Waste Not, Want Not | The Great Human Race

Whoa! What is that? Look at the bottom of that slope. I see it! Is that an animal? Huh! It's a baby bushbuck! Look, something attacked this.

Oh, look at these marks! It definitely was! Definitely something bit it. It's bloated. It is bloated. We might not even be able to eat the meat. No! But you know, there's a bunch of other resources we need. Everything this thing has to offer.

We're aware that whatever chased this animal down this slope could still be around, and we've got to pay attention to the predators. However, we do need to take a moment to obtain what we can. This hand axe is great for larger animals, but for these smaller ones, smaller sharper tools would be great.

I got something! Hold on! Awesome! Homo sapiens were able to see more than just the immediate need for meat. They understood that they could harvest parts of the animals for uses other than food.

All right, you want to work? You want to work up top here? I'm trying to keep these organs intact. If we decide not to use them, there's no reason to open up that cavity.

Oh, no kidding! I don't want to open that cavity! Oh yeah, no organs! This meat smells like it's starting to go off too. Yeah! Cat and I realize quickly when we get into this animal that there's an odor to this meat. I don't think we're going to be able to eat it, but even if the meat isn't great, there's all kinds of things we can get out of this animal.

Okay, I'm going to try to get this suu off. We can have tools tied with it! This is perfect! I just got to get up underneath here. We can get it off!

I take a second. Essentially, sinu is animal tendon, and it occurs on mammals in many different places. Our Achilles tendon is an example of suu. We can use a suu to lash, tie, or sew with. We can make strings out of it!

Got it! This unique resource is a godsend! This is just as valuable to our ancestors as they are to me and Cat.