To begin with, as far as i know, pots used to be made of clay. And i think clay doesn’t exist everywhere in the surface of the earth. Secondly, in temperate regions of the world (and farther to the poles) animal fat was needed for enough calories intake. And rendering fat is one of the most effective ways of keeping it from getting rancid. So, the question that came to my mind was: how would people without access to pottery manage to render fat??
thanks
you could render fat in a wooden container with hot rocks.
I was thinking about this, but, … wouldnt you be making soap at some degree?? i mean, some ash would come with the stones, wouldnt it?
to tell the truth i never boiled anything with rocks
i was thinking about something like the cat scene in the movie “book of eli”, but not sure if it would work with greater amounts of fats
to not get ashes in something, you just rinse the rocks lightly.
i gotta try it one day
i thought maybe hitting the stones between the fire and the pot could “shake” the ashes out
so many things to practice… 
I imagine hollowing out a soft stone to make a container would work well. Technically not without a pot, but it is without clay. 
This scene in “the book of eli” is something like this: The guy hunts a cat and then, while roasting it suspended over a fire, as the fat slides down the body of the cat, he places some container where it is dropping. The cat was held in some inclination, i mean, not completely horizontal, so the fat would slide along the surface of the flesh, instead of just dropping on top of the fire.
I was thinking it might be possible to make some kind of funnel-shaped basket to put the fat into and hold it near to a fire in an inclination enough to make the fat slide down to any kind of container which would be far away enough from the fire.
Another idea would be making something like an Oil wood lamp. The first time i saw it on youtube it was maybe not eht same video but, anyway…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6WAtx9iBq4
Maybe some modifications could be made to make the fat flow in the needed direction.
One last memory just came to my mind, but please dont continue reading if you are a bit sensitive about life/death things, blood or this kind of stuff. This i heard is really nasty.
I dont remember how long ago, i was watching one of this TV programs about UFOs and stuff. They were talking about some insane rich guy who used to get kids fat for some superstition ritual. The thing is that for getting the fat out of the corpses (as they explained) loads of candles would be light around it and some bucket under it.
So, i think there should be a way to do it. Anybody ever tried anything or have any thoughts?
BTW: It is all about just practicing… i know. and it is not like i dont like to do practical things… my problem is just that practicing anything alone is getting way too sad