Hunter-Gatherers and Human Resilience: An Homage to the OG Wanderers and the Problem of Assessing “Progress”

What does “progress” mean from the perspective of the earliest human wanderers?

“Buffalo Hunt under the Wolf-skin Mask” (ca. 1832) by George Catlin. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons.

“[H]unter-gatherers may well be able to teach us something, not only about past ways of life but also about long-term human futures.”

-Richard B. Lee and Richard Daly, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers

In the eyes of many archaeologists, …