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.

Habitat and population

Hunter-gatherer societies tend to be relatively mobile, given their reliance upon the ability of a given natural environment to provide sufficient resources in order to sustain their population, and the variable availability of these resources owing to local climatic and seasonal conditions. Their population densities tend be lower than those of agriculturalists, since cultivated land is capable of sustaining population densities 60–100 times greater than land left uncultivated. Individual bands tend to be small in number, but these may gather together seasonally to temporarily form a larger group.

Related Topics:
Natural environment - Climatic - Season - Agriculturalists - Population densities - Bands

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Hunter-gatherer settlements may be either permanently or temporarily based, or some combination of the two, depending in part upon the range of territory the community needs to cover. Shelter constructions typically use impermanent building materials, particularly when the community leads a nomadic existence. Natural rock shelters may also be used, where they are available.

Related Topics:
Shelter - Building material - Nomadic

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