Hunter-Gatherer Societies, Ecological Impact of Kathleen A Galvin and Tyler Beeton, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA r 2013 Elsevier Inc All rights reserved This article is a revision of the previous edition article by Kathleen A Galvin, volume 3, pp 411–415, r 2001, Elsevier Inc Glossary Bands The basic economic, social, and political unit of hunter-gatherer societies Cultural change The process by which cultures undergo change in response to social, political, and environmental factors Cultures and the global system The analysis of cultural diversity, responses and adaptations of smaller scale societies to emerging global trends Exogamy The practice of a person seeking a mate outside of his or her group Introduction Many people have impressions of hunter-gatherers as people who live in harmony with nature, who are organized into simple societies, and are associated with our ‘‘pristine’’ Paleolithic hunter-gatherer past Many of these stereotypic impressions are false (cf Moran, 1991; Cane, 1996) Today, all foragers live in nation-states, have some dependence on either crop cultivation or wage labor, and are not isolated Huntergatherer societies have social systems that are extremely complex and whose interactions with the biodiversity surrounding them are as complicated and variable as was probably the case 10,000 years ago when all humans were foragers It is no accident that today, areas with the greatest remaining biodiversity are also the areas inhabited by hunter-gatherers Many hunter-gatherers retreating from land appropriation, settler immigration, and European diseases have occupied the most remote parts of their region Today, these homelands are often part of or adjacent to conservation areas, parks, or other protected areas This article describes traditional hunter-gatherer societies and the adaptations these societies have made to the environment As hunter-gatherer societies and their environments have undergone continuing changes, issues of biodiversity conservation and hunter-gatherer welfare are discussed within the context of their changing world Hunter-Gatherer Societies and Natural Resource Exploitation Because hunter-gatherers have lived in diverse environments and live next to numerous other cultural groups, they have manifested an incredible diversity of cultures and natural resource-management adaptations Nevertheless, there are several general characteristics of hunter-gatherer societies: these traits have had a direct impact on the use of natural resources 162 Global environmental sustainability The effect of human social systems and economies on ecosystem processes, their feedbacks, now and into the future Human environment interactions The study of the complex systems of interaction between people and their environment Patrilocal residence The practice of married couple living in the husband’s community Traditional hunter-gatherer societies were comprised of bands, social groups made up of close biological kin and friends The composition and sizes of bands changed seasonally, depending on the abundance and location of food resources Bands were led by individual hunters who were respected for particular talents such as singing or dancing well, good storytelling, or hunting prowess Other features of band organization are small group size, flexible but primarily patrilocal residence, and strong pair bonds between individual men and women Marriage was exogamous, that is, females were recruited from other groups These features of huntergatherer society were a reflection of a history of ecologic, economic, and social interactions For example, Efe Pygmy hunter-gatherer men of the Ituri Forest in the former Zaire had very strong relationships with close kin, which facilitated defense of their territories against other cooperative kin groups (Bailey and Aunger, 1989) Moreover, related men could assure women access to valuable resources in neighboring Lese agricultural villages Also, women were attracted to men who could guarantee long-standing reciprocal economic relationships with Lese villages Competition for women was high, so close relations with kin may also have helped to obtain marriageable women and provide protection, as some women left Efe society to live in Lese agricultural villages Hunter-gatherers were sedentary or nomadic depending on the distribution and dynamics of their resource base and their economic relations with other people Typically, men hunted and fished while women gathered and collected foods Sometimes women’s work contributed more to the diet and sometimes male hunting and fishing products were most important Gathering of wild foods tended to contribute more to the diet among people inhabiting tropical and semitropical areas (e.g., Bushmen of the Kalahari) than in northern temperate climates (e.g., the Inuit of Canada) where hunting contributes the bulk of the diet Staple foods were exchanged with neighbors and more recently in markets (Moran, 1991) Encyclopedia of Biodiversity, Volume http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-384719-5.00072-1