Table of Contents
Definition of Hunting and Gathering
(noun) The foraging of uncultivated plants and undomesticated animals for subsistence.
Examples of Hunting and Gathering
- Collecting nuts off the ground.
- Picking fruit off a tree.
- Shooting an animal with a bow and arrow for meat.
Hunting and Gathering Pronunciation
Syllabification: hunt·ing and gath·er·ing
Audio Pronunciation
Phonetic Spelling
- American English – /hUHn-ting And gA-THuhr-ring/
- British English – /hUHn-ting nd gA-THuh-ring/
International Phonetic Alphabet
- American English – /ˈhʌntɪŋ ænd ˈgæðərɪŋ/
- British English – /ˈhʌntɪŋ ænd ˈgæðərɪŋ/
Usage Notes
- Hunter-gatherer societies are the earliest forms of social organization and are nomadic with strong kinship ties.
- A hunter-gatherer society is compared and contrasted with an agrarian society and horticultural society.
- Hunting and gathering is a primary subsistence strategy, others include:
- Variant spelling: hunting-and-gathering
Related Quotations
- “Hunting and gathering societies represent the earliest form of organized social life. Individuals in groups of about 50 survive by hunting animals and gathering edible foods. Kinship—ties by blood and marriage—is the foundation for most relationships and is principal institution for hunting and gathering societies. There are no specialized or enduring work groups, governments, or standing armies” (Hughes and Kroehler 2008:62).
- “The development of agriculture about 5,000 years ago brought change to [society]. Agriculture emerged as people harnessed animals to ploughs, increasing the productive power of hunting and gathering more than tenfold. The resulting surplus freed some people in society from the demands of food production. Individuals began to adopt specialised economic roles: forging crafts, designing tools, raising animals and constructing dwellings. A division of labour started to become more and more important as size increased” (Macionis and Plummer 2012:464).
Related Video
Additional Information
- Ecological and Environmental Resources – Books, Journals, and Helpful Links
- Food and Agriculture Resources – Books, Journals, and Helpful Links
- Word origin of “hunting” and “gathering” – Online Etymology Dictionary: etymonline.com
- Brody, Hugh. 2001. The Other Side of Eden: Hunter-gatherers, Farmers and the Shaping of the World. London: Faber.
- Cartmill, Matt. 1993. A View to a Death in the Morning: Hunting and Nature through History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
- Harding, Robert S. O., and Geza Teleki. 1981. Omnivorous Primates: Gathering and Hunting in Human Evolution. New York: Columbia University Press.
- Harris, David R., and Gordon C. Hillman. 1989. Foraging and Farming: The Evolution of Plant Exploitation. London: Unwin Hyman.
- Maisels, Charles Keith. 1993. The Emergence of Civilization: From Hunting and Gathering to Agriculture, Cities, and the State in the Near East. London: Routledge.
- Morrison, Kathleen D., and Laura L. Junker. 2002. Forager-traders in South and Southeast Asia: Long-term Histories. New York: Cambridge University Press.
- O’Hanlon, Michael, and Robert Louis Welsch. 2000. Hunting the Gatherers: Ethnographic Collectors, Agents and Agency in Melanesia, 1870s–1930s. New York: Berghahn Books.
- Miracle, Preston T., Lynn E. Fisher, and Jody Brown. 1991. Foragers in Context: Long-term, Regional and Historical Perspectives in Hunter-gatherer Studies. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan.
Related Terms
- agriculture
- cultural ecology
- cultural environment
- ecology
- horticulture
- industrialism
- pastoralism
- physical environment
- slash and burn
- subsistence strategy
References
Hughes, Michael, and Carolyn J. Kroehler. 2008. Sociology: The Core. 8th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Macionis, John, and Kenneth Plummer. 2012. Sociology: A Global Introduction. 4th ed. Harlow, England: Pearson Education.
Cite the Definition of Hunting and Gathering
ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “hunting and gathering.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved December 14, 2024 (https://sociologydictionary.org/hunting-and-gathering/).
APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)
hunting and gathering. (2013). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/hunting-and-gathering/
Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “hunting and gathering.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed December 14, 2024. https://sociologydictionary.org/hunting-and-gathering/.
MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)
“hunting and gathering.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2013. Web. 14 Dec. 2024. <https://sociologydictionary.org/hunting-and-gathering/>.