Page 61 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol I - Abraham to Coal

Beginnings:

The Era of

Foragers

he era of foragers was the time in human history foragers ended about ten thousand years ago with the
Twhen all human communities lived by searching out appearance of the first agricultural communities because
or hunting food and other things they needed, rather after that time foraging ceased to be the only lifeway prac-
than by growing or manufacturing them. Such people are ticed by human societies.
also called “hunter-gatherers.” The era of foragers is also
known as the “Paleolithic era” (Paleolithic means “old Studying the
Stone Age”). The era of foragers was the first and by far Era of Foragers
the longest era of human history. It was the time when Historians have had a difficult time integrating the era of
the foundations of human history were laid down. foragers into their accounts of the past because most his-
Foragers gather the resources they need for food, for torians lack the research skills needed to study an era that
shelter and clothing, and for ritual activities and other generated no written evidence.Traditionally the era of for-
purposes. For the most part they do so without trying to agers has been studied not by historians, but rather by
transform their environment.The exceptional cultural and archaeologists, anthropologists, and prehistorians.
technological creativity of human foragers distinguishes In the absence of written evidence scholars use three
their lifeways (the many different ways in which people other fundamentally different types of evidence to under-
relate to their environments and to each other) from the stand the history of this era. The first type consists of
superficially similar lifeways of nonhuman species, such physical remains from past societies.Archaeologists study
as the great apes. Only humans can communicate using the skeletal remains of humans and their prey species, left-
symbolic language. Language allows men and women to over objects such as stone tools and other manufactured
share and accumulate knowledge in detail and with great objects or the remains of meals, as well as evidence from
precision. As a result of this constant sharing of knowl- the natural environment that may help them understand
edge, the skills and lifeways of ancient foragers gradually climatic and environmental changes.We have few skele-
adapted to a huge variety of environments, creating a cul- tal remains for the earliest phases of human history; the
tural and technological variety that has no parallel among earliest known skeletal remains that are definitely of
any other large species. The extraordinary facility with modern humans date from around 160,000 years ago.
which human communities adapted to new circum-
For more on these topics, please see the following articles:
stances and environments is the key to human history.
Archaeology p. 107 (v1)
As far as we know, the earliest human beings were for-
Art, Paleolithic p. 180 (v1)
agers; thus,the era of foragers began about 250,000 years
Dating Methods p. 487 (v2)
ago, when modern humans—members of our own
Human Evolution—Overview p. 930 (v3)
species,Homo sapiens—first appeared on Earth.Although
Paleoanthropology p. 1412 (v4)
some foraging communities exist even today, the era of
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