Chapter 5: Hunting & Gathering Societies

For the 1^st 5 million years or more of hominid history, our ancestors lived in hunting and gathering societies. Only in the last 10,000-12,000 years have other types of societies evolved.

Despite their longevity, hunting and gathering societies may soon be extinct because they are unable to compete with technologically more advanced societies for territories and other vital resources (101).

Hunting and gathering societies 100,000 BC - 8000 BC

The best evidence currently available indicates that genetically modern humans evolved sometimes about 100,000 years ago. These 1^st modern humans were more intelligent and probably better able to communicate among themselves than were their hominid forebears, although they inherited a number of valuable customs and technologies from them. Although the rate of innovation was slow, hominids accumulated a number of useful tools and practices in the nearly 5 million yeas that had elapsed between the time our ancestors diverged from the ancestors of the modern great apes and modern humans. Probably the most important was the domestication of fire.

Fire fostered a technological and social revolution. It set humans apart from all other animals, giving them some control over the cycle of day and night and more freedom of movement (102). Most importantly, fire strengthened the network of interrelationships within societies (103).

The emergence of genetically modern humans marks a critical juncture in our species evolutionary history. For at this point, cultural evolution replaced biological evolution as the primary means of adaptation and change in human societies (104). The records are sparse, there is nothing to suggest that there were any major new developments until much later. Living remained precarious and life expectancy short. Few important innovations occur until near the end of this period when the rate of innovation begins to increase at an accelerating rate (104).

Some of the best known innovations from the latter half of this era occur in the arts. Artistic remains provide many insights into the evolution of human though and the rapidly growing body of nontechnological information. By the close of the hunting and gathering era (about 8000 BC), human societies possessed a far greater store of cultural information than they possessed 30,000 years before. They had acquired more in those last 30,000 years than in all previous millions of years of hominid history (108).

The rapid acceleration in the rate of change in the last 30,000 years of the hunting and gathering era cannot be explained by genetic change alone, since are species had already evolved by 100,000 BC. The explosive growth in the rate of technological innovation appears to have resulted in critical advances in language. The relatively modes genetic changes that were involved in the transition to Homo sapiens sapiens paved the way for the explosive growth of culture that occurred at the end of the Old Stone Age. There was a critical threshold effect involved: until a certain point was reached in biological evolution, the development of full-fledged symbol systems was impossible. But once that point was reached, the development of language could proceed rapidly (109).

The advances in technology at the end of this period coincided with, and probably caused, the growth in the size of the human population. Although despite the rapid growth, the human population still numbered less than 10 million and the growth rate was less than 0.1% per year. The reason for this was the inability of societies to provide adequately for their members and to protect them against disease and other dangers (109).

Hunting and gathering societies of the recent past

Even after the emergence of more advanced types of societies, hunting and gathering societies continued to flourish in many parts of the world. A hundred years ago there were still larger numbers of them in both the New World and Australia, and smaller numbers is SW Africa, in parts of the rain forest in central Africa, in certain remote areas in southeast Asia and neighboring islands and in Arctic Asia (110).

Population

Size & Density

Despite the variations in subsistence technology, modern hunting and gathering societies have much in common. Communities are small and the more completely they depend on hunting and gathering the smaller they are while those that incorporate other means are larger (110-111).

The rate of population growth in also very low. This is in part due to natural causes, but also due to cultural factors. The most important factors producing equilibrium in growth rates appears to be cultural, such as delayed marriages and infanticide (111).

Nomadism

Modern hunting and gathering societies are usually nomadic and an inevitable result of their subsistence technology. They move for several reasons: (1) search new food supplies, (2) moved to eat a large kill, (3) seasonal changes and (4) conflict within the group (112).

Kinship

Ties of kinship are vitally important in most hunting and gathering groups and social interaction usually organized around kinship roles (113). Kin groups are of two types: nuclear and extended families. A nuclear family includes a man, his wife or wives, and their unmarried children; an extended family contains multiple nuclear families linked by a part-child relationship although the first is often inclusive in the latter (114). The extended family is important because it encourages sharing and serves as a welfare institution (114).

The Economy

Economic institutions are not very complex in hunting and gathering societies. One reason is that the combination of a simple technology and a nomadic way of life makes it impossible for most hunting and gathering peoples to accumulate many possessions (115). The quest for food is obviously a crucial activity in every hunting and gathering society. Since most of these societies have no way to store food for extended periods, the food quest must be fairly continuous (115).

