When and where does the story of Nasha take Place?
The story is set around 15,000 years ago. This was a very busy time in our history. Many scientists think that this was when people and wolves started living together. Humans made a number of advances at around the same time. They learned to make baskets and maybe invented the calendar. They were beginning to figure out how to grow things. Their shelters were becoming better, and so were their clothes. It may also have been around this time that humans crossed the land bridge from Asia to the Americas.
Some people think that wolves were domesticated much earlier than that. You can go here to read a different opinion.
http://retrieverman.wordpress.com/2008/12/22/are-dogs-31700-years-old/
The setting where the story takes place is not very clear, on purpose. It is somewhere in eastern Europe, western Asia, or the northern part of the Middle East. This is a pretty big area, I admit, but I am less confident about the place than the time. There is some evidence that the real first dog came from this area, and it was an area that was settled by humans early in our history. The area has mountains, rivers, large bodies of water, and a temperate climate, all of which are important for the story. There were also a wide variety of animals in that area. It seemed like the perfect setting for the story, but I did not want to be pinned down to a specific place.
Some scientists think that the dog may have been domesticated in another area. Other scientists think this important event might have taken place at several places and times. We may never know the answer to the question of where the first dog came from.
Did dogs really come from wolves?
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This Siberian husky sure looks like a wolf, doesn’t it? This is one of the oldest dog breeds. |
The best science today says that dogs came from wolves. It is hard to believe when you look at all the kinds of dogs there are. Some are tiny, like Chihuahuas, while others are huge, like mastiffs. Some, like the Akita, look a little like wolves, while bulldogs have a look that is all their own. All of the dog breeds today were developed by humans from wolves over thousands of years.
Here’s a link to a wonderful PBS show about wolves and dogs you are sure to enjoy.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/dogs-that-changed-the-world/introduction/1273/
For some additional details about the first dog, visit these links.
They are a little technical, but reading them will make you feel smart.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2498669.stm
http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/articles/11_02/dog.shtml
Go to TopIs it easy to tame wolves the way that Maddia did?
Let me begin by saying that people today should NOT be trying to tame wolves. Instead, we should do what we can to let wolves be wolves in the wild. If you want to help, click on this link:
Now back to the question. Members of the wolf family seem to tame easily if they come in contact with humans at an early age. One of the great experiments in animal domestication was done in Siberia, a part of Russia. A scientist, Dmitry Belyaev, wanted to find out what allowed the bond between humans and animals to develop. He and others studied foxes for 40 years. They found that “tameness” was the trait in the foxes that helped them get along with humans. You can read about this experiment by clicking the link below. After you have read the story, you might want to click the button at the top of the page that says Program 1. This will bring you to more information on how the wolf became the dog.
http://www.abc.net.au/animals/program1/factsheet5.htm
Here’s another take on the same story.
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/03/30/science/new-breed-of-fox-as-tame-as-a-pussycat.html
You write in detail about the way that Nasha and Albo behave.
How do you know so much about wolves?
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Like many people, I am very interested in wolves. Ever since I was in grade school, I’ve read about wolves. Now I browse Web sites about wolves and watch television shows about them. I have seen wolves in the wild in Yellowstone National Park and nearby areas.
I am also lucky because I have some wolves to observe almost every day. These aren’t wild wolves, but wolf-dog hybrids that a neighbor has rescued. They are in an area that has a fence around it to protect the wolves on the inside and the people on the outside. Even though they are friendly, it is much better that they have their own space. I bring the wolves treats, so they are comfortable with my being near them. I am still happy that there is a fence between us.
This picture shows a wolf-dog hybrid. |
Maddia’s clan had to move from one place to another.
Did ancient people do this very often?
Our human journey began in our original home in Africa. We found our way to the rest of the world over the course of many thousands of years. Our ancestors moved from one place to another to find food, to seek better weather, to escape enemies, or for other reasons. This journey was remarkable and is a tribute to our ancestors. I sometimes find it hard to believe that tens of thousands of years ago, our human family, including older people, women with babies, and children, walked from one end of Earth to another. This journey took thousands of years, but they never gave up. What wonderful people they were!
One of my favorite Web sites is below. It has an interactive map and timeline that show the journey of humans. The map contains some extra information that explains the science that underlies the map.
http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/journey/
Why do most of the characters in the story, even the young ones, seem smart?
Weren’t they just cave people?
When you think about it, humans at the time of the story were much like us in many ways. They didn’t have the technology we have today, of course, or 15,000 years of additional experience. They did, however, have a brain that was very much like ours, and they faced great challenges every day. These people had to be very smart or they would not survive.
Ancient humans spent most of their time just surviving. They had to find food, protect themselves from other humans and animals, and make their own tools, clothes, and shelter. They probably spent a lot of time thinking of better ways to do things, because almost everything they did was difficult and time consuming. A simple invention like the basket or a sharp stone knife could greatly improve the life of a group of humans. They invented things and solved problems the way that people do today.
