Hunter–Gatherer Societies, Archaeology of

Abstract

Hunter–gatherer societies, traditionally, have been regarded as representing the ‘original’ human society—that is, preagricultural peoples, reliant upon ‘wild’ foods and ‘natural’ landscapes. From a sociological perspective, hunter–gatherers emerged as the ‘precapitalist’ base-line in Marx's evolutionary framework. From a biological viewpoint, Darwin envisaged them as the human ‘prototype.’ Recent changes in focus have redefined hunter–gatherers as incorporating a much wider range in sociocultural variation. Narrower, more traditional, definitions had emphasised: a small scale, mobile and egalitarian society; low population size and densities; lack of surplus (and storage); and limited impact upon land and resources. In contrast, recent revision considers that hunter–gatherers also incorporated: more complex social formations, including ‘chiefdoms’ and the ‘state’; high levels of sedentism; large population sizes and densities; significant levels of surplus and storage; extensive social networks; and had considerable impact upon land and resources. Hunter–gatherers, therefore, overlap markedly with other societies, including agriculturalists. Archaeological examples of the historical evolution of these features of hunter–gatherer society can be found in the following time periods and regions: Eurasian Palaeolithic and Mesolithic; North American Archaic; preagricultural Mesoamerica and Peru; and late Holocene Australia. While many of these features may be difficult to explore archaeologically, they have largely ‘revolutionized’ our perceptions of the way human society developed.