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Hunter-Gatherer Societies

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

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Synonyms

Band societies; Foragers

Definition

Hunter-gatherer societies (HGS) are a type of society whose subsistence needs are met by gathering wild plant resources, hunting wild game, and fishing, without reliance on agriculture or domesticated animals except for dogs (Lee and Daly 1999).

Introduction

Throughout the Pleistocene, HGS spread to occupy nearly every habitable corner on the planet and locally adapted to a diverse array of ecosystems. For approximately 95% of the time span during which human evolution occurred, people lived in HGS, that is, from the emergence of Homo sapiens until approximately 10,000 years ago (Lee and Daly 1999). Therefore, there is potential to greatly inform our understanding of human evolution by studying the social dynamics and other patterns that characterize modern HGS since their contexts are the most similar socioecological contexts which exist today to which humans have had the most time to adapt. Given this argument, it should be recognized...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    James G. Zerbe

Authors
  1. James G. Zerbe
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to James G. Zerbe .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  2. Rochester, MI, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. No affiliation provided

    Haley Dillon

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Zerbe, J.G. (2019). Hunter-Gatherer Societies. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_418-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_418-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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