Until about 10-15,000 years ago, all humanity lived as hunter-gatherers in small bands of a dozen or more people. They were mostly kin-related and moved around a lot in search of edible plants and wild game. They followed the seasons and the animals. They lived sustainable lifestyles, living off the foodany nutritious substance that people or animals eat or drink, or that plants absorb, in order to maintain life and growth in selected regions, contributing to the balance of their ecosystems to survive and not deplete their resources.
Men hunted and fished, while women gathered fruits, tubers, berries, nuts, and seeds, as children most likely worked alongside their moms or sisters. A very young, breast-feeding child would not be an asset on a hunt for animals or in a fishing environmentthe surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives or operates; the aggregate of surrounding things, conditions, or influences;Â ecology, the air, water, minerals, organisms, and all other external factors and influences. Such bands would be termed nomads, as they were always on the move, migrating to different geographic areas where they would find food.
The intense mobility of bands made it impossible to own or carry many material items. There was a lack of any kind of property ownership because of the abandonment of possessions. They followed animals to locate food sources. There was no need to domesticate animals for farming or as beasts of burden. The wolf, which eventually evolved into what we now know as dogs, was likely the first animal domesticated, whether for companionship or as a food source.
For bands, the environment provided shelters, living in caves or other subterranean types of protection. The bands joined together with other bands at different times of the year, founding seasonal communities. These communities were egalitarianegalitarian does not mean "equal," rather it means equal access to resources for survival societies, where adults had equal access to the resources important for survival. Small bands did not need elaborate ways of organization. They governed themselves without living in a stratified societya group of people who are all interdependent and interconnected by their cultural connections; they live in patterned ways and their behaviors in various circumstances are well established; for instance in the Western world most people adhere to lines (cue) at bus stops, or movie theaters, or when checking out at a grocery store; patterned and regular ways of doing things are expected and accepted. Imagine a world without bureaucracy!
We don’t know much about their familya family is group of people consisting of parents and children living together in a household; family members can also live away from parents or in a different household relationships or marriages, but we do know that their families were not large. Women breastfeed their children for up to five years. Breastfeeding for long periods limited female ovulation, so children were spaced several years apart. With fewer children, the carrying capacities of hunting and gathering regions were sustainable.
There are a few small bands of hunter-gatherers today practicing traditional ways of life. The following video of the J’/hoansi gives you an idea of what it may have been like.
Their lifestyle is disappearing, but the film shows you how they take advantage of the resources at hand. Other words for this are subsistencea method whereby humans are able to continue their existence; condition of being able to stay alive; practices that maintain survival practices or just plain making a living.
It is estimated that about 15,000 years ago, there were bands of hunter-gatherers throughout the world. As the ice melted and land bridges became available (climate changes), people moved across the lands to explore new regions with different plants and animals and found different kinds of people. Food sharing around cultural hearths became a main activity. Archaeologists look for such cultural hearths during their excavations.
Globalizationall nations and peoples are interconnected in today's world due to massive flow of goods and services, importation of labor, immigration, technology, finance capital, outsourcing of businesses, and diseases, etc.; globalization promotes rapid culture change and adaptations, which increasingly blurs the lines of cultural components is often stated as beginning around the 15th century, but serious migrations began long before ships were setting off across the oceans. There were Aboriginesaborigines - the original or earliest known inhabitants of a country or region, but the name is mainly associated with the indigenous people of Australia; often called Australian Aborigines - aborigine can also be used in expressing the original native fauna or flora of a region More in Australia 40,000 years ago and Native Americans in North America at least 12,000 years ago. Artists were painting in French caves 25 to 30,000 years ago. These ancient peoples were all hunter-gatherers, and they were the ancestors of all modern peoples (us).
Those first small bands of people everywhere created tools that helped them to survive in whatever environments. As they moved around and began to associate with other groups, they shared their knowledge and skills. However, meeting other groups (just like today) caused conflicts over food resources and hunting grounds. As time passed, tools became more sophisticated than simple arrows and stone tools. Archaeologists have found tools like axes, drills, spearheads, and even metal tools. Such tools made life easier for felling trees, hunting, and butchering large animals for food.
Some archaeological finds show and tell us that those early peoples may have practiced religionbelief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator and governor of the universe; a personal or institutionalized system grounded in such belief and worship; a set of beliefs, values, and practices based on the teachings of a spiritual leader. They adorned themselves with shells, feathers, or other forms of enhancements. They used plants for medicinal purposes. They learned how to build shelters and make clothing from both plants and animals. They had languages that are now extinct. They shared music and danced. Surely, they told stories around their campfires. Many groups around the world developed unique and diverse talents using the natural resources available to them.
You can see how the lives of people who congregated in a certain area or region became interconnected and interdependent. Small bands were very migratory, so you also see how their communities arose and then disappeared, in some regions numerous times with numerous groups of people. By studying these bands of people and how their lifestyles changed, you can see how cultural diversitythe state of being diverse or different, variety and/or diversity is more than exhibiting "different" outward appearances; diversity is often much more about cultural differences develops over long periods, with different styles of dress, sports, music, dance, food, religion, shelters, tools, and technologythe system by which a society provides its members with things needed or desired, along with knowledge for the use and maintenance of the system More.