In Beringia, Wanda Tamberly meets the Tulat, the We, archaic Caucasoids, descended from Western Asians, who:
catch fish by hand or in weirs;
collect shellfish, eggs, nestlings, grubs, roots and berries;
trap birds, rodents and other small animals;
club seal pups on ice floes;
sometimes find larger carcasses still edible;
then use the hide also;
once drove wolves from their bison prey with stones and fire;
thus, are not really hunters;
are scarce;
leave hardly a trace.
Despite her focus on animals, Wanda is drawn into conflict between her We and the Paleo-Indians/pre-Columbian Americans when the latter arrive. Pivotal events might happen even that long ago.
Wanda was in the Patrol Academy in the Oligocene. Now she camps in the Pleistocene in a shelter mainly occupied by her timecycle. Anderson moves effortlessly from Guion contemplating other realities to the We wallowing in warm mud in the autumn.
Hi, Paul!
ReplyDeleteI have wondered if the archaic Caucasians we see in "Beringia" were of the same people as the Ainu of northern Japan. And I noted the irony in the fact that the first human inhabitants of the Americas may have been Caucasoids conquered or absorbed by the Paleo Indians.
Sean