Accidental Lesson- Man, land are inseparable

Even in modern society, the relationship cannot be severed.

Blood trickled down my left hand from a blow inflicted by a sharpened rock. Oddly, the rock rested in my right hand. The self-inflicted wound laid bare my ability to survive as a primitive man. It peeled back some other truths as well. By attempting to recreate a bone fish hook, I learned three lessons.

First, primitive does not mean easy, just early. Second, early tools require a lot of time and craftsmanship. Third, fishing was probably connected to hunting. All three lessons had implications for prehistoric survival and got me to thinking about our survival as well.

Lesson one began as an effort to make a fish hook from a deer bone. I used a finger bone -- not mine this time -- from my latest muzzleloader harvest. The bones were set aside where my dog and a forest full of scavengers could not get their slobbery jaws on them.

I used the sharp rock chip, called a chert, to score a groove. This should have prepared the bone to split into two mirror image pieces.

Instead it prepared my hand for bandaging. Undeterred, I cheated and finished the fish hook with a power tool.

Fashioning a tool from bone was part of prehistoric culture. Today, it's no longer a survival necessity. If I needed a fish hook, a pocket full of change could supply me with several.

Crafting a fish hook is not only unnecessary for survival today, but it's inefficient. It would take hours to make one using flint and sandstone. Not to mention the extra effort to retrieve a hook snagged on a root wad, since my view of disposable would change drastically.

Shortly after completing my fish hook, I came across an article by kindred spirit Norman Jefferson, who fashioned hooks from bone and tried his luck. He found catching a fish was just as hard back then and also made for lots of broken hooks.

Broken hooks? Even making one primitive fish hook took a lot of time and skill. Sassy catfish snapping works of bone art could only add to primitive man's daily list of things to do. I wondered how much time our ancient ancestors spent on this kind of task.

A conversation with Southeast Missouri State University museum employee Jim Phillips shed light on that question. Philips said primitive peoples averaged about four hours a day obtaining food. The rest of the day was available to do whatever was needed. Making fish hooks was no doubt one of many tasks filling the other 12 waking hours.

Yet that single task took much more time than you might imagine.

Particularly if you consider lesson three: Primitive folks must have known their ability to catch a fish was tied to their ability to fashion a hook from a deer bone. No deer equals no deer bone equals possibly no fish. Even with a deer and considerable time spent fashioning deer bone hooks, there was, like today, no guarantee of fish for dinner.

Still, our ancestors managed to live off the land. Their connection to nature was straightforward. Our tether to the land seems less so. All of us use natural resources, whether we process those resources ourselves or not. Every day I meet people who have no idea their well being is directly linked to the health of the land. While primitive life is different from our lives, a central theme binds us together. Our survival, like theirs, is ultimately dependent on the land.

It took a bloody cut to make me ponder that basic similarity. If we sever ourselves from that lesson, it may be the cruelest cut of all.

A.J. Hendershott is the regional supervisor of outreach and education for the Missouri Department of Conservation.