Hunter-gatherer

A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community (or according to an ancestrally derived lifestyle) in which most or all food is obtained by procuring naturally occurring edible items from the local wildlife and vegetation via hunting, fishing and/or gathering fruits, seeds and other plant parts (collectively known as vegetables) as well as edible fungi such as mushrooms. This is the human equivalent of the predation and foraging behaviors seen in all omnivorousanimals, and was a common practice among most prehistorichuman societies, particularly before the rise of agriculture during the Neolithic period. Hunter-gatherer societies, usually a tribe of only a few dozen people, were and are typically fully or semi-nomadic, in contrast with the sedentary and more populous agricultural societies whose food security rely mainly on cultivatingcrops/produces and raisingdomesticated animals.

Hunting and gathering emerged with Homo erectus about 1.8 million years ago and was humanity's original and most enduringly successful competitiveadaptation in the natural world, occupying at least 90 percent of the human history. Following the Neolithic Revolution, hunter-gatherer communities were outcompeted by the more productive agrarian/pastoralist communities and those that did not undergo lifestyle changes were displaced or conquered in most parts of the world, as the latter often have surplus food storages to support larger populations and a division of labor that promotes technological advancement in metallurgy, medicine, transportation and armaments. In Western Eurasia, the replacement of hunter-gatherers by farming societies happened more gradually, as dense forests remained their last refuge until Bronze and Iron Age societies fully overcame them eventually. Today, only a few contemporary societies of uncontacted peoples are still classified as hunter-gatherers, and many of them supplement their foraging activity with horticulture or pastoralism.

Socially, hunter-gatherers were generally egalitarian, emphasizing sharing and resisting hierarchy; though gender roles and some divisions of labor existed, hunter-gatherers are overall generalists and men and women often contributed to both hunting as well as gathering. Archaeological and ethnographic evidence shows wide variation depending on environment, from the mammoth steppe hunters in Siberia to the semi-sedentary Eskaleutfishermen/seal hunters of the Arctic. Their diets varied by climate, local florae and faunae, and access to aquatic resources, with fat as a critical nutrient, but generally is more balanced with higher roughage content and a more diverse range of food groups (e.g. the "bush tucker" diet of Australian Aborigines), coupled with a more physically active lifestyle. Over time, many bands specialized in particular resources and tools, and some transitioned into agriculture, which led to permanent settlements, governments, and social stratification. While most hunter-gatherers eventually adopted farming or were displaced, some groups—such as the San, Pumé, and Sentinelese—continue aspects of this lifestyle today.