The Last hunters and Gatherers: the life of a primitive tribe in Nepal
Hunters and gatherers, as they write in historical books, are primitive people who lived tens of thousands of years ago, before they invented agriculture and livestock breeding. This is a hard life, which most tribes abandoned at the dawn of the development of civilizations. But deep in the forests of Nepal there is a small nomadic Raute tribe that still hunts wild animals and is engaged in gathering. These amazing images taken by photographer Andrew Newey in Surkhet province in eastern Nepal show what life can be like in very primitive conditions. All members of the tribe, regardless of age, make a feasible contribution to the life of the general settlement. Now there are less than 150 of them, and this tribe may really disappear soon.
The members of the Raute tribe are hunters and gatherers. In particular, they are able to catch monkeys, which they then eat. In the picture — one of the elders of the tribe returns from a successful hunt.
The routes are highly dependent on the environment, as they do not grow anything. In the photo, one of the tribe members is chopping down a tree trunk.
The women of the tribe wear bright clothes.
Each member of the tribe contributes to the life of the community, whether it is cutting trees or sorting grain. In the picture, the child carries ready-made firewood on his back.
Since the Routes are nomads, they are constantly moving. No one has a permanent job and does not go to school. The picture shows a little girl in a traditional dress.
As with hunters and gatherers thousands of years ago, Route's tasks are distributed by gender. In the picture, women are sorting grain and preparing food.
Raute is very fond of carving various things out of wood, which they then exchange for clothes and other necessary things, if necessary.
Very little is known about the rout, because they prefer to communicate only within their tribe and rarely interact with the rest of the local population.
Raute's life is hard, and it is even harder because their habitats are being destroyed. This means that they have to move very often.
In recent years, as forests disappear, the Raute are forced to interact more and more with the local population.
Traditionally, the routes live in tents made of leaves and twigs, using colored fabric for additional protection.