Carl%20Sagan%20-%20The%20Demon%20Haunted%20World

THE DEMON-HAUNTED WORLD
you can determine a great deal from how crisp or blurred the
crater is. If insect or other animal tracks are superposed on the
hoofprints, this also argues against their freshness. The subsurface
moisture content of the soil and the rate at which it dries out after
being exposed by a hoof determine how crumbly the crater walls
are. All these matters are closely studied by the !Kung.
The galloping herd hates the hot Sun. The animals will use
whatever shade they can find. They will alter course to take brief
advantage of the shade from a stand of trees. But where the
shadow is depends on the time of day, because the Sun is moving
across the sky. In the morning, as the Sun is rising in the east,
shadows are cast west of the trees. Later in the afternoon, as the
Sun is setting toward the west, shadows are cast to the east. From
the swerve of the tracks, it's possible to tell how long ago the
animals passed. This calculation will be different in different
seasons of the year. So the hunters must carry in their heads a kind
of astronomical calendar predicting the apparent solar motion.
To me, all of these formidable forensic tracking skills are
science in action.
Not only are hunter-gatherers expert in the tracks of other
animals; they also know human tracks very well. Every member of
the band is recognizable by his or her footprints; they are as
familiar as their faces. Laurens van der Post recounts,
[M]any miles from home and separated from the rest, Nxou
and I, on the track of a wounded buck, suddenly found
another set of prints and spoor joining our own. He gave a
deep grunt of satisfaction and said it was Bauxhau's footmarks
made not many minutes before. He declared Bauxhau
was running fast and that we would soon see him and the
animal. We topped the dune in front of us and there was
Bauxhau, already skinning the animal.
Or Richard Lee, also among the !Kung San, relates how when
briefly examining some tracks a hunter commented, 'Oh, look,
Tunu is here with his brother-in-law. But where is his son?'
Is this really science? Does every tracker in the course of his
training sit on his haunches for hours, following the slow degradation
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