Young people probably made very important contributions to the life of the clan. First of all, people didn’t live very long at the time of the story. The average life expectancy might be 35 years or less. That means a teenager back then was halfway through her or his life. Second, young people probably worked just as hard as adults to help the clan. They must have been valued for their contributions, and because of their experiences, they probably had some great ideas.
A third consideration is the place of the young people in the clan. They may not have had the same responsibilities as adults, like caring for babies or leading hunting parties, so they may have had more time to think. Young people play more than older people, especially today, and their play might have led them to some interesting discoveries.
Even in more or less modern times, young people have done some amazing things. Cleopatra was18 and Elizabeth I of England was 25 when they became rulers. Einstein, Marie Curie, Shakespeare, and Mozart did some of their best work when they were young. It is realistic to believe that young people in ancient human societies made significant contributions to their clans.
The women in the clan seem to make many discoveries.
Is this possible?
Didn’t men dominate tribal groups?
In my opinion, which is based on some evidence, women are likely to have made many of the discoveries of early humans. The roles of ancient women and men were different. Their roles probably contributed to their inventiveness.
Men were the leaders and did much of the hunting, and when it became necessary, the fighting. We don’t know this for sure, but these roles were typical in later civilizations like the Sumerians, Hittites, and Egyptians. As hunters and fighters, men were in constant danger, they were always on alert, and they had little time for finding creative solutions to problems. The problems that they did solve probably had something to do with hunting and protecting the clan, such as making tools or weapons.
Women did much of the gathering, food preparation, and other everyday chores. This was hard work, but it did not require the kind of concentration that hunting and fighting did. They had more of their mental abilities available for problem solving, especially for the tasks that they performed.
To understand this better, think of your own situation. When you are hurried and are under a lot of pressure for school projects, you don’t have free time to think about things that are fun or creative. When you have time on your hands, you probably do clever things like draw, play, practice a sport, enjoy a video game, read, talk with your friends, or do other hobbies. Your brain is able to work a little better.
Most of the great inventions of humans were not associated with hunting or warfare. Specialized tools, pottery, baskets, rope, cloth, and the sewing needle are just a few of these things. They all have one thing in common. They are associated with tasks normally performed by women in primitive societies. There is a really good chance that a woman was responsible for these inventions.
Some people in the story had special skills like Fong.
Did ancient humans have individual jobs, or did everyone help with most chores?
A hundred thousand years ago or so, there was little specialization among humans. The people in a tribe or clan probably participated in hunting and gathering as a group. Almost all effort was devoted to survival. As people became better at hunting and gathering, they probably had a little more free time to spend alone or in groups. This allowed individuals or humans to develop special skills, like tool making. Starting around 50,000 years ago, there seemed to be more specialization.
In addition, clans developed a hierarchy, with a leader, elders, and a shaman or priestess. Given the structure of the clan and the development of individual talents, it just made sense to let the people who were good at certain things do those things. So, over time, some ancient people developed special skills. Making tools was one of the most important.
Scientists who study old tools found something interesting. There is evidence that ancient humans were left handed or right handed, just as we are today. Scientists learned this from the way that chips were removed from stone tools.
If you would like to experience how our ancestors made tools, you can look at the videos on the site below. The person who is doing the demonstration is John Olsen. The work he does is called flintknapping, because he works with a kind of stone called flint. Oh, the letter k in “flintknapping” is silent.
http://www.ehow.com/videos-on_4514_techniques-flintknapping.html
With the exception of Gortush and Jartush, most of the people in the story get along well and cooperate. Even the other clans seem friendly. Didn’t ancient people spend a lot of their time fighting one another?
Movies and books often suggest that ancient humans were warlike. This is probably not true, but it makes for an action-filled movie with gory special effects. There was surely conflict among the human groups, and some clans were probably aggressive. Most ancient humans, however, probably cooperated with one another most of the time.
One reason we suspect this is true is because we are alive today. If humans were very aggressive, our ancestors would probably have fought so much that they would have caused our extinction. The number of humans would never have grown big enough to sustain the population across many generations.
A second reason is that cooperation is a lot more productive than aggression. Imagine that you were living 15,000 years ago. Wouldn’t it be easier to hunt dangerous animals with other people rather than trying it yourself? Many animals show cooperative behavior, from ants to elephants. Cooperation is the most important survival mechanism, and our ancestors knew this.
A third reason is that cooperation is a lot more fun than aggression. When most people fight, they don’t feel good. When they cooperate, they do feel good. Just think how people today feel when they succeed together. There is no doubt that ancient humans felt the same way.
Competition between individuals and groups certainly existed long ago. An example in the book is the incident when a group of hunters killed a boar and the brothers drove them off and claimed it. Events like this probably occurred from time to time. It was more likely, however, that neighboring clans would want to trade what they had too much of for things they needed.
Here are two interesting articles about human cooperation and play. As you will see, play was just as important to our ancestors as it is to us. Be sure you play; it makes us better people.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/03/0307_060307_human_prey.html
http://www.bc.edu/offices/pubaf/journalist/Gray_Play.html
That raises another question. Did ancient people trade things?
