The Great Human Race — Thirst

I really thought I’d done my last post about the National Geographic program The Great Human Race. Their next exisode was entitled “Thirst” and took place in the desert in Oman on the Saudi peninsula. It didn’t seem bare feet would be involved at all.

I was wrong.

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The Great Human Race — Fire and Hunt

Last week I wrote about the first episode of the National Geographic show “The Great Human Race”, featuring experimental archaeologist Bill Schindler and survival expert Cat Bigney. Today let me discuss the next two episodes.

I really wish they gave some attention to bare feet as part of the great human race.

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The Great Human Race — Dawn

There’s a new show on the National Geographic Channel that’s tracing the early history of the human race. It features Bill Schindler, an anthropologist/experimental archaeologist (and professor at Washington College in Maryland) and Cat Bigney, a survival expert (and primitive skills instructor at the Boulder Outdoor Survival School). What the show does is have them spend about a week trying to live the way human’s did, and using only the skills of those humans, at different times in their remote past.

The first show, Dawn, starts with Homo habilis, ancestors from about 2.6 million years ago. We’re told that they will use “no modern tools”. But see if you can spot their modern tools as they start out.

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The Western Assumption

Early this week, while highlighting Allan Savory, I noted his appearance on the new PBS series Earth: A New Wild. There was another episode of the series this past Wednesday, entitled Forests, that included a visit to the Huaorani in the Amazonian Rainforest.

What struck me about the segment was how little the westerners even attempted to fit into the environment.

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10,000 BC

There’s a new “reality show” across the big pond called 10,000 BC. The premise is that they transport 20 people back 12,000 years to see how they survive.

It’s the usual mash-up of drama and ignorance.

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Dissected: The Incredible Human Foot

BBC 4 (their more eclectic channel) had a very interesting show last week about the human foot. Aside from the fact that they dissected (well, somewhat ) a foot, they also had a few segments on the wonders of the foot in general.

Catch it if you can.

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