Although women occupy a dominant position in life and are the main labor force in collecting food to maintain the tribe's survival, men are the core of maintaining tribe security.
A tribe with too few and too weak men cannot have a sense of security.
Because even if it is a snake, a mouse or an insect, they will be scared.
Even if men sit at home and do nothing, women will feel at ease.
Although the piece of cloth in front of me is very small, it seems that it can only be used to bandage wounds.
But looking at the flat and round sticks Xu Chen threw on the ground, one can guess that the cloth can be made wider and larger.
So the attention of the group of women instantly shifted from the woman's injured feet to these long and short wooden sticks.
"Buga!" A woman with slightly gray hair picked up the sticks and handed them to Xu Chen.
"Booga buga!" A group of women urged him one after another.
Xu Chen then asked Ye to take out all the remaining twine.
Soon, with the cooperation of the two, the warp was wound again. This time it was not Xu Chen's demonstration, but his encouragement. Ye sat on the ground, tied the waist rope, stepped on the prayer stick, and under Xu Chen's guidance
First separate the warp threads, insert the warp dividing rods, and complete weaving back and forth twice. Then the two people work together to put on the heddle lifting rods and fix the two ends. This simplest and most primitive loom is installed.
Next it's Ye's performance time.
After half a day of practice, she has become very skilled in her movements. Under the watch of a group of women, children, the elderly and the weak, she can lift the heddle, thread the thread, and beat the weft in one go.
Although the process is very simple, it is no less than a super complex project for this group of primitive people.
In fact, Ye's movements were only two or three, but they were dazzled and screamed one after another.
Ye sat on the ground, lowering his head and weaving very seriously.
As a member of the ethnic group and still underage, his sense of presence is very low. Because he is thin, he spends most of his time on the mountain taking care of the elderly, the sick, the disabled and pregnant women. There is basically no opportunity to go down the mountain to participate in collection.
Although food is distributed equally, there will be fewer people who do not participate in gathering and hunting, except pregnant women. This is inevitable, because only when you are full can you have the strength to work.
Therefore, she has been in a state of semi-starvation almost as long as she can remember. Especially at her current age, when she is growing taller, she often gets hungry and panics.
But since Xu Chen woke up and began to invent novel tools such as twisting ropes and making baskets, she gradually had more food because she helped Xu Chen. She maintained almost the same ration as an adult, and never suffered any illness again.
Too hungry.
Moreover, Xu Chen would bring some wild fruits and other food to her and a group of children every time he went down the mountain.
Therefore, during this period of time, she felt that her body had undergone some obvious changes and she began to look more like a woman.
While weaving, she suddenly looked down at her breasts, and then her dark and thin cheeks felt a little feverish.
No one paid attention to Ye's movements, and they were not in the mood to observe. All the attention of the people in the circle now fell on her busy hands.
As she continued to lift the heddle, thread and beat the weft, a small section of fabric slowly began to appear.
A group of women became more and more excited.
Because they gradually realized that weaving this complicated thing into cloth is actually very simple and does not require any effort. Although the speed seems very slow, as long as you have patience and perseverance, you can weave a piece of cloth that is enough to cover your body in a few days.
.
"Xia Ga, Guduo Ga Ga!"
Mother Ba grabbed Xu Chen's arm, pointed at the loom and shook it vigorously.
A group of women also quickly turned to look at Xu Chen, all with expectant expressions on their faces.
Xu Chen naturally understood.
In ancient times, it meant wooden sticks, and more means more.
Muba naturally means that the loom has to do a lot.
So Xu Chen nodded and called out two old and weak men who were responsible for making tools. They took stone knives and axes and went into the woods to look for suitable wood.
After Muba and a few women took a short rest, they hurried down the mountain to continue washing the burlap.
Time flies to evening.
The men and women who went out to hunt and gather began to return one after another. The mother bus was the last to return with a few women washing hemp, and she also carried several large baskets of half-dried hemp on her back.
In order to make the burlap dry faster, Xu Chen and two tool men took advantage of the bright weather to chop some wooden sticks as thick as arms, and built a row of simple wooden racks against the wall at the entrance of the cave to hang the burlap.
After drying, the gray burlap swayed in the evening breeze, and the cave suddenly became like a silk cave, with a group of children milling around in it, all excited.
After dinner, a group of primitive people who were accustomed to going to bed early packed up and went into the cave to sleep one after another. Xu Chen got some hay and burlap, sat by the fire pond and started working under the weak firelight.
Ye is still immersed in the joy of weaving.
Weaving not only made her happy, but also earned her praise and admiration from her mother and all other women.
Although she doesn't really care about the compliment.
Because Xu Chen taught her everything she got.
She needs to perform better and not let Xu Chen disappoint her.
She would even be in a daze occasionally. If her mother did not agree with her being with Chen, then she would leave the tribe, find another cave to live with Chen, and then give birth to a litter of children...
Naturally, Xu Chen didn't know that his little female savage cousin sitting next to him was thinking about running away with him and having a baby, planning to start a new primitive family.
