The Lifeways of Hunter-Gatherers
by Robert L. Kelly
Robert L. Kelly's The Lifeways of Hunter-Gatherers surveys what anthropology has learned about foraging peoples while challenging common assumptions. Kelly, an archaeologist at the University of Wyoming, argues that there is no single hunter-gatherer lifeway; foraging societies vary enormously in diet, mobility, social organization, land tenure, and gender relations. He uses human behavioral ecology, which applies evolutionary theory to human behavior, to explain this variation as adaptive responses to different environments. The book covers topics from what foragers eat and how they move through landscapes to how they share food and regulate conflict. Kelly is attentive to the limits of ethnographic analogy; modern hunter-gatherers live in marginal environments and have been shaped by centuries of contact with agriculturalists, making them imperfect models for Paleolithic ancestors. He also addresses the politics of representing foraging peoples, who have been romanticized as egalitarian primitives and demonized as savages. The Lifeways of Hunter-Gatherers is a textbook but accessible to general readers, synthesizing decades of research into an engaging overview. Essential reading for anyone interested in human evolution, anthropology, or the diversity of ways humans have organized their lives.