Bartering or the exchange of goods is one of the oldest human behaviors, and it eventually led to civilization. If you had a talent for making stone tools, you could trade your tools for food that someone hunted or gathered. This is another example of cooperative behavior. Over time, humans became very good at trade and dependent on it.
When scientists study ancient living places, they often discover odd things, objects like tools made of stones from far away, feathers from birds not in the area, or seashell jewelry in landlocked places. These are evidence of trade, and they suggest that trade was not just for what people needed, like food, but also for things they had no real use for, like feathers.
Trade did something else that was very, very important. It created the need for writing and counting. Some of the oldest examples of writing and counting seem to describe goods, like animals or jars of oil. You can read about how trade changed the world at the site below.
http://www.livescience.com/history/080218-hs-trade.html
What language did people speak 15,000 years ago when the story took place?
It is impossible to know what languages people spoke that long ago. There were probably many different languages, but people in the same region probably spoke similar languages. If you want to read an interesting discussion by a linguist about the oldest spoken language, go to this Web site.
http://linguistlist.org/ask-ling/oldest.html
The linguist Elizabeth J. Pyatt has this comment about a language that might have been around at the time of Nasha. The language is called Proto-Indo-European, and it may be a forerunner of other languages.
“In case you’re wondering, Proto-Indo-European is the name for the hypothetical language that spawned most of the languages of Europe and India. Descendants include English, Sanskrit, Russian, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Greek, Serbo-Croatian, Lithuanian, Polish, Czech, Persian, Hindi, Bengali, Gaelic, Welsh, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Albanian, Armenian, and more!”
Some of these languages are spoken by people in the area where wolves were domesticated, so it is possible that an early form of one or more of them might have been spoken by Maddia’s clan.
Here’s a tidbit you might enjoy. Some linguists think that the oldest spoken language may have been based on the clicking sounds that still exist in some African languages. The clicking sounds probably helped people communicate while hunting. Animals that might be frightened by human voices might not notice clicking sounds. You can read about this theory in the first link below. The second link is video of someone speaking the Xhosa language, which still uses clicks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_l7ty_MH_Y
Your writing has a very personal touch, as if you know the people and wolves in the story.
What causes you to write like this?
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This drawing shows what an aurochs looked like. |
That is a very observant question. One of the first readers of the book, my mother,
said the same thing. Of course, she might have said that just to make me feel good.
She is, after all, my mother.
When I write, it is almost as if I am there. Some people get a feeling of “being there”
when they see a movie or read a book. I get it when I write. I have a sense that I am
right in the story, and the events are happening to me. I love this feeling, and I’ll bet
other writers feel the same way, too.
A second reason that the writing seems personal is that I imagine people I know as the
characters. This helps me get a sense of how they act or speak.
The third reason is an odd one. When I think of early humans, I don’t consider them as
strange creatures from long ago and far away. I think of them as my family. Nasha is about my
people, so it is not difficult for me to write about them personally. The few dozen or so humans
from Africa who crossed a shallow sea to the Middle East are my grandparents from thousands
of generations ago. So are the humans who tamed fire, invented the wheel, built the first cities,
and carved symbols into stone that became the first writing. I am very proud of what they did, and
because of their inventiveness, we live in a wonderful world. I wish that everyone felt this way,
because if they did, people would probably be nicer to one another.
Throughout the story, people use hand signs with each other and the wolves.
Prehistoric people didn’t use gestures, did they?
We are as certain as we can be that prehistoric people used hand gestures. Animals like monkeys and apes use hand gestures, and in all human cultures, hand signals are used today. Deaf people around the world use signed languages that are as sophisticated as spoken languages. Some researchers believe that communicating through hand gestures came before speech. Think about when you talk to your friends. Don’t you often use hand gestures? Our ancestors probably found them very helpful, especially when they were hunting or being hunted.
Dogs understand hand gestures, as do wolves. Here’s a link to a story about how well dogs understand hand gestures. Anyone who has spent much time around dogs won’t be surprised. It is truly amazing at how well dogs obey commands given by hand.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31897694/ns/health-pet_health/
Was the aurochs a real animal?
Yes, the aurochs was a real animal. It was like a huge version of the longhorn cattle we have today. Aurochs lived in herds and grazed on grass and other plants. Can you imagine a cow with giant horns that was as tall at its shoulder as an average man?
Aurochs ranged across Asia and Europe, from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic. A variety of the aurochs also lived in India and northern Africa. Because aurochs could swim, as can cattle today, they even made it to Sicily, an island off the coast of southern Italy.
Sadly, aurochs became extinct in 1627. The chief reason is that humans hunted aurochs for food and sport. They were also hunted by large, meat-eating animals. A second reason is the loss of habitat. Humans were using more land for farms, and they were raising domestic cattle. You can read more about aurochs here.
http://www.petermaas.nl/extinct/speciesinfo/aurochs.htm