Food Gathering and Hunting
The earliest stage of economic history, primitive food gathering and hunting, took place
during the Old Stone Age, or Paleolithic Age (500,000 BCE to 10,000 BCE). At this time
small nomadic tribes met their survival needs by “following the food.” These tribes were
scattered throughout the world with concentrations in China, Southeast Asia, Europe, and
East Africa.
Tribal organization featured a rigid division of labor determined mainly by gender and
physical strength. Men typically made weapons of stone, bone, and wood and hunted
animals for food. Women gathered food, collecting nuts, berries, seeds or wild grains,
fruits, roots, shellfish and other foodstuffs available from the natural environment.
Women often maintained the campsite, which might consist of caves or temporary
shelters. Women also tended the tribe's fire and to the children's needs.
Over time, the food gathering and hunting societies developed additional skills and
tools to cope with their environment. For example, they developed language, which
enabled them to pass on knowledge from one generation to the next and to learn from
other tribes. They also created more advanced survival tools such as weapons, cutting
tools, and needles. These primitive forms of real capital were devised mainly to enhance
the tribe's survival through food gathering and hunting. Tools and weapons were made
from natural resources such as stone, wood, and animal bones.