’t have in speed, they made up for extreme endurance, as humans were extremely persistent in chasing animals for miles until it keeled over from heat exhaustion, after which they would become dinner for the humans that could endure the time spent chasing the animal while clearing such distance.
Ancient vs. Modern
Don’t be fooled, however. Even if animals back then were just as easily able to initially outpace humans back then like they did today, most humans of the past were still much more fit and able than the humans of today. This is not to say that today’s humans aren’t fit, especially those that do proper exercise, but rather the difference in fitness between us in the past and us of today. In the past, being fit was a necessity. If you wanted the best chance of catching up to a fast animal without losing sight of it, of course you would want your body to be strong enough to carry your weight for long distances without crumpling, otherwise you would potentially lose your meal for the day or even starve.
It was a dog-eat-dog world out there and being fit wasn’t optional – it was a necessity. Today, we don’t have to worry about such things when other people do it for us, and even the people that do go hunting have it much easier: They can use modern-age weapons and tools to make hunts go smoother, so that even if they aren’t as fit as our ancestors, they would still be able to bag their hunts via other means.
Hunting today?
Today, hunting serves a much different purpose. In the past, it was a way to put food on the table. Now, it’s mostly done for sport. While hunting still does put food on the table for certain tribes and even modern-age people, it has instead turned into a sport that most people go into with different results. Sometimes they go in to get a trophy, sometimes they do it for the thrill, sometimes they go in to be one with nature, and sometimes, they want same wild game on the grill. What was once a necessity in life has instead turned into a sport, one that can be used in multitudes of ways. Not only that, but it can also affect the environment. Today’s hunters are quite important in population control of certain animals while also making sure that they don’t eat too much of the foliage and plants in the area. Indeed, it’s quite a shift, which also likely explains why our bodies aren’t as bulked up as our ancestors. It’s simply a different world we’re living in now.