Hunter-gatherer

A hunter-gatherer society is in anthropological terms one whose predominant method of subsistence involves the direct procurement of edible plants and animals from the wild (or "foraging"), without significant recourse to the domestication of either. The demarcation between hunter-gatherers and other societies which rely on more managed techniques such as agriculturalism and pastoralism is not a clean one, as many societies typically utilise a range of strategies to obtain the foodstuffs required to sustain their community.

Arts and culture

Writing was not used by prehistoric hunter-gatherers, but they would have been intimately famiar with the tracks left by animals. Their mimicking and slight modification of such tracks developed into a simple communicative sign-system using mark-making, anticipating the later development of written alphabets. Nearly all such marks would have been made in mud, on trees, on bones and other organic matter that has since decayed. Examples of the very few ancient hunter-gatherer sign-making systems that have survived are: ochre remains, Mousterian paired markings, the hand prints and stencils of Arnhem Land, and the markings of Koonalda Cave in Australia, among others. These surviving markings appear to be more ritualistic than practical and existed alongside the cave painting tradition. We have little idea of what the more fleeting symbols used in communicating across a hunting territory looked like, although the 8,000-6,500 year old European Vinca script may give us a tantalising glipse of what such marks may have looked like before farming arrived in Europe.

Related Topics:
Alphabet - Ochre - Mousterian - Arnhem Land - Australia - Cave painting - Farming arrived in Europe

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The archaeological evidence for multi-hole flutes dating from 36,000 years ago suggests that music and musical systems must have been known among many prehistoric hunter-gatherers.

Related Topics:
Multi-hole flutes - Music

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Body decoration, singing, and storytelling are other likely forms of prehistoric hunter-gatherer cultural expression (in everyday life or the performance of rituals). There is some archaeological evidence for complex forms of sewing using pattern-cutting, as well as strong archaeological evidence for stone carving and etchings on bone. It is unlikely that we will ever know all of the aspects of prehistoric hunter-gatherer culture.

Related Topics:
Singing - Storytelling - Rituals - Sewing - Stone carving

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