One can also excavate mythologies, beliefs,
and practices for explicit clues to the broader past (Biesele 1993; Lye 1994; Blust
this issue; Turner this issue), but given the time depths involved, the results are
suggestive at best. The methodological difficulties outlined here call for caution in
building analogies and comparisons from the present to the past, and vice versa.
For example, the physical and social environments of early hunter-gatherers were
different (lower population density, different botanical and zoological species
profiles, and different organizational requirements in food procurement).