Social And Social Organization In Foraging Societies

HUNTER GATHERERS

Earlier societies did not use to produce their own food but instead they use to survive by hunting and gathering, or foraging. A hunter-gatherer or foraging, society is a society whose subsistence is based on the hunting of animals and gathering of vegetation. The basic economic, social, and political unit of hunter-gatherer societies is the band. For almost 99 percent of humanity 's life span, humans lived as foragers. This lifestyle has been the most enduring and persistent adaptation humans have ever achieved. Therefore, band societies have been the basic type of sociocultural system for perhaps as long as one million years. Hence, the study of the foraging way of life has been of particular interest to anthropologists as

2. Binford(1980)divided hunter-gatherers into Foragers and Collectors.

3. The archeological division was into Simple and complex hunter-gatherers.

Social and Political Organization in Foraging Societies

The fundamental social organization in foraging societies is-based on family, marriage, kinship, gender, and age. The two basic elements of social organization for foraging populations are the nuclear family and the band. The nuclear family is the quite small consisting of parents and offspring. This family seems like most adaptive for hunting-gathering societies because of the flexibility needed for the location and also the distribution is easy along with a decent level of exchange of food resources. The most common type of band is made up of a related cluster of nuclear families ranging in size from twenty to one hundred individuals. Just as the band is the fundamental element of social organization in most hunting-and-gathering societies, it is also the basic political unit. Bands are tied together through kinship and marriage, creating reciprocal economic and social relationships throughout the community. Each band, however,

Marriage and Kinship

Although a number of foraging groups practice polygyny, the most common type of marriage found in foraging societies is Monogamy. Marriages are an important means of making social relationships more powerful. In some cases, betrothals are arranged and on the other hand the future spouses are still young children. Actually, the girl is much younger than the male. Marriage Rules and also some marital arrangements in foraging societies are intended to enhance economic, social, and political interdependence among bands and to foster appropriate band alliances. A common marriage rule found in foraging societies is referred to as cross-cousin marriage. A cross cousin is the offspring of one 's father 's sister or one 's mother 's brother.

Art, Music, and Religion

The art of foraging societies is intimately related to nature. Animals, plants, humans, and other components of the natural environment are the major subjects. This naturalistic art also has a religious significance, as nature and spirit are viewed as inseparable. Rock paintings with highly symbolic images of natural phenomena are found in most foraging