Hunter-Gatherers
By Sophia Li, Samantha Gentry, Sally
Hobson, Connor Mikilitus, Andrew
Hollenstein
Human-Environment
Interaction
• Hunting and gathering was used for 95% of the times
people inhabited the earth.
• Gathered berries, nuts, roots, and grains.
• Scavenged dead animals, hunted live animals, and
fishing
• Life expectancy was a little more than 35 years
• Migration: Africa, Eurasia, Australia, Americas, Pacific
Islands
• Population may have been as low as 10,000 people
alive 100,000 years ago. It then grew to 500,000
people nearly 30,000 years ago.
Culture
• Neolithic people learned when the seasons would take
place and associated the seasons with the plants that
grew.
• 20,000 years ago Afro-Eurasians made stone and bone
tools such as hand axes, and began to paint deep inside
caves.
• Made rock deep inside caves far from living spaces which
suggests a “ceremonial space” separated from ordinary
life.
• At the end of the period, hunter- gatherers began to use
more agriculture than before.
Politics
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There were no specific leaders for the tribes.
Physical competitions did occur
There was little interaction between tribes
Sometimes internal conflict with in the tribes
occurred, but they were easily solved.
Economics
• Hunter-gatherers rarely traded with other tribes
because they could not transport many goods.
• They worked fewer hours more frequently and
had more leisure time.
• Scholars call them the “original affluent society”
because they had all of their basic needs.
• Typically there was no specialization. Simply
everyone could do anything that anyone else
could.
Hunter- Gatherer Society
Lived in small bands of 25- 50 people.
Most people were related.
Men hunted, women gathered.
Women provided 70% of the group’s food and
income.
• Males and females shared many other tasks.
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Sources
• Ways of the World, by Robert W. Strayer
• http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Role_Of_S
howoff_Hypothesis_In_Social_Decisions_Inve
stigated.html
• http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedo
m-learn/200907/play-makes-us-human-v-whyhunter-gatherers-work-is-play