hunter-gatherer societies
Pre-agricultural human groups
Hunter-gatherer societies are human communities that obtain food by foraging wild plants and hunting animals rather than through agriculture or animal husbandry.
This was the universal human way of life until roughly 10,000 years ago, when farming began.
The term often appears in anthropological discussions contrasting mobile, small-band social organization with settled agricultural civilizations: Hunter-gatherer societies typically had more egalitarian structures than later farming communities.
- Paleolithic eraEarliest human tool-making period
- cave dwellingShelter inside rock formation
- egalitarianismPhilosophy of universal equality
- sharing economyPeer-to-peer resource access
- animismSpirits inhabit all things
spirit world · wild game · resource management · foraging · reciprocity · oral traditions · fishing · animal tracking · tribal elders · trapping · shamanism · division of labor · scavenging · rock art · storytelling · nomadism · lean-to shelter · sustainable practices
hunter-gatherer societiesagricultural societies
Communities centered on farming
farming communities · intensive agriculture · subsistence farming
hunter-gatherer societiesempires
Extensive ruled territories
city-states · monarchies · ancient Rome · ancient Egypt · medieval kingdoms
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