Should we emulate our primal ancestors ?
Of course we should ... if we want to die young! Their lives were nasty, brutish and short. If there's something appealing about that I surely missed it.
I've already addressed the notion of eating like the primals on the 'Nutrition Myths' thread. Briefly: we can't.
Yes, true, they were physically more robust than we are. They carried more muscle mass and even their bones were bigger. They would have opened a can of whoop-ass on us. But this probably owes more to the strenuous demands of prehistoric life than any notion on their part that they ought to be more active.
Yes, most Americans could stand to be more active. But I surmise that the primals did not seek out activity. I further surmise that, insofar as possible, they sought to preserve energy, not to expend it. It just so happens that they were probably required to exert high levels of energy from time to time. But again, I doubt that they sought those sorts of opportunities out. Rather, the need was thrust upon them from time to time.
What I'm getting at is that I'm not inclined to give the primals credit for doing what they had to do. They had to engage in strenuous activity by dint of the world they inhabited.
We, on the other hand, are part-and-parcel of a world we've had a hand in creating, a world which has all but eliminated the need for strenuous exertion and even much in the way of basic locomotion. We seem to need a surrogate for the sort of strenuous activity our accoutrement-rich world rarely demands.
So, in a sense, active modernists are wiser than their ancient forebears in that they acknowledge the need to override the body's tendency to forever preserve energy.
Sorry if I've offended the caveman. We even beat up on them in TV commercials.
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