[legion]

A friend of mine took five years and backpacked from Texas to Cape Horn and back. He had no money, he hitched rides where he could, walked when he couldn't. He provided a day's labor for a day's food before moving on when he was hungry. Sometimes he didn't eat for days, sometimes he stayed in the same place for a while and ate his fill.

Coming from the U.S., the thing that most surprised him when he got away from "civilization" was how food was doled out in the small villages on the edge of subsistence. The healthy males ate first--they ate until they were full. The healthy women ate next, then the elderly, then the children. If the healthy men ate all of the food, no one else ate that day. If the healthy men and women ate all of the food...the elderly and children were SOL.

It may seem barbaric, but the logic behind this is sound. The healthy men supplied most of the labor, both in farming and hunting, if they were to die, the whole village would starve. The women were next in what they supplied: cooking and some farming labor. The elderly had knowledge. The children...they could be replaced in better times.

Incidentally, this friend left on this journey a socialist, and came back a libertarian.