Samuel
Tiro
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Slinging Rocks!
Posts: 48
León, Spain
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Bill, good point about North America. As for the Andean region, herding was a major activity, very important for their economy and culture, more for the wool than for the meat (even their slings (huaracas) are made out of wool!!!). I learned that South American technology was focused towards textiles: wool, strings, fabric… (they used it to build bridges, tools, of course clothes, and even their written language was about making knots). I would say that for the Andean region the point relating sling use and pastoral society is strong.
About North America I don’t know much, but all the info I’ve got is that the sling was in fact used, but not as widespread as in other regions and in general was a secondary tool/weapon (I might be wrong). One interesting thing about the Americas would be to know if the sling came with the first settlers during the Paleolithic or it was developed entirely separately from “the old world”. (as far as I know nobody knows the exact time when the sling was invented)
Regarding Polynesian people… well, I don’t know. They had pigs, chicken, dogs (I think). But I wouldn’t call them “herders”. I actually think that there is also some tendency to the use of the sling by islanders (Mediterranean, Polynesian, even Irish…), but it’s just an impression.
For me the general idea is that basically every human society since at least the Neolithic has known the sling and used it to some degree, but there are some economic and ecological aspects (herding, mountain ranges, abrupt terrain, ¿islands?...) that seem to enhance the use of the sling.
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