Select Hunter-Gather Photos, Books, and Videos
Lee, Richard B. and Richard Daly, editors 2006 The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Comprehensive guide to late historic and modern hunter-gatherers of the world and their archaeological origins. Focus on subsistence, social life, and ethos / world view. The encyclopedia summarizes adaptations of more than 50 groups listed below. Some historic and contemporary ethnographic references are listed, as well as photos and links to popular online videos that provide glimpses of hunter-gatherer lifeways - particularly those that relate to diet and movement.
North America
Blackfoot of the North American Plains
Photo credits: "Blackfoot Indian medicine man. Coloured" is marked with CC0 1.0; "GNUS3080" by Sagatu is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0; "File: A Village by a Lake in Glacier National Park.jpg" by Apikuni (James Willard Schultz) (1923) is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Wissler, C. 1941 Indians of the Plains. New York: American Museum of Natural History.
Life in the Land: Blackfeet Nation. From Youtube, film co-produced by Stories for Action & Iron Shield Creative. Members of the Amskapi'Piikani (people of the Blackfeet Nation) of Montana describe their connections to the land and past lifeways. Note how ranching, a form of agricultural domestication of animals (cows) has historically replaced buffalo hunting out of necessity.
Canada - The Return of the Blackfoot / DW Documentary. Another Blackfoot documentary, by Rosie Dransfeld, 2025.
Major foods: bison (including stomach contents, organs, and bone marrow; dried meat mixed with rendered fat and berries to make storable pemmican), berries, camas bulbs (root vegetable), prairie turnips (legumes).
Caribou Inuit of the Arctic
Photo credits: "Inuit women scraping caribou skin" (ca. 1921) by National Museum of Denmark is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0; "Copper Inuit and dogs dragging caribou meat near Ammalurtuq Lake, Northwest Territories (Nunavut)" (1915) by Diamond Jenness is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; "Iglulik-Inuit" (ca. 1921) by Nationalmuseet is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
Vallee, F.G. 1967 Kabloona and Eskimo in the Central Keewatin. Ottawa: Canadian Research Centre for Anthropology, St. Paul University.
Inuit Hunt Caribou with Bow and Arrow for Arctic Survival. Video demonstrates the high reliance on meat for this adaptation.
Caribou Hunting in Canada's Arctic (Arviat, Nunavut). More reliance on hunting for the vast majority of food.
Major foods: caribou, marine mammals (seal, walrus), fish, migratory water fowl, berries.
Cree of James Bay
Photo credits: "Group of Naskapi, Mistassini, Quebec" by Albert Peter Low (1884) is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; "1850 James Bay Cree moccasins" by quinet is licensed under CC BY 2.0; "Group of Woodland Cree people, Fort George, James Bay, Quebec" by Albert Peter Low (1896) is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Speck, F. 1935 Naskapi: The Savage Hunters of the Labrador Peninsula. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
Major foods: moose, geese, fish, beaver, caribou, hare, grouse.
Dene of the Subarctic
Photo credits: "Bellycoonee, a Dogrib Indian / Bellycoonee, Indien de la tribu des Plats-Cotes-de-Chien" (1825-1826) by BiblioArchives / LibraryArchives is licensed under CC BY 2.0; "<div class='fn'> <i>Four Dogrib Indians </1></div>" by George Catlin is marked with CC0 1.0; "Dogrib moccasins, c. 1975 - Bata Shoe Museum - DSC00684" by Daderot is marked with CC0 1.0.
Mackenzie, Alexander 1970 The Journals and Letters of Sir Alexander Mackenzie (1789-1819), edited by W. Kaye Lamb. Cambridge: Hakluyt Society at the University Press.
History and Culture of the Chipewyan People, a Native American People. Comprehensive review of Dene life and the Chipewyan in particular. Note the various ways caribou are hunted in groups in addition to individuals using the bow and arrow. Note also that for caribou, the entire skull (brains) and stomach were consumed, the latter of which would have provided an important source of fermented food and polyphenols critical for controlling cholesteol make-up (HDL vs LDL) in the blood. Also, toboggans and snowshoes were used to move across a mostly snow-covered landscape.
