Hunter-Gatherers

According to the archaeological dictionary of the Oxford University Press, hunter-gatherer is: A general term used to refer to societies whose mode of subsistence is gained from hunting animals, fishing, and gathering edible plants. Most commonly associated with the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods and a simple band level of social organization, it is a way of life that should not be pigeonholed as a stage in social development and must certainly not be seen as in any sense ‘primitive’. As American anthropologist Marshal Sahlins pointed out, many hunter-gatherer societies represent the original affluent society because only a small proportion of their time was spent obtaining food and the basic needs of life. At one time all of the inhabited world was occupied by hunter-gatherer groups, something which no subsequent economic mode has achieved. In that sense agricultural and industrial societies have, at various times, established themselves on the edge of the hunter-gatherers' world.

A hunter-gatherer society is one whose primary subsistence method involves:

• direct procurement of edible plants and animals from the wild
• foraging and hunting without significant recourse to the domestication of either.

The demarcation between hunter-gatherers and other societies which rely more upon domestication (see agriculture and pastoralism and neolithic revolution) is not a clear cut one, as many contemporary societies use a combination of both strategies to obtain the foodstuffs required to sustain themselves.

Hunting and gathering was presumably the only subsistence strategy employed by human societies for more than two million years, until the end of the Mesolithic period. The transition into the subsequent Neolithic period is chiefly defined by the unprecedented development of nascent agricultural practices.

Agriculture originated as early as 12,000 years ago and spread in several different areas, including

• Middle East
• Asia
• Mesoamerica
• Andes.

Many groups continued their hunter-gatherer ways of life, although their numbers have perpetually declined, partly as a result of pressure from growing agricultural and pastoral communities. Areas which were formerly unrestricted to hunter-gatherers were, and continue to be encroached upon by the settlements of agriculturalists. In the resulting competition for land use, hunter-gatherer societies either adopted these practices or moved to other areas. Jared Diamond has also blamed a decline in the availability of wild foods, particularly animal resources. In North and South America, for example, most large mammal species had been hunted to extinction by the end of the Pleistocene.

As the number and size of many agricultural societies increased, they expanded into lands traditionally used by hunter-gatherers and communities practicing small scale agriculture. This process of agriculture-driven expansion soon led to the pristine development of states in agricultural centers (Sumer, Ancient China, Olmec, and Inca) and set in motion the impetus for further expansion through warfare and colonization. As a result of the now ubiquitous human reliance upon agriculture, the few contemporary cultures who practice hunting and gathering usually live in areas seen as undesirable for agricultural use (adapted from wikipedia).

Forager Societies

• Selk'nam (Ona) Indians considered extinct as of the late 1990s
• Ju/'hoansi also known as the San, !Kung, or Bushmen
• Great Basin Indians including the Shoshone, the Ute and the Paiute
• Ainu
• South American Foragers including the Ache, Hiwi, and Yanomamo
• Arctic Foragers also known as the Eskimo / Inuit, including the Netsilik
• Australian Aborigines located throughout the diverse climates and territories of Australia
• Northwest Coast Indians including the Tlingit and Kwakiutl

Source: Kelly, Robert L. (1995). The Foraging Spectrum. New York: Percheron Press. c/o http://lamar.colostate.edu/~lctodd/kelmap.jpg

Myths about Hunter-Gatherers

Some anthropologists contribute to increasing the myths regarding foragers; however, certain anthropologists are pushing others to rethink their conceptions about foragers.

The hunter-gatherer myth was particularly strong for the San in Southern Africa, who have been regarded in anthropology as the prototypical hunter-gatherer society. The idea that the San were pristine hunter-gatherers has been the subject of much debate in the Kalahari debate.

Here are articles and books regarding the hunter-gatherer myth:

The Article Myths about Hunter-Gatherers by Carol R. Ember can be found on J Stor, and may give a better understanding of the myths anthropologists want to avoid recreating.

Gordon, Robert
2000 The Bushman Myth: The Making of a Namibian Underclass. Boulder (Colorado): Westview Press.

Barnard, Alan
2007 Anthropology and the Bushman. Berg Publishers

Marshall, John
2002 A Kalahari Family: Death by Myth. DER documentary films