Hunter-gatherer culture is a type of subsistence lifestyle that relies on hunting and fishing animals and foraging for wild vegetation and other nutrients like honey, for food. Until approximately 12,000 years ago, all humans adept hunting-gathering.

Anthropologists have discovered evidence for the practice of hunter-gatherer culture past modernistic humans (Man sapiens) and their distant ancestors dating as far back every bit two meg years. Before the emergence of hunter-gatherer cultures, earlier groups relied on the do of scavenging fauna remains that predators left behind.

Because hunter-gatherers did not rely on agriculture, they used mobility as a survival strategy. Indeed, the hunter-gatherer lifestyle required access to large areas of state, between seven and 500 square miles, to find the food they needed to survive. This made establishing long-term settlements impractical, and about hunter-gatherers were nomadic. Hunter-gatherer groups tended to range in size from an extended family to a larger ring of no more than than about 100 people.

With the beginnings of the Neolithic Revolution about 12,000 years ago, when agricultural practices were showtime developed, some groups abased hunter-gatherer practices to establish permanent settlements that could provide for much larger populations. All the same, many hunter-gatherer behaviors persisted until modern times. As recently every bit 1500 C.E., in that location were withal hunter-gatherers in parts of Europe and throughout the Americas. Over the last 500 years, the population of hunter-gatherers has declined dramatically. Today very few exist, with the Hadza people of Tanzania being one of the concluding groups to live in this tradition.

Hunter-Gatherer Culture

The Hadza people of Tanzania rely on hunting wild game for meat, a task that requires keen skill in tracking, teamwork, and accuracy with a bow and pointer.

abased

Adjective

deserted.

ancestor

Noun

organism from whom 1 is descended.

anthropologist

Substantive

person who studies cultures and characteristics of communities and civilizations.

Noun

learned behavior of people, including their languages, belief systems, social structures, institutions, and material appurtenances.

decline

Verb

to reduce or become down in number.

extended family

Noun

household in which parents, children, grandparents, and other relatives live.

forage

Verb

to search for food or other needs.

Homo sapiens

Substantive

(200,000 years ago-nowadays) species of primates (hominid) that but includes modern human beings.

hunter-gatherer

Substantive

person who gets food by using a combination of hunting, line-fishing, and foraging.

lifestyle

Noun

way of living, including cultural, economic, and social habits.

Neolithic

Noun

(~9000 B.C.E. to ~2000 B.C.E.) terminal phase of the Stone Age, following the Mesolithic.

nomadic

Describing word

having to exercise with a way of life defective permanent settlement.

Noun

substance an organism needs for energy, growth, and life.

predator

Noun

animal that hunts other animals for food.

scavenge

Verb

to feed on dead or decaying material.

settlement

Noun

community or village.

strategy

Noun

plan or method of achieving a goal.

subsistence

Noun

minimum amount of a substance that is necessary to support life, such as nutrient or shelter.

survival

Noun

ability to alive.

Substantive

behavior, community, and cultural characteristics handed down from ane generation to the next.

vegetation

Noun

all the plant life of a specific place.

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    Director

    Tyson Brown, National Geographic Club

    Author

    National Geographic Guild

    Product Managers

    Gina Borgia, National Geographic Society
    Jeanna Sullivan, National Geographic Guild

    Programme Specialists

    Sarah Appleton, National Geographic Society
    Margot Willis, National Geographic Lodge

    Last Updated

    Aug. xix, 2019

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