Major foods: caribou, muskox, buffalo, bear, deer, beaver, waterfowl, fish.
Innu of Labrador
Photo credits: "Innu hunter / Chasseur innu" (1925-1940) by BiblioArchives / Library Archives is licensed under CC BY 2.0; "A group of Innu constructing canoes at North West River in Labrador / Des Innus fabriquent des canots a North West River (Labrador)" (circa 1920) by BiblioArchives / LIbraryArchives is licensed under CC BY 2.0; "Innu man and Nastas / Nastas et un Innu" (1920-1935) by BiblioArchives / LIbraryArchives is licensed under CC BY 2.0..
Henriksen, G. 1973 Hunters in the Barrens: The Naskapi on the Edge of the White Man's World. St. John's: Memorial University Institute of Social and Economic Research.
The Innu Nation: Sheshatsui & Mushuau - Quebec & Labrador, Canada - "Turtle Island". Visual content and commentary with traditional and contemporary music.
Land & Sea: Mushuau Innu Learn to Hunt Caribou in Labrador. 1979 film focused on caribou hunting of the Innu of Labrador.
Major foods: caribou, moose, bear, seal, marten, beaver, mink, lynx, hare, partridge, migratory birds, salmon, trout, wild berries, medicinal plants.
Inupiat of the Arctic
Photo credits: "Three Inupiat Umiaks at Point Hope, Alaska" by Diamond Jenness (1916) is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; "Inupiat Ivory Arrow-Shaft Straighteners at the British Museum" by Ethan Doyle White is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; "Braided Seal Intestine" by Western Arctic National Parklands is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Chance, N.A. 1966 The Eskimos of North Alaska. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Rainey, F.G. 1947 The Whale Hunters of Tigara. Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History 41. New York: American Museum of Natural History.
History of the Inupiat People of the North Slope. 2005 documentary produced by the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation.
Major foods: bowhead and beluga whales, seals, polar bear, walrus, hare, fish, birds and bird eggs, caribou, dall sheep, duck, fox, wolf, woverine
Timbisha Shoshone of the Great Basin
Photo credits: "Skin tepees, Shoshone Indians" by libraryofcongress is marked with CC0 1.0; "Ancestral Shoshone Indian petroglyph (~1000 to ~200 years old) (White Mountain Petroglyphs, southwestern Wyoming, USA) 6" by James St. John is licensed under CC BY 2.0; Ancestral Shoshone Indian petroglyph (~1000 to ~200 years old) (White Mountain Petroglyphs, southwestern Wyoming, USA) 1" by James St. John is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Shoshone: Unveiling History & Culture. More Shoshone history and culture.
Major foods: mesquite pods, seeds, leafy greens, plant stalks, tubers, Joshua tree fruit, small game, pinyon pine nuts, berries, cactus pads and fruit, bighorn sheep, deer, marmot, ground squirrel, woodrat.
Witsuwit'en and Gitxsan of the Northwest Coast
Photo credits: "Gitxsan totems" by JordanEightySeven is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0; "Two Gitxsan First Nation girls in a dugout cedar canoe by the Skeena River, Gitwangak, British Columbia / Deux jeunes filles de la Premiere Nation Gitxsan dans un canot de cedre sur la rive du fleuve Skeena" by BiblioArchives / LIbrary Archives is licensed under CC BY 2.0; "Gitxsan First Nation girl fishing in the Skeena River, Gitwangak, British Columbia / Une jenue fille de la Premiere Nation Gitxsan pechant dans le fleuve Skeena, Gitwangak (Colombie-Britannique)" by BiblioArchives / LibraryArchives is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Gitxsan Stories: Cultural Food Traditions. Modern interview on Gitxsan family hunting and gathering traditions.
Major foods: salmon, steelhead trout, seals, bear, deer, moose, woodland caribou, marten hare, beaver, berries, marmot, mountain goat,
South America
Ache of Paraguay
Photo credits: "Ache Hunting" by Kimhill2 (talk) Kim Hill is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0; "Leider kaufte ein anderer vor mir das Tatu_DSC_0803" by Otto_Friedrich45 is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0; "revive. So zogen wir Ache vor 1970 durch den Wald. Bis wir entdeckt wurden undUnsere Freiheit mit der Zivilisation eintauschten. - IDSC_0818" by Otto_Friedrich45 is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Hill, K. and A.M. Hurtado 1996 Ache Life History: The Ecology and Demography of a Foraging People. New York: Aldine.
