During my trip to Tanzania, I used my nature journal and my pocket notebook for drawing and writing and I used my phone for photos, short videos, and audio recordings. With this diverse toolbox I tried to document my observations, feeling, and impressions.
I tried to keep very careful notes about their hunting techniques, how many arrows they shot, how they debate the tracks on the ground, and how they make decisions about where to follow the animals. I mostly used my small Moleskine pocket notebook for scribbling notes and drawings on the fly because the Hadza move so fast that there was little time for me to take out my nature journal. I soon learned that it was even more efficient to record audionotes on my phone on these hunts.
Several birds and squirrels were taken in this hunt and also some lesser Galagos, and an intense encounter with Baboons. These notes include some of my descriptions of the beauty of the landscape and some of my questions. There is also more about my process in this audio-recording from Tanzania. You can hear the East African birds in the background as I review my trail notebook from the first day with the Hadza.
Here is a short video I took on the first hunting trip where I tagged along. They walk fast, talk, joke, and smoke.
By traveling and studying traditional food production systems around the world I am sometimes in situations that present ethical questions. These Galagos were the cutest animal that I saw the Hadza kill for food and I am sure that many of my compatriots would question the killing of such animals for food. My main goal on these trips is not to judge from the standards of my industrial culture but to be an observer and to try to understand the perspective of these people who hunt and gather every day for their survival. For more on the ethics of eating see my post about Eating Biodiversity.