He is now slowly recalling the steps of making straw sandals.
Shoes appeared very late in human history. Compared with clothes, the history of going barefoot is longer. It was not until the late Paleolithic and early Neolithic ages that with the improvement of production tools, animal husbandry and planting began to appear, and after materials became abundant,
Shoes have just begun to appear, and the style is very simple. They simply wrap the feet with animal skins and then tie them with ropes.
Shoes in the true sense did not begin to appear until the Shang and Zhou dynasties. They were made of grass, hemp, kudzu and other materials, and were called shoes.
As for more advanced boots, that was already during the Warring States Period.
During the Warring States Period, weaving had become very developed and silk had appeared.
There is a proverb that says that those who are barefoot are not afraid of those who wear shoes.
By extension, poor people generally don’t wear shoes.
Not only in ancient times, even in the high-tech era, there are many people who don't like to wear shoes in the countryside. Especially some farmers who often go to work in the fields. In summer, they almost don't wear shoes all day long. Including Xu Chen, who was naked all day long when he was a child.
The feet are running everywhere.
In the mountainous areas of Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Chongqing, many elderly people still maintain the habit of wearing straw sandals and hemp shoes.
Regardless of whether hemp shoes or straw sandals are made, they are very simple to make, but if you want to make them strong and beautiful, you still need experience.
What Xu Chen lacks right now is experience.
So he sat by the fire pit with a handful of hay and gestured back and forth for a long time, and finally slowly remembered and started to do it.
Today is cloudy and the temperature seems to be cooler than usual nights.
A few thick dead trees in the fire pit gave off a faint red firelight, and occasionally crackled and exploded with a few sparks.
Waves of forest waves like tidal waves came from the surrounding mountains and fields, sometimes mixed with the roars of wild animals and the cries of night birds.
Outside the fence, there are occasional sounds of running small animals.
There are no stars or moon in the sky, making it even more lonely and quiet.
When Ye was weaving, he would occasionally glance at Xu Chen secretly.
But Xu Chen was like a deep thinker, very focused and serious. He kept twisting a handful of hay around, and slowly a strange object with no discernible shape appeared in his hand.
This doesn't seem to be anything useful.
Ye thought so, but didn't bother him.
Because Chen Zai's serious look when she was thinking about things moved her the most, and she had even begun to think about what the name of their child should be.
The ropes, baskets, and bows have now been divided among the three pregnant women. What is left are arrows, hoes, kilns, pottery, bowls, pots, kettles, threads, cloth...
It seems that there are still many more children to be born.
So she couldn't help it anymore. Looking at Xu Chen's fur skirt, she wanted to touch his butt.
But just when she was still fighting in her heart, Xu Chen suddenly breathed a sigh of relief and stopped. He smiled and put the thing in his hand to the fire pit to look at it for a few times, then put it on his feet and stood up.
Jumped a few times.
Although he couldn't see clearly, Ye's face was full of surprise.
Chen actually made a strange basket made of straw and put it on his feet.
She looked at her bare feet.
After working on the loom for so long in the cold wind, she suddenly felt a little numb, especially the soles of her feet, which actually hurt a little.
Xu Chen jumped a few times and found that it was a little awkward after putting it on.
Maybe it's because I'm used to going barefoot.
But today someone scratched the sole of his foot by a shell, which made him cautious.
In this era, there is a shortage of medical treatment and medicine. For minor injuries and diseases, we rely on resistance, and for serious injuries and illnesses, we rely on procrastination. Once the condition becomes more serious, people will be gone by procrastination.
Therefore, injuries were the biggest threat to primitive humans, more difficult to resist than hunger and wild beasts.
So he planned to start promoting wearing shoes in the tribe.
Although it is said that those who are barefoot are not afraid of those who wear shoes, this is just a kind of self-indulgence like Ah Q.
Because the person who wears shoes is not afraid of you, but just feels that it is not worth it.
For arrogant people, money can settle everything.
For the poor, apart from having no money, there is only one life left.
Therefore, the Ba people want to be the first tribe to wear shoes in this barbaric wilderness, making the barefoot primitive tribes envious and jealous.
"Ye Ga, try it!"
Xu Chen took off the straw sandals from his feet, turned around and squatted down beside Ye to grab her feet.
Ye was instantly panicked, his heart was beating wildly, and he slowly relaxed his legs nervously, watching Xu Chen put a strange straw basket on his feet.
It's rough, feels weird, and a little uncomfortable.
But Chen's hands seemed to have magic power, which made her panic.
"Damn, it's too big!"
Xu Chen looked at the straw sandals, which were modeled after his own feet. They were a lot too big for Ye's feet, so he took them off rudely, gestured with his hands, turned around, sat down, picked up a handful of hay and
Start getting busy.
Ye was very resentful and stepped on the prayer stick again and started weaving.
Compared with learning calculations and writing, she still prefers this kind of mindless work, but after a few days everyone has learned it, this sense of superiority will be gone.