Bear rites require stone-age weapons; presenter cites Clacton and Schoeningen spears

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Key facts

• Hallowell reports that Montagnais groups including Naskapi and Penobscot consider it proper to strike the bear with an axe as it emerges from its den, treating the aboriginal weapon type as morally correct even when firearms and steel traps are available.
• Among the Iroquois, engaging a bear single-handed was as brave as slaying an enemy, and the only proper method was a blow from a war club to the forehead; Hallowell says archaeological evidence from Iroquois horizons bears this out, as practically all recovered bear skulls show evidence of such blows.
• An Ainu account in the paper describes the hunter drawing the knife, the bear rushing into his embrace, hugging him closely, and receiving the thrust into the heart.
• The presenter cites the Clacton-on-Sea spear point in England at around 400,000 years old and a Schoeningen spear/thrower in Germany at around 300,000-400,000 years, both predating Homo sapiens.
• The presenter states the oldest bow and arrow is thought to date to roughly 70,000 years ago in South Africa, and that dogs were domesticated at most about 40,000 years ago (some estimates around 20,000).
• Hallowell records that among the Gilyak (Nivkh) the bear is both shot with an arrow to the heart and then beaten by hunters, combining newer and older technologies in a single rite.

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