Hunter-Gatherers:

Archaeology and Ethnography

ARC2107/3107

Recommended Books
Kelly, R.L. 1995. The Foraging Spectrum:
Diversity in Hunter-Gatherer Lifeways.
New York: Smithsonian.
Panter-Brick, C., Layton, R.H. and
Rowley-Conwy, P. (eds) 2001. HunterGatherers: An Interdisciplinary
Perspective. Cambridge:CUP.

Hunter-Gatherer: Definition
B. n. A member of a culture in which
people live by hunting, fishing, and
foraging rather than by growing crops,
rearing livestock, etc. Later also
humorously in extended use: a type of a
person (usually a man) driven by primitive
competitive or acquisitive instincts.
OED
3

Lee 1992: As band societies

People who live in small groups, with
flexible membership and egalitarian
sociopolitical relationships.
But clearly includes people with a range of
economies and excludes some people
who live exclusively from hunting and
gatherering!

Economic Ambiguity

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Accepting the OED definition there are

some problems, grey areas and
ambiguities:
Domestic Dogs
Interfering with Nature
Herding of Animals and Gardening
Hunter-Gatherers by choice???
Open Economies
5

Dogs

And Mesolithic
examples like
Star Carr!

Interfering: Ngatatjara fires

After!

Fire encouraged
Solanum: the fruit
dry a bit like
raisins. Here
mixed with water
and rolled into a
ball.
9

New growth also attracts kangaroos!

10

Herding The Khanti of Siberia

Setting fishing nets beneath the ice

11

Gathered Cedar Nuts in Store

12

Herded and Tamed Reindeer

13

Other examples of ambiguities over

wild and domestic plants and
animals
Gardening in tropical South America
Wild or domestic sago palms in Indonesia
Wild or domestic pigs in the highlands of
Papua New Guinea.
Lots of similar problems in the
archaeological record.
14

Some Hunter-gatherer groups

can and do farm or herd, if
conditions allow it
Agta (Philippines) will operate swidden
farming of rice etc. if not pushed out by
other farmers (were not farmers originally,
but would happily now)
Plain Indians (USA) grew maize and
beans etc before European colonies
forced their mobile hunting existence.
15

Agta Swidden

16

Agta farmer imitation house and rice stores

17

Traditional Non-farming Agta House

18

Plains Village Hunter-Farmers:

Mandan

19

Plains Indian Hunters

20

Open Economies Agta trade meat and fish

for cassava from Ilokano Farmers

21

The Agta are ardent smiths but trade for the

metal

22

Our final definition

Lee and Daly 1999 subsistence based on
hunting of wild animals, gathering of wild plant
foods, and fishing, with no domestication of
plants, and no domesticated animals except the
dog [riding tamed feral horses??]
Hunter-gatherers do not exercise deliberate
control of the gene pool of exploited resources
Economic isolation need not be assumed
High mobility need not be assumed
Band-sized groups need not be assumed.
23

Where are they found today or recently ??

ethonographic accounts

24

Nature of the Archaeological Evidence

Much hunter-gatherer archaeological
evidence is very ephemeral (particularly
for mobile groups)
There is potentially a very strong bias in
what we will find
Many crucial activities may leave no trace
at all

25

Agta Seasonal Encampment

26

Agta river bed lean-tos

27

28

29

Rainy season
hunting camp in
forest

30

Lepenski Vir
(Danube)
Houses

31

Mezhirich

32

Teepee Circles

33

Paviland Cave

34

Most Common Evidence

Lithic Scatters
Animal Bones (if not too acidic)
Food Debris
Tools

Shells (if not too acidic)

Food Debris
Personal Adornment

35

Lithics

36

Technology
Functional Forms
Style
Use Wear
Spatial Distribution (Intra and Inter-Site)
Stone Sources (and transport)
Residues
Phytolith
Starch
Blood
37

Animal Bones

38

 Dating - C14, ESR

Tools
Technology
Form, function and usewear
Style

Economy

Species exploited
Age and sex ratios exploited
Season of hunting
Hunting methods
Transport Strategies
Intensity of exploitation
Ecology
39

Shells

40

Species exploited
Season
Ecology
Transport patterns
Craft and personal adornment
Dating: C14, oxygen isotope stage etc.

41

More Unusual
Ceramics (if they have them)
Vessels
Art

Human Bones
Charred Plant Remains

42

Ceramics

43

Form
Function
Style
Technology
Dating: TL
Residues
Lipid (dateable)
Protein

44

Human Bones

45

Demography
Health and Disease
Funerary Rite
Injuries (accident, war, ritual)
Ancient DNA
Stable Isotopes
Oxygen and Hydrogen (climate)
Metals, O and H (origin)
Carbon (C3/C4 plants; marine/terrestrial)
Nitrogen (protein intake; trophic level)
46

Charred Plant Remains

47

 Dating: C14
Species exploited
Season of exploitation

48

Rare preservation
Waterlogged
So much of H/G material culture is organic
Preservation of environmental data (pollen,
insects etc)

Permafrost
Desiccated

49

Ertebolle
Culture Fish
Traps

50

51