hunter-gathereradj.n.
/ˌhʌntəˈɡað(ə)rə/, U.S. /ˌhən(t)ərˈɡæðərər/ Cultural Anthropology.
A. adj.
Of, relating to, or designating (the culture of) a people who live by hunting, fishing, and foraging rather than by growing crops, rearing livestock, etc. Later also humorously in extended use: of or relating to a type of person (esp. a man) driven by primitive competitive or acquisitive instincts.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > customs, values, and civilization > a civilization or culture > [adjective] > types of prehistoric
food vessel1866
stone-using1870
urnfield1889
hunter-gatherer1928
funnel-beaker1954
1928 Social Forces 7 265/1 The cares required by the new and valuable food grown in progressively larger quantity had for effect the slow stabilization of the tribes or bands of hunter-gatherer Indians in the neighborhood of the valleys where they cultivated corn.
1969 Biennial Rev. Anthropol. vi. 346 Lenski sees hunter-gatherer and simple horticultural societies as relatively egalitarian.
1993 New Scientist 15 May 46/3 These hunter-gatherer images encode cosmological notions of social organisation, wherein men and animals are seen to enjoy a special relationship from which women are excluded.
2001 M. Hughes et al. World Food: India 209 Men take it as their heartfelt duty and the market provides a daily challenge, a rare opportunity to exercise the last vestiges of their primordial hunter-gatherer instinct.
B. n.
A member of a culture in which people live by hunting, fishing, and foraging rather than by growing crops, rearing livestock, etc. Later also humorously in extended use: a type of a person (usually a man) driven by primitive competitive or acquisitive instincts.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > customs, values, and civilization > a civilization or culture > [noun] > ancient culture > people of > specific
food-gatherer1865
stone-boiler1865
stone-user1915
hunter-gatherer1938
1915 L. T. Hobhouse et al. Material Culture & Social Instit. of Simpler Peoples i. 19 There is..another group of Hunters and Gatherers which we have distinguished..as occupying a peculiar position.]
1938 R. H. Lowie in F. Boas Gen. Anthropol. vii. 286 What of primitive peasants..? Are they any more in control of misfortune caused by natural conditions than the hunter-gatherer?
1959 J. D. Clark Prehist. Southern Afr. i. 21 The Bushman way of life being that of hunter-gatherers.
1978 Sci. Amer. Apr. 92/2 Still another contrast with great-ape feeding behavior is human hunter-gatherers' practice of subjecting many foodstuffs to preparation for consumption.
1997 Sunday Times 26 Oct. (Destinations Suppl.) 15/2 For the serious hunter-gatherer, there is the battle for bargains at one of the city's many markets.
2000 D. Adebayo My Once upon Time (2001) vii. 144 The beefcake gave me a gracious nod of defeat and returned without quibble or even so much as a mark on her card. I'm not sure if this incident set off the old, competitive, hunter-gatherer in me.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, June 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.n.1928