Our Primitive Ancestors & 20th Century Technology
September 21, 2007
Charles T. Kuntzleman, who has a doctorate in exercise physiology and co-author of the Complete Book of Walking, teaches us that thousands of years ago, walking was the only way to get around.
Today, Australian aborigines still use their feet – just as our ancestors did. A group of them stalk a kangaroo mile after mile for days. Then they kill it for food and carry it back the way they came – walking.
There are a few other groups of people scattered through the mountain regions of Pakistan, Ecuador, and Russia who have endurance like that of the aborigines. They use their bodies vigorously in everything they do. Many of these primitive peoples have little resistance to microbial infections that inconvenience us. But they have a much greater resistance to heart disease, diabetes, and diseases that not only cut life short, but also take away enjoyment and quality of life. A study conducted at the Australian National University found a tribe of 777 natives in New Guinea in which heart disease is extremely rare and diabetes unknown. Only two had any sign of heart disease.
There is growing evidence to support the theory that modern man’s failure to use physical powers developed over thousands of years is responsible for his premature physical and mental degeneration. An example of how the sedentary ways of “civilization” offset primitive societies has been documented by researchers studying Eskimos in the Canadian Arctic.
In the old days, these hearty people lived a nomadic, self-reliant life. In numbing temperatures of 50 degrees below zero, the men hunted and fished; the women fished through the ice; and walking was always necessary.
Now, however, for all but a few of them, walking, driving dog sleds, and living in igloos are only memories. Today’s Eskimos drive snowmobiles and live in electrified houses. The men no longer hunt for food, instead they work at sedentary factory jobs. The women, who once tanned skins and made their family’s clothes, now purchase their clothing at stores.
As a result of this 20th Century inactive lifestyle, in one generation the Eskimos have begun to develop degenerative diseases at a frightening rate. Obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and other ailments are starting to weaken bodies that once thrived in the challenge of the frozen North.
Americans and members of other industrial societies had to work very hard 40, 50, or 60 years ago. Most people lived in small towns or on farms. Even suburbanites did a fair amount of walking to work, to market, to visit friends. Strolling to and from an evening’s entertainment was usually considered part of the entertainment. All this has changed. Modern devices have made us almost completely sedentary.
Back in the 1930’s, The United States Research Council said that the average sedentary man needed 3,000 calories a day to maintain his body weight; the average woman needed around 2,400. By the 1980’s, the council reported that a sedentary man now only required approximately 2,400 calories a day to maintain that weight and the average female needed as little as 1,800.
Somewhere during that fifty-year period, we’ve cut 600 calories out of our lives: we burn 600 fewer calories every day. We’re great at conserving our own physical energy, but for what purpose? All of this conservation has given us a new problem: obesity. Few people would be happy to go back to the days when everything had to be done by hand or by foot. But our grandparents didn’t have to contend with obesity and its related problems. The trends that encourage obesity are likely to continue.
It’s clear that in most parts of the world technology has made this kind of vigorous living obsolete. Most of us do not have to walk or do much physical work, either in our occupations or at home. Physical performance is almost unnecessary. The result has been lower vitality. But our scientific sophistication makes us aware that disuse of the body’s physical strength is contrary to our evolutionary heritage and a new concept has emerged. This is FITNESS. The human mind has achieved remarkable things, but it has yet to create an artificial substitute for exercise. We need to be more primitive, we need to get out there and walk!
Posted in Ask The Experts, Body Health, Walking Articles
