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IGNOU HISTORY Study Notes for IAS, UPSC Exams

India Earliest Times to the 8th Century A.D

Hunter-Gatherers:Archaeological Perspective

Structure

3.0 Objectives
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Palaeolithic Stage
3.2.1 Palaeol~thic Tools
3 2.2 Palaeolithic Sites
3.2 3 Subsistence Pattern
3.3 Mesolithic Stage
3.3.1 Mcsol~thic Tools
3 3.2 Mesolithic Sites
3.3.3 Subsistence Pattern
3.4 Let Us Sum Up
3.5 Key Words
3.6 Answers to Check Your Progrw Exertises

3.0 OBJECTIVES

After reading this Unit, you will be able to learn :
the various ways to study the pre-historic hunters-gatherers.
about the archaeological evidences which enable us to reconstruct their history.
about their subsistence pattern,
about the kinds of tools they used, and to what extent pre-historic art helps us in knowing
about their organisation.

3.1 INTRODUCTION

It may seem unbelievable to us, living in the 20th century, but it is nevertheless true that
human societies during more than 99% of their existence on the earth have lived as
hunters/gatherers. This means that before human beings started producing food about 10.000
years ago, they lived off the resources of nature. This they did by gathering various edible
items like roots, fruits, sudd, honey and so on which nature had to offer and by killing animals,
birds and fish available in the surroundings in which they lived. The total dependence of
human being on nature or their environment during the major part of human existence has
many implications. It means that the way they acquired their food influenced the character of
their relationship with Nature and also how they viewed Nature. Second, the hunters/gatherers
existed in groups was also related to the mode of thus acquiring food. What may be noted is
that the formation of groups among hunters/gatherers was much more flexible than in other
societies.
Considering the very. very long span of time for which human societies have been in the
hunting/gathering stage, it is important that we learn about this stage of human history. There
are different areas in the world where human beings still live as huntedgatherers. It is thus
necessary that we learn something about their cultures in addition to learning about culture
changes in human history. How do we learn about hunters/gatherers? We get considerable
amount of information about different aspects of the hunters/gatherers way of life, their social
organization and their environment from the works of ethnographers/anthropologists who
study living human communities. Their works provide us with useful insights into the ways
and conditions of life of hunting/gathering communities of the past. However, for the past
communities we depend primarily on the works of those archaeologists and other scientists
who have specialised in discovering studying and analysing the tools which these communities 
 

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