Hunter-Gatherers in History, Archaeology and Anthropology (review)

Alan Barnard is the editor of what he bills as the first work to examine in depth the idea of the ‘hunter-gatherer’ in history. The book is a collection of papers from the Ninth International Conference on Hunting and Gathering Societies (CHAGS 9) held at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, in September 2003. Most of the papers come from a session in which anthropologists, archaeologists and researchers from other disciplines grappled with aspects of the term ‘hunter-gatherer’.

The four chapters in Part 1 examine processes, developments and perspectives regarding concepts and ideas relating to the study of hunter-gatherers over the past 300 years. Mark Pluciennik suggests that, given the variability and historicity implicit in that we call ‘hunter-gatherer’, it is necessary to describe and explain the many differences and distinctions in the ways of life of societies that have been classified in this way. Alan Barnard argues that the concept of hunting- and -gathering society was essentially a late eighteenth-century ‘invention’ predicated on the notions of human social evolution and the idea of society as based on economic relations. Lester Hiatt seeks to integrate Edward Westermarck’s ideas about the origins of morality with the ethics, norms and values of Gidjingarli Australian aboriginals in the light of evolutionary biology. Aram Yengoyan reasons that the study of culture has tended to obliterate cultural differences between various hunter-gatherer societies and that it is these very cultural specificities that are crucial to understanding the inherent conservatism of culture and its relation to economic and political change.

Each of the chapters in Part 2 focuses on non-Anglophone anthropological research traditions. Peter Schweizer draws our attention to a ‘forgotten chapter in the history of hunter-gatherer studies’ – the work of ethnologists (equivalent to the English term ‘anthropologist’) between 1880 and 1930 who wrote in German. Olga Artemova and Anna Sirina each comment on aspects of Russian and Soviet anthropological studies of hunter-gatherers. Artemova’s chapter chronicles the work of pre-Soviet Russian ethnologists, the work of the ‘Soviet golden age’ and the subsequent degeneration of scholarship that began in the 1930s. Sirina points out that although the term ‘hunter-gatherer’ is rarely used in Soviet ethnography, studies of ‘hunter-gatherer’ societies are the foundation of Russian ethnography. She emphasizes the importance of ethnographic studies of Siberian societies and their largely unfulfilled potential for theoretical and interpretive analysis. Mitsuo Ichikawa describes work carried out by Japanese students amongst central African hunter-gatherers (the so-called ‘Pygmies’), an involvement that began in the early 1970s. Kazuyoshi Sugawara writes about Japanese research on the San of southern Africa and how researchers with primatological backgrounds and an interest in ecological studies initiated this work. Shanti Pappu comments on the history of hunter-gatherer studies in India, a history whose beginnings in the late nineteenth century are associated with the work of R. B. Foote.

Part 3 brings together assorted re-evaluations of studies that have shaped the way in which people have tried to understand hunter-gatherer groupings. Paul Lane and Tim Schadla-Hall revisit the Early Mesolithic hunter-gatherer site of Star Carr, excavated by Grahame Clark between 1949 and 1951. Michael Sheehan confronts the problems involved in attempts to apply optimal foraging theory to the archaeological study of past hunter-gatherer studies. The following two chapters, one by Daniel Myers, the other by Marc Pinkoski and Michael Asch, examine different aspects of Julian Steward’s contribution to the study of hunter-gatherers. The final two chapters use studies of San peoples as the basis for formulating questions about more general issues regarding hunter-gatherer studies. James Suzman tackles questions around the historicity and ethnicity of the Omaheke Ju/’oansi in Namibia and the implications these have for notions of indigenous rights. Thomas Widlok explores the question of whether anthropological studies of extant hunter-gatherer societies should rather be reconceptualized as contemporary history. He...