hunting and gathering

Living by hunting animals and gathering seeds, nuts, roots, and berries for consumption rather than trade. Hunting and gathering was the primary means of subsistence for 99% of human history. With the development of agriculture and animal domestication in the Neolithic period (from 9000 BC), hunting and gathering gradually declined in importance. The Australian Aborigines, Inuit, Kung, and Pygmies are among the few remaining peoples who live chiefly by hunting and gathering.

Hunter-gatherers obtain ample food for the expenditure of much less effort than is required to obtain the same result in an agricultural economy. Hunting, which is done chiefly by men, supplies only 30–40% of the necessary calories and protein.

There are now fewer than 100,000 people throughout the world who obtain their food in this manner, confined mostly to remote areas with harsh climates. The key strategy of a hunting and gathering lifestyle is mobility, since it is essential to move once resources in an area are depleted. As a response to this requirement, hunter-gatherers tend to live in small groups with informal political leadership, and to have few items of material culture or private property. For the same reason, unproductive dependants (infants and old people) are sometimes killed or left to die.