Hunter-gatherer

In anthropology, the hunter-gatherer way of life is that led by human beings who obtain their food from the bounty of nature, hunting animals and gathering wild plants. It is a substistence lifestyle, practised by all early human societies. Such people are generally nomads, moving on as food supplies dwindle.

Characteristics of Hunter-gatherer Life

The hunter-gatherer society operates on a substistence level. Different societies specialize according to the available food supplies. Some hunt big game, or trap animals, while others may fish in lakes, rivers, or along the coast. An older term found in Scandinavian countries is hunter-trapper instead of "gatherer", signifying their use of complex trap systems using holes in the ground to catch elks, reindeer, etc. Typically, men are responsible for hunting and women gathering.

As foragers, hunter-gatherers are dependent upon the natural availability of food. Consequently, they are relatively mobile, moving on as their food supplies become exhausted. This nomadic lifestyle, in which all possessions must be carried, leads hunter-gatherers to rely on materials available in the wild to construct simple shelters. Thus there is no building of elaborate, permanent housing or development of cities in such societies.

However, in cases where food is abundant and reliable, a hunter-gatherer group may become sedentary. Natives of the American Pacific Northwest, for example, used flour from acorns and smoke-dried salmon for food, developing permanent settlements with substantial populations. In such cases, a combination of hunting and gathering with agriculture or animal husbandry is common.

Structure of Hunter-gatherer Societies

Hunter-gatherers tend to have very low population densities. In climates that can support agriculture, farmland can support population densities 60–100 times greater than land left uncultivated.

Hunter-gatherer societies also tend to have non-hierarchical social structures, but this is not always the case. As many are nomadic, they generally do not have the possibility to store any surplus food. Thus full-time leaders, bureaucrats, or artisans are rarely supported by hunter-gatherer societies.

As egalitarian societies, many hunter-gatherer units have gender-based social stuctures dissimiliar from higher order horticultural, pastoral, and industrial societies. For example, gender structures seem, albeit not universally, more fair. Although disputed as to why, many anthropologists claim the egalitarianism stems from the lack of control over food production, lack of food surplus (control), and an equal gender contribution to kin and cultural survival.

One way to divide hunter-gatherer groups is in their return systems. James Woodburn describes this as immediate return hunter-gatherers (egalitarian) and delayed return (nonegalitarian). Immediate return foragers consume their food in a day or two after they procure it. Delayed return foragers store the surplus food.

History

All archeological evidence to date suggests that all human beings were hunter-gatherers prior to twelve thousand years ago, before the Neolithic Era, and an ever declining number of populations after the Neolithic revolution. The vast majority of hunter-gatherer societies are nomadic, as the resources of one region will usually be quickly exhausted. There are exceptions, however. The Haida of what is now British Columbia lived in such a rich environment that they could remain sedentary. Other groups that live in the Northwest coast can remain sedentary for a majority of the year.

The line between agricultural and hunter-gatherer societies is not clear cut. Many hunter-gatherers would consciously manipulate the landscape through cutting or burning unuseful plants while encouraging those they could consume. Most agricultural people continued to do some hunting and gathering. Some would farm during the temperate months and then hunt during the winter. Still today many in developed countries will go hunting for food and for amusement.

Modern Hunter-gatherers

Today hunter-gatherer groups are found in the Arctic, tropical rainforests, and deserts where other forms of subsistence production are impossible or too costly. In most cases these groups do not have a continuous history of hunting and gathering; in many cases their ancestors were farmers who were pushed into marginal areas as a result of migrations and wars. It is estimated that in only a few decades there will be no more such communities.

There are some modern social movements related to the hunter-gatherer lifestyle:

• freeganism involves gathering of discarded food in the context of an urban environment
• gleaning involves the gathering of food that traditional farmers have left behind in their fields
• sport hunting and sport fishing are recreational activities practiced by people who get the majority of their food by modern means (see also: fox hunt, safari)
• anarcho-primitivism, which strives for the abolishment of civilization and the return to a life in the wild

See also

• Bushmen
• Neolithic Revolution

External links

• Baka Pygmies Culture and photos of these African hunter-gatherers

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Comments

This is currently an unfinished work in progress. —Jennifer Tanabe 10:02, 13 Sep 2005 (CDT)