Hunter-gatherer
Hunter-gatherers are individuals who subsist by foraging for plants and hunting animals, a lifestyle prevalent before the advent of agriculture over 10,000 years ago. Historically, these societies were characterized by their nomadic lifestyle, moving in groups to gather food from their environment. They lived in small bands of 50 to 100 people, fostering a sense of community and equality between genders, as both men and women contributed to food acquisition. Their diets were diverse and well-balanced, leading to overall good health, and their social structures lacked formal hierarchies, promoting cooperation and shared ownership of resources.
Hunter-gatherers developed tools and techniques, such as fire-making and crafting, which facilitated survival and adaptation to various climates. Their innovations allowed for artistic pursuits, as evidenced by prehistoric cave paintings and figurines. While many hunter-gatherer societies have largely disappeared due to the expansion of agricultural civilizations, a few still exist today, facing challenges in maintaining their traditional ways of life amid modern societal pressures and land ownership conflicts. Understanding the hunter-gatherer lifestyle provides crucial insights into human history and the development of social structures.
Hunter-gatherer
A hunter-gatherer is a person who obtains food in the environment by collecting plant foods, such as nuts, fruit, and roots, and killing animals for meat. The term usually refers to members of a culture that existed more than 10,000 years ago before people began to grow crops or raise animals on farms, but a few hunter-gatherer societies still exist in remote areas of the world.
Overview
Members of early hunter-gatherer societies foraged for food and sheltered in caves or temporary camps. People subsisting this way experienced freedom to move about, equality between men and women, and the ability to engage in artistic pursuits. They learned to use tools and fire to improve their lives, working cooperatively in small groups that were related to clans of 50 to 100 people.
Most of these societies gradually changed, adopting the gardening and herding practices that many social scientists consider to be the most important development in the history of human society. Because hunting and gathering groups required thousands of acres to support a small number of people, they were pushed off the land to make way for agriculture. Although a few hunter-gatherer societies remain, most have been absorbed into the changing world.
How Hunter-Gatherers Lived
Early humans foraged for food during the Paleolithic, or late Stone Age, about 50,000 to 10,000 years ago. The first hunter-gatherers lived in Africa on the savannah, or grassland, but over the course of thousands of years, they spread throughout the world. They lived in groups and had to roam a wide territory to harvest enough food for their everyday needs. The hunter-gatherers learned where certain plants grew and when the fruits matured, so they could return to each location in the right season.
The hunter-gatherers had a classless society in which all of its members contributed to its support. Both women and men not only gathered plant foods, but also hunted small game and participated in group hunts using nets. When a group member made a tool or other useful object, the item became common property, since individuals did not need personal possessions. Because men had no advantage over women in finding food, they did not dominate the family or the group. Some researchers observed that where there was higher status, it was accorded to women, based on the few carvings and paintings that survive from the era presenting female forms believed to represent fertility.
Archeological evidence shows that Paleolithic hunter-gatherers enjoyed good health. Because they ate many different kinds of plants, as well as some animal protein, their diets were well-balanced. Their nomadic lifestyle provided daily exercise as they walked in search of food. Skeletal remains indicate that they were tall, well-nourished, and had good teeth.
Clan Groups
Because food-gathering required such a large amount of land, small bands consisting of a few families traveled together within their own territory. The adults knew their area and where to find food and fresh water and the locations of caves and safe camping grounds. When meat was obtained, either by hunting or by finding a dead animal, it was shared among the group.
Each group belonged to a larger clan consisting of as many as 100 adults. Although there were no governments, laws, or chiefs, the clan gave individuals both a larger kinship and access to potential mates. It is also likely that clan members shared resources such as tools.
Technology and Art
Paleolithic hunter-gatherers had human brains that allowed them to reason and develop ideas. Crafting tools for specific purposes helped them control their environment and made their lives somewhat easier. While the first tools were likely found objects such as sharp stones or sticks, by 10,000 B.C.E. people had learned to chip away bits of flint to expose sharp edges and carve needed shapes from wood or bone. The tools they made included weapons for hunting, so they could catch or kill large animals for their meat, skins, and bones, all of which were useful for survival. They used sharp stones to scrape and cut leather for various uses and chop wood to build shelters and use for campfires. They made sewing needles of bone and cords of plant fibers, so they could sew leather into clothing. Having the means to build shelters and make clothes eventually allowed humans to move into colder areas of the planet. Innovations such as harpoons and crude boats gave coastal hunters access to fish and, in time, new territory. As a result of their various inventions, hunter-gatherers increased in number and spread throughout the world.
Fire was an essential technology for early human survival. Scientists believe that once humans learned to make and control fire, a path opened to more advanced tools, a more digestible diet, and the extension of territory into colder climates. Some believe that fire also affected social development by prolonging the day and allowing time for sharing imaginative ideas through storytelling, songs, and spiritual or religious activities.
Tools and time for creativity allowed the development of art objects. Archeologists found prehistoric stone "Venus" figurines and cave paintings in Europe, and rock paintings and shell beads in Africa. In addition to demonstrating the advancement of tools and the imaginative thinking of the artists, the objects shed light on the customs of some hunter-gatherer groups.
Modern-Day Hunter-Gatherers
As recently as the nineteenth century, widespread hunter-gatherer societies still existed throughout the world. They included the Plains Indians in North America, the Inuit in Canada, the Batek of Malaysia, the Ainu of Japan, and the Aboriginal people of Australia. As agricultural societies expanded or colonists arrived, they forced the hunter-gatherers from their land and killed them when they resisted. The new civilizations imposed taxes, political leaders, religion, and patriarchal attitudes upon the survivors.
While a few such native peoples still exist in the world, it is extremely difficult for them to maintain a way of life that clashes so completely with modern concepts of land ownership, use of resources, and development.
Bibliography
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Wiessner, Polly W. "Embers of society: Firelight talk among the Ju/’hoansi Bushmen." National Academy of Sciences. 2014. Web. 25 Sept. 2014. http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/09/16/1404212111.abstract
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