Wild things in the north? Hunter-gatherers and the tyranny of the colonial perspective

Layton, R.; Rowley-Conwy, P.

Abstract

The paper argues for a synthesis of Darwinian and Marxist theories of evolution. We challenge claims that hunter-gatherer societies evolve via a natural progression from simple to complex, arguing instead that huntergatherer social strategies are adaptations to specifiable ecological conditions, while having emergent consequences that shape the political structure of hunter-gatherer society. We review the various theories of which we make use, and those that we challenge, and test them against data from the ethnographic and archaeological literature on hunter-gatherers, discussing the evidence for variation in technology, mobility, territoriality and egalitarianism versus social inequality. We conclude that human societies do not evolve via a natural progression from simple to complex forms, and that complex hunter-gatherers are not necessarily incipient farmers. Many of the assumptions that colour common views of the development of hunter-gatherer complexity and the appearance of agriculture in prehistoric Europe have their roots, consciously or unconsciously, in nineteenth-century European colonialism.

Citation

Layton, R., & Rowley-Conwy, P. (2013). Wild things in the north? Hunter-gatherers and the tyranny of the colonial perspective. Anthropologie (Brno. Print), 51(2), 213-230

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 23, 2013
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2013
• Deposit Date: Jul 19, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 21, 2016
• Journal: Anthropologie.
• Print ISSN: 0323-1119
• Electronic ISSN: 2570-9127
• Publisher: Anthropos Institute at the Moravian Museum in Brno, Czech Republic
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 51
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 213-230
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1400681
• Publisher URL: http://puvodni.mzm.cz/Anthropologie/article.php?ID=1515