Hunter-gather societies Essay Example

Hunter Hunter-gather societies Paper Hunter-gather societies Paper Are there any general features which can be said to characterise hunter-gather societies? To what extent are such societies egalitarian? (2023 words) Abstract This essay will consist of information relevant to answering the title question. So, therefore I will go about explaining the question to the reader in a number of ways; I will first define what a hunter-gather society is and move on from there to explain the general features of these tribes, for a few examples; initiation rights to the different tribes. How tribes hunt, divisions of labour within the tribes and the general features. I will then find through my research if these types of tribes are egalitarian or not. I will also refer to a subject outside this specific module and link Marx and his socialist ideas to explain the other egalitarian side of the essay question. Introduction Hunter-gatherer societies exploit non-domestic and wild food resources. This way of gaining food includes the hunting of large and small game animals, fishing and the collection of various plant foods, food is collected from the immediate environment. The hunter-gatherer catch only as much as they can eat at any one time to avoid problems of storage. Hunter-gatherers typically live as part of a small camp, tribe or band made up of kin. The tribe is generally nomadic and follow the availability of food. It has been found that there is little role specialization, the main division of labour tends to be divided between age and gender, so that the healthy and capable hunt and gather for the old. Typically the men hunt and the women gather. Today barely 30,000 of the worlds population live by hunting and gathering, thats just 0.003% of the worlds population, and are decreasing in numbers, they represent not only our social origins but also account for a huge diversity of different cultural forms. The hunter-gatherer societies belong within a group of whats known as pre-modern societies. Within the pre-modern societies there are two other forms of how communities live outside of modernity, anthropologists have traditionally categorised non-modern societies according to the ways in which food is produced, they are; Pastoral societies and agrarian societies. The pastoral societies also hunt and gather but also keep a herd of animals, for example cattle, camels, horses. The herds supply the tribes with milk, meat and transport. Unlike hunter-gatherer societies this type of society make it possible to accumulate wealth through the animals that they keep and so therefore tend to be nomadic, But on the other hand, this type of society can lead to inequality and therefore be Non-egalitarian. Such societies can be found in places such as the Middle-East, Africa and Asia. Agrarian societies rely largely upon the cultivation of crops as means of food. This therefore provides a very reliable source of food than just going out to hunt, which in turn can support a much larger population of people living in that certain tribe or a society as a whole. On the contrary to Pastoral societies, Agrarian societies are not nomadic due to the growing and storage of crops but this also is a positive point as it enables people living within this certain society to accumulate personal wealth.