The Old Way
A Story of the First People
Picador · Print & ebook · October 30, 2007
Elizabeth Marshall Thomas was nineteen when her father took his family to live among the Bushmen of the Kalahari.
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- Who it’s for
- A vivid return to the Kalahari opens a window onto humanity’s long hunter-gatherer past.
- Themes
- Hunter-gatherer societies, Human origins, Lessons from traditional societies
- Genres
- How Cultures Work, Personal Memoirs, Archaeology
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Start with this bookAbout this book
Elizabeth Marshall Thomas was nineteen when her father took his family to live among the Bushmen of the Kalahari. Fifty years later, after a life of writing and study, Thomas returns to her experiences with the Bushmen, one of the last hunter-gatherer societies on earth, and discovers among them an essential link to the origins of all human society.
Continue reading
Humans lived for 1,500 centuries as roving clans, adapting daily to changes in environment and food supply, living for the most part like their animal ancestors. Those origins are not so easily abandoned, Thomas suggests, and our modern society has plenty still to learn from the Bushmen. Through her vivid, empathic account, Thomas reveals a template for the lives and societies of all humankind.
Human Origins, Up Close
A vivid return to the Kalahari opens a window onto humanity’s long hunter-gatherer past.
Come here for
- A personal account shaped by decades of writing and study
- Questions about what modern society may learn from the Bushmen
Expect
- An empathetic lens on hunter-gatherer life
- Reflections on the roots of human society
Where it sits
| How Cultures Work | 69% |
|---|---|
| Personal Memoirs | 35% |
| Archaeology | 33% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Personal Memoirs
- How Cultures Work
- Authors
- Elizabeth Marshall Thomas
- Publisher
- Picador
- Published
- October 30, 2007
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Hunter-gatherer societies · Human origins · Lessons from traditional societies
- Reading lane
- Personal Memoirs