Living with South American Tribes - Getting to Know the Ache. Interviews with people who have made contact with the Ache.
Major foods: armadillo, capuchin monkey, white-lipped peccary, paca, coati, brocket deer, collared peccary monkeys (meat 78% calories), palm starch, honey (8% calories), palm larvae, fish.
Cuiva of Colombia and Venezuela
Photo credits: "Deer on the road 1" by juanjoarango is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0; "Capybara in the nice light" by Tambako the Jaguar is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0; "Cuspa Cuspon [Giant Armadillo] (Priodantes giganteus) by barloventomagico is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Arcand, B. 1971 The Urgent Situation of the Cuiva Indians of Colombia. International Working Group for Indigenous Affairs Document 7. Cogenhagen: International Working Group for Indigenous Peoples. Wilbert, J. and K. Simoneau (editors) 1991 Folk Literature of the Cuiva Indians. Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Major foods: peccaries, capybaras, white-tailed deer, armadillos, pacas, agoutis, turtles and turle egg, ; meat and fruits and vegetables in roughly equal amounts.
Huaorani of the Amazon
Photo credits: "blowgun huaorani" by barefoot expeditions is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0; "Tree climb" by zorankovacevic is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0; "Caiman" by Yasuinji Waorani Camp is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Elliot, E. 1961 The Savage My Kinsman. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
Huaorani: Amazon Tribe 5. Planet Doc Full Documentaries. The film shows how the Huaorani are now highly dependent on agriculture, with only one percent of people fully reliant on hunting and gathering.
The Waorini: An Indigenous Tribe of the Amazon Rainforest. Let's Go! Youtube video. Demonstrates the use of poison in hunting, including fish and monkeys. The documentarian comments on the physical fitness of the 62 year old Huaorani chief that leads the hunt.
Exploring the Amazon Forest with the Huaorani Tribe. Slice Youtube video. Note the use of imitating sounds in luring prey, and also the rigorous climb that must be made to capture monkeys wounded but not killed by poison darts.
Major foods: woolly monkey, howler monkey, spider monkey, curassow, spix guan, white lipped peccary (by blow gun and spear), fish, peach palm, ungurahua, morete.
Siriono of the Llanos de Mojos
Photo credits: "teckning, pil, Teckning, drawing" is marked with CC0 1.0; "indian, pilbage, Vykort, urskog, fotografi, photograph" is marked with CC0 1.0; "S. Maria-missionen, siriono, barn, kvinna, fotografi, photograph" is marked with CC0 1.0.
Denevan, W.M. 1966 The Aboriginal Cultural Geography of the Llanos de Majos of Bolivia. Berkeley: University of California Press. Holmberg, A.R. 1985 [1950] Nomads of the Long Bow. Prospect Heights: Waveland Press. Metraux, A. 1942 The Native Tribes of Eastern Bolivia and Western Matto Grosso. Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulleetin 134. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. Ryden, S. 1941 A Study of the Siriono Indians. Gothenburg: Elanders Boktryckeri Aktiebolag.
Major foods: white lipped peccary, collared peccary, pampa deer, coati, paca, agouti, armadillo, turtle, tortoise, caiman, capuchin monkey, toucan, guan, curassow, tinamid, heron, catfish, motacu palm heart and fruit, sumuque fruit, totai fruit, chonta palm heart, hog plum, murure fruit, genipapo fruit, coquino fruit, aguai fruit.
Toba of Western Chaco
Photo credits: "Greater Rhea (Rhea americana)" by Sergey Pisarevskiy is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0; "Algarrobas vainas" by Finca la Casilla is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0; "Carpinchos (hydrochoerus hydrochaeris)" by Nahu FF is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Karsten, R. 1970 The Toba Indians of the Bolivian Gran Chaco. New York: Humanities Press.