Prior to the last quarter century, most studies of hunting and gathering societies emphasized the uncertainty of the food supply and the difficulty of obtaining it. A number of more recent studies, however, paint a brighter picture and indicate that they all secure an ample supply of food without an undue expenditure of time or energy (115-116).

A very few societies do not practice hunting. For the rest, hunting usually provides less food, in terms of bulk than gathering. According to one estimate, the gathering done by women accounts for 60-80% of the food supply of hunters and gathers. Because of the primitive nature of its technology, the division of labor is determined by age and sex. There are no full-time occupational specialties, although some part-time specialization.

The Polity

The political institutions of modern hunting and gathering societies are very rudimentary. Because they are so small, they have not developed political mechanisms of the kind required to control and coordinate larger or diverse populations. The primitive nature of the political system of these societies can be seen clearly in their limited development of specialized political roles and in the equally limited authority given to people in those roles (118). Individuals are hardly free, however, to do as they wish and are restricted by several elements of social control: (1) blood revenge, (2) group pressure, ostracism, or banishment, and (3) fear of the supernatural (120-121).

Stratification

The rudimentary nature of the political system and the primitive nature of the economic system contribute to yet another distinctive characteristic of modern hunting and gathering societies: minimal inequality in power and privilege or primitive communism. Many factors are responsible for this: (1) nomadic way of life prevents accumulation of possessions and (2) ready availability of essential resources. The concept of private property has only limited development as things an individual uses constantly are recognized as his own, but land and natural resources are public (121). Despite near equality in power and wealth, there is, however, inequality in prestige solely dependent on personal qualities (122).

Religion

In hunting and gathering societies the members grapple with the problem of explaining the world, especially those aspects that influence their own lives. Because their store of information is limited, members quickly reach the limits of their ability to explain things in naturalistic terms. The basis of their explanations are animistic. The central element of animism is the belief that spirits inhabit virtually everything in the world of nature (123).

Education

Socialization of the young in hunting and gathering societies is largely an informal process in which children learn both through their play and through observing and imitating their elders. This informal socialization is often supplemented by a formal process of initiation that marks the transition from childhood to adulthood. Compared to horticultural or agrarian societies, education stresses independence (124).

The Arts and Leisure

Modern hunting and gathering peoples have produced a variety of artistic works. Some of those works include: music, dance, storytelling, and games (125-126).

Hunting and Gathering Societies in Theoretical Perspective

Archaeological and Ethnographic Evidence Compared

We cannot equate hunters and gathers of the modern era with early hominid hunters and gatherers of a million or more years ago—before the process of human biological evolution had produced Homo sapiens sapiens and before the basic tools and weapons of modern hunters and gatherers had been invented. We can, however, compare those of the recent past with those who lived during the last 15,000 years. The similarities are basic and many, the differences insignificant and few. The societies are similar in terms of subsistence technology, size, equality, specialization, and art.

The differences are largely 3 types. (1) Many hunting and gathering societies of the modern era contain elements of more advanced societies. (2) Modern hunters and gatherers have had no opportunity to move into new territories and (3) technologically advanced societies have often forced modern hunters and gatherers out of territories suitable for farming and herding (128)

A Model of Limited Development

The key element determining the structure of a society is the subsistence technology on which its members dependent. Because of their dependence on hunting and gathering, most of these groups are destined to be nomadic and to have a low level of productivity and a limited store of other kinds of information (129).

There characteristics lead to second order effects. Nomadism and the low level of productivity combine to limit possibilities for the accumulation of possessions. The low level of productivity and the limited store of other technological information, especially information relevant to transportation and communication, combine to keep hunting and gathering societies small. The limited development of these technologies also limits contacts with other societies. These characteristics combine with the small size of these societies to keep the rate of technological innovation low. The limited store of information about natural phenomena also contributes to the development and animistic beliefs. Finally, these second-order effects, individually and collectively, produce a series of third-order effects. These include the low level of inequality that is characteristic of hunting and gathering societies, their limited division of labor, the kinship basis of social organization, and their ideological conservatism and the low rates of social and cultural change (130).

The Last Hunting and Gathering Societies

By the end of this century the last hunting and gathering society will probably have vanished—and with it an irreplaceable link to our past. For thousands of years these societies maintained a remarkably stable relationship with their environments and a highly satisfying way of life (132).