You're right, Xena. While we carve off as much of the fat as we can from our meat and throw it away, the hunter-gatherer societies would have used every part of the animal that they could for food (including the fat, organs, brain and marrow) and whatever was not edible for tools, clothing and other items. The meat of the animal itself may have been fairly lean, but the fat was consumed with relish as well as the other fatty parts of the animal. Gymee has obviously never seen how much fat a bison's hump contains!

In fact, this little historical excerpt might be of interest concerning how fat or lean animals being hunted were:

http://www.gbl.indiana.edu/archives...M82-99_46b.html

"they spread out their meat after preparing it. Under this they kindle a little fire. They are at it for a day, ordinarily, when they wish to dry a flat side. There are two of these in a buffalo. They take it from the shoulder clear to the thigh and from the hump to the middle of the belly, after which they spread it out as thin as they can, making it usually four feet square. They fold it up while still hot, like a portfolio, so as to make it easier to carry. The most robust men and women carry as many as eight, for a whole day. This is not possible in autumn nor in winter, however, as the cows are then very fat; they then can carry four at most"

How interesting that they could only carry half as much as usual during autumn and early winter (when food stores for winter were typically being stored) because of the fat of the animal, which in this case was a buffalo cow.