Major foods: Fish, algarroba fruit, mistol fruit, chanar fruit, bola verde fruit, poroto de monte fruit, honey, rabbit, roe deer, American ostrich, carpincho rodent.
Yamana of Tierra del Fuego
Photo credits: "Guanaco" by Gustavo Fernando Duran is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0; "Sea Otters" by code poet is licensed under CC By-NC-SA 2.0; "porpoise" by mindwhisperings is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.
Bridges, E.L. 1947 The Uttermost Part of the Earth. London: Hodder and Stoughton. Cooper, J.M. 1917 Analytical and Critical Bibliography of the Indian Tribes of Tierra del Fuego and Adjacent Territory. Bulletin of the Bureau of American Indians 63. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. Lothrop, S.K. 1928 The Indians of Tierra del Fuego. Contributions of the Museum of American Indians. Washington, D.C.: Heye Foundation.
Major foods: seals, porpoise, whale, guanacos, sea otters, fish, shellfish, birds.
North Eurasia
Ainu of Hokkaido
Photo credits: "Ainu by Isabella Bird" by Isabella (Bird) Bishop (1831-1904) is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 "Mola mola Ainu artwork" by Andrey Butko, this extract uploaded by Maisrimer is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; "Arrows and quiver, Ainu people, Japan - Etnografiska museet - Stockholm, Sweden - DSC01179" by Daderot is marked with CC0 1.0..
Kayano, S. 1994 Our Land Was a Forest: An Ainu Memoir. Boulder: Westview Press. Kodama, S. 1970 Ainu Historical and Anthropological Studies. Sapporo: Hokudai University Press. Peng, F. and P. Geiser 1977 The Ainu: The Past in the Present. Hiroshima: Bunka Hyoron Publishing Company.
Hokkaido's Near-Forgotten Ainu People Who Thrived in Nature. Singapore scholar Peter Lee explores Ainu cultural origins.
The Ainus of Japan (1913) / BFI National Archive. Historic German film documenting traditional dance, drinking ceremony, and tattooing.
Akan: The Sacred Winter World of the Ainu - Journeys in Japan. Documentary by NHK World-Japan. Documentarian tries a stew that includes deer meat.
Major foods: cherry salmon, dog / chum salmon, deer, bear, seal.
Chukchi and Yupik of the Chukchi Peninsula
Photo credits: "Chukchi people housing encountered Captain" (Captain Cook, third voyage) is marked with CC0 1.0; "1883 Bemalte Essschale der Yupik-Eskimo anagoria" by Anagoria is licensed under CC BY 3.0; "Walrus Hunters 3" by Viktor Zagumyonnov (1981) is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0..
Krupnik, I.I. 1993 Arctic Adaptations: Native Whalers and Reindeer Herders of Northern Eurasia. Hanover: University Press of New England.
The Chukchi. AllAboutRussia production.
Major foods: Pacific walrus, bowhead whales, seal, berries and grasses, bird / duck / goose eggs, river fish, reindeer (formerly wild).
Evenki of Central Siberia
Photo credits: "Evenki shaman" by Ninara from Helsinki, Finland is licensd under CC BY 2.0; "Evenki tent made by birchbark, Aug 2019" by 颜邯 is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; "File:Nivkh or Evenki bag Branly 71.1950.0.370 X.jpg" by unknown author is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Safonova, T. and I. Santha 2019 Evenki Microcosm: Visual Analysis of Hunter-Gatherers Lifestyles in Eastern Siberia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Major foods: reindeer (historically wild), ptarmigan, capercaillie, rabbit, berries, salmon, grayling, whitefish, waterfowl.
Itenm'i of the Kamchatka Peninsula
Photo credits: "Coho Spawning on the Salmon River" by BLM Oregon & Washington is licensed under CC BY 2.0; "Big Horn Sheep" by U.S. Geological Survey is licensed under CC BY 2.0; "Rose_hipsWM" by Paul Gulliver is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Major foods: chinook, coho, pink salmon, chum salmon, bighorn sheep, moose, partridge, geese, ducks, swans, seals, raspberry, curran, dog-rose berries, sables, foxes, molluscs, nuts, roots.
Iukagir of Northeast Siberia
Photo credits: "Boys Will Be Boys" by USFWS Mountain Prairie is licensed under CC BY 2.0; "Northern Pike (Esox lucius)" by NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0; "Rock Ptarmigan (Lagopus muta) breeding, Pyasina Delta, Great Arctic Reserve, Taimyr, Russia, July 1991" by GRIDArendal is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Willerslev, R. 2007 Soul Hunters: Hunting, Animism, and Personhood Among the Siberian Yukaghirs. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Tundra Yukaghir Language & People. Includes narratives of Yukaghir people.
Major foods: hare, grouse, ptarmigan, fox, wolves, bear, moose, reindeer, ducks, geese, swans, whitefish, trout, pike, burbot, berries, onion.
Ket of Central Siberia
Photo credits: "A Moose Hidden in the Snow" by chasedekker is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0; "Montreal CA - Biodome - Atlantischer Stor - Acipenser oxyrinchus - Sturgeon" by Daniel Mennerich is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0; "Bilberry in october.' by Astrid Photography. is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.
Vajda, E.J. 2002 A History of Yeniseian Peoples and Languages: A History of Yeniseian Studies with an Annotated Bibliography and a Source Guide. Boca Raton: Routledge.
Major foods: moose, deer, bear, sable, squirrel, polar fox, hazel grouse, black grouse, geese, swans, ducks, sturgeon, salmon, pike, beaver, wild lily bulbs, fir tree inner bark, bilberry, bird-cherry, cranberry, berry leaf tea, dig-rose root tea, birch sap.
Khanti of the Western Siberian Plain
Photo credits: "Khanty in front of Chum near Lake Numto" by ugraland / Irina Kazanskaya from Moscow, Russia is licensed under CC BY 2.0; "Khanty-skiing" by Lacrus is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0; "Khanty sewing bag, reindeer head leather, WEstern Siberia, 2009 - Museum of Cultures (Helsinki) - DSC04747" by Daderot is marked with CC0 1.0.
Jordan, P. 2003 Material Culture and Sacred Landscape: The Anthropology of the Siberian Khanty. Walnut Creek: AltamMira Press. Wiget, A. ad O. Balalaiva 2011 Khanty, People of the Taiga: Surviving the Twentieth Century. Denver: University Press of Colorado.
Major foods: reindeer, moose, bear, sable, squirrel, maren, fox, badger,
Nia (Nganasan) of the Taimyr Peninsula
"Arctic fox stalks its prey" by mrpolyonymous is licensed under CC BY 2.0; "Reflections of a Polar Bear" by Smudge 9000 is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0; "SNoW WEASEL" by Aquila-chrysaetos is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.
Popov, A.A. 1966 The Nganasan: The Material Culture of the Tavgi Samoyeds. The Hague: Mouton.
Major foods: sturgeon, Pacific salmon, reindeer, polar fox, ermine, wolf, hare, white bear, brown bear, bighorn sheep, geese, ducks, partridge, owl, roots (during times of food stress).
Nivkh of Sakhalin Island
Photo credits: "File-Hat, birch bark, Nivkh (Gilyak) - AMNH - DSC06214.JPG" by Daderot is marked with CC0 1.0; "File:Coat, salmon ski, Nivkh (Gilyak) - AMNH - DSC06212.JPG" by Daderot is marked with CC0 1.0; "File:Fan, eagle feathers, Nivkh (Gilyak) - AMNH - DSC06211.JPG" by Daderot is marked with CC0 1.0.
Stephan, J. 1971 Sakhalin: A History. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
The Nivkhs. Natives of Sakhalin Island. Modern Nivkhs interviewed.
Major foods: focus on salmon fishig
Africa
Aka Pygmies of the Congo
Photo credits: "Elephants in Garamba" by Enough Project is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0; "Prunus africana 1DS-II 0042" by SAplants is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; "Gnetum africanum Leaves (Eru ou Okok)" by Minette Lontsie is licensd under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cavalli-Sforza, L.L. editor 1986 African Pygmies. Orlando: Academic Press.
Major foods: elephants, antelopes, river hogs, gorillas, chimpanzees, duiker, monkeys, porcupines, oleaginous nuts, almonds, fungi, wild yam, Gnetