Anthropology
Open Access

Common Characteristics of Hunter-Gatherer

^*Correspondence: Raghav Panigrahi, Department of Anthropology, Punjab University, Chandigarh, India, Email:

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Description

The hunter-gatherers have existed in various environments and live next to many other cultural groups, they have established an incredible diversity of values and natural resource-management. Starting the transition between the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic some 70,000 to 80,000 years ago, several hunter-gatherer groups began to study, concentrating on hunting and a minor collection of gathering food. Before the rise of hunter-gatherer cultures, the early groups relied on the practice of searching for animal remain -ns left behind by predators. In fact, the hunter-gatherer lifestyle required access to large regions of land between seven and 500 seven and 500 square miles in order to find the food they need -ed to survive.

Significance

This made long-term settlement impractical, and the majority of hunter-gatherers were on the move. Hunter-gatherer groups typically ranged from an extended family to a larger group of no more than 100 people. Beginning with the Neolithic Revolution about 12,000 years ago, when agricultural practises were first developed, some groups abandoned hunter-gatherer practices in favor of establishing permanent settlements that could support much larger populations. However, many hunter-gatherer behavior’s persisted into modern times. As late as 1500 C.E., hunter-gatherers still existed in parts of Europe and across the Americas.

The hunter-gatherer population has declined dramatically. Very few remain today, with the Hadza in Tanzania being one of the last groups to live this tradition. Not all hunter-gatherers fit this list of traits. In fact, ethnographers from the societies of the Pacific Coast of North America (particularly the Northwest United States and Southwest Canada) have given us a very different picture. These hunter-gatherer societies, many of which relied heavily on fishing for their traditional economies, had larger communities, stationary villages, and social inequality. Many scholars have long considered them anomalous huntergatherers. But the landscape is changing rapidly, mainly as a result of archaeological research in the Upper Pal eolithic period, before the advent of agriculture. During this time, huntergatherers seem to have developed inequality in many areas of the world. These hunter-gatherer complexes have been found in North America in the northwestern interior plateau, the Canadian Arctic, and the southeastern United States, as well as South America, the Caribbean, Japan, parts of Australia, northern Eurasia, and the Middle East. Archaeologists infer the disparity from the presence of prestige items such as ornaments or large differences in burials that indicate "rich" and "poor" individuals. Complex hunter-gatherer societies, in contrast to simpler hunter-gatherer societies, generally exhibit the following characteristics: Higher population densities with 0.2 to 10 people per square mile. fully seasonal or sedentary communities. Socio-political organization is mainly based on economic production and other important socioeconomic differences.

Conclusion

Some private ownership of individuals and resources are associated with the property. Competitive screenings and elite festivals attempt to control access to the supernatural. While almost all hunter-gatherers have some form of astronomical system, complex hunter-gatherer groups generally have some form of solstice observation or calendar. Hunting is one of the most difficult skills to learn and usually requires more direct instruction.