POST 2

                                                

Golijanin, Alek. “Hadza Man.” The Voice, Athabasca University Student Union, 19 Aug. 2020, https://www.voicemagazine.org/2020/08/19/the-hadza-modern-hunter-gather-people-of-tanzania/. Accessed Oct. 2020.

The Hadza

The Hadza are a hunter-gatherer society in Tanzania. The area is semi-arid with long dry seasons and rain seasons out in the bush west of a lake. Notable features are the mountain range, the Rift Valley scarp, and water point—important to the dry atmosphere. Interestingly, they love elephant meat but will not hunt it, only take meat from natural deaths. Meat from larger kills such as heart, meat and fat from the breast, and shoulder meat and neck are reserved for initiated men. Plant foods are typically gathered by the women though men will gather berries while out in the bush if hungry. Despite outside pressure, they are not interested in becoming an agricultural society and have abandoned outside influential attempts to try becoming so. They are being pushed more and more out of their territory due to agriculturists and pastoralists. Mining and sport hunting threatens their environment and land security. 

The Hadza and Illness

1.    The Hadza have traditions of using various plants to treat ailments. What plants they have access to and how they have figured out to use them reflects their culture and where they live shapes aspects too. They use the bark of mondoko for a compress, which is unique to where they live compared to areas without the plant growing there or don’t bother to use it. They also use root shavings, marongodako that can be used as accessories or ethnobotanical medicine.

Cited Sources 

Stiles, Daniel. “The Hadzabe of Tanzania: People and Land in Trouble.” Kenya Past and Present, no. 27 (1995): 39–44. https://www.academia.edu/47436723/The_Hadzabe_of_Tanzania_People_and_Land_in_Trouble. 

1.       Crittenden, Alyssa N., and N. G. (Nicholas G.) Blurton Jones. 2019. “Culture Summary: Hadza.” New Haven: Human Relations Area Files. https://ehrafworldcultures-yale-edu.northernkentuckyuniversity.idm.oclc.org/document?id=fn11-000.