Eating Like Our Ancestors, Living Off The Land

I had been wanting to read an article in the September issue of National Geographic magazine, titled The Evolution of Diet, because Nat Geo's Instagram page had been featuring preview photographs from the story every week for over a month, and they’d really caught my attention.

When the issue finally came out, I bought it and read the article, which discussed an interesting approach to the current fad of the "paleo diet", and how eating like our ancestors did could be the answer to sustainable food security in the future. More than the article itself, I loved the photographs in the story. They supported the article but also told a story of their own - tracing the way certain tribes in remote parts of the world still practice food habits like their ancient ancestors. At that time, I remember wishing that the article had spoken more about the stories behind those photographs…

The Hazda Tribe of Tanzania. Photos by Matthieu Paley

It’s as if the photographer, Matthieu Paley, read my thoughts. Because shortly afterwards, he began writing about his travels and the food cultures he discovered while working on this article, in the PROOF section of the Nat Geo website.

Think of this – every week we go to the local grocery store, or these days maybe just make a phone call, and we instantly have a month’s supply of food. Or better still, feel like Chinese tonight but maybe Italian tomorrow? No problem, you can order from the restaurants in the neighborhood!

And now consider, at the same time, that there are people in the world to whom this concept is alien. To them, food is not fresh enough if it hasn’t just been picked off the tree or just hunted down for dinner. They live in the natural world, and collect food every day for their meals.

The Tsimane of Bolivia live off the land. Photo by Matthieu Paley

Matthieu Paley, in his series of stories for PROOF, titled "We Are What We Eat", writes about just this. People in Afghanistan, Greenland, Bolivia, Malaysia, Pakistan – who live off the land and the sea.

The Bajau of Malaysia: Hunter-gatherers of the sea. Photo by Matthieu Paley

His stories reminded me of Kutch, a district in Gujarat that I traveled to earlier this year.

Till about 4 decades ago, the inhabitants of Kutch lived with similar practices, as hunter-gatherers, finding food as necessary.

Every morning at around 4 am, the women of the house would set out on long journey to collect water from the nearest oasis or water hole, carrying back enough for the next day or two. Then it was time to go looking for food.

Seeds of thorny grasses, flowers of cacti, berries of shrubs, meat of wild boars... Each item could be collected only in its specific season, through a certain meticulous process (one that often involved avoiding desert thorns!).

Foods of the Desert

Even today, most adults living in the rural areas will be able to tell you which of two seemingly identical plants in the desert is edible and which is poisonous.

And of course the people of the desert always relied on their cattle: milk, curds, buttermilk, ghee, and the world’s ubiquitous amber drink – tea, were also part of this old traditional diet.

There are at least five food products that my guide identified in the vegetation behind me

Since the Narmada dam project has brought flowing water to the district of Kutch, its dietary practices have drastically evolved. Foods that were alien to the area are now commonplace. Vegetables, wheat, and even rice, which were only imported from other states by the wealthy in the big towns like Bhuj, are now enjoyed in the smallest of households.

But it’s amazing to think that till so recently, the vast majority of India’s largest district used to eat the same way most of us did hundreds of years ago, and so many other communities in India and across the world, still do today!

Learning first-hand about these ancient food practices that contrast so starkly with my own, was one of the more fascinating experiences I’ve had. This is why Paley’s work is so exciting to me! His simply written accounts of his travels, coupled with his photographs and even a few videos, sent me on his journeys vicariously. And I hope some day I can do it in person, like Paley does, for a living!