Hunter-gatherer

A hunter-gatherer or forager is a <a href="/facts/Human/rlcTENsr">human</a> living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived <a href="/facts/Lifestyle/8ntPuQmE">lifestyle</a>, in which most or all <a href="/facts/Food/RgNq6NAK">food</a> is obtained by <a href="/facts/Foraging/o2u7xmHD">foraging</a>, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, especially wild <a href="/facts/Edible_plants/pjrcNmsV">edible plants</a> but also <a href="/facts/Insect/IgDNvnUL">insects</a>, <a href="/facts/Fungus/BHo5DP59">fungi</a>, <a href="/facts/Honey_hunting/gq0gsxI1">honey</a>, <a href="/facts/Eggs_as_food/dRLxAGev">bird eggs</a>, or anything safe to eat, or by <a href="/facts/Hunting/z1XhJdB2">hunting</a> game (pursuing or <a href="/facts/Trapping/ISrWbq1f">trapping</a> and killing <a href="/facts/Wildlife/Byh8cAyK">wild animals</a>, including <a href="/facts/Fishing/EBVEPvhI">catching fish</a>). This is a common practice among most vertebrates that are <a href="/facts/Omnivore/b8zcsuJF">omnivores</a>. Hunter-gatherer <a href="/facts/Society/PulvrYfa">societies</a> stand in contrast to the more <a href="/facts/Sedentism/5lUa65CJ">sedentary</a> <a href="/facts/Agrarian_society/hW5Bwt9R">agricultural societies</a>, which rely mainly on cultivating <a href="/facts/Crop/JoQKR5R8">crops</a> and raising <a href="/facts/Domesticated_animal/Fk2MhQzL">domesticated animals</a> for food production, although the boundaries between the two ways of living are not completely distinct.
Hunting and gathering was humanity's original and most enduring successful <a href="/facts/Competition_(biology)/3xN0IynL">competitive</a> <a href="/facts/Adaptation/5K2gNpDB">adaptation</a> in the natural world, occupying at least 90 percent of <a href="/facts/Human_history/uB3yXt4H">human history</a>. Following the <a href="/facts/Neolithic_Revolution/P5tLdcgU">invention of agriculture</a>, hunter-gatherers who did not change were displaced or conquered by farming or <a href="/facts/Pastoralism/J9m2S95h">pastoralist</a> groups in most parts of the world. Across Western Eurasia, it was not until approximately 4,000 BC that farming and metallurgical societies completely replaced hunter-gatherers. These technologically advanced societies expanded faster in areas with less forest, pushing hunter-gatherers into denser woodlands. Only the middle-late Bronze Age and Iron Age societies were able to fully replace hunter-gatherers in their final stronghold located in the most densely forested areas. Unlike their <a href="/facts/Bronze_Age/c09qWcTt">Bronze</a> and <a href="/facts/Iron_Age/mpQYShI0">Iron Age</a> counterparts, Neolithic societies could not establish themselves in dense forests, and Copper Age societies had only limited success.
In addition to men, a single study found that women engage in hunting in 79% of modern hunter-gatherer societies. However, an attempted verification of this study found "that multiple methodological failures all bias their results in the same direction...their analysis does not contradict the wide body of empirical evidence for gendered divisions of labor in foraging societies". Only a few contemporary societies of <a href="/facts/Uncontacted_peoples/831fBt1w">uncontacted people</a> are still classified as hunter-gatherers, and many supplement their foraging activity with <a href="/facts/Horticulture/m8qBLuT3">horticulture</a> or <a href="/facts/Pastoralism/J9m2S95h">pastoralism</a>.

Hunter-gatherer open-in-new

Hunter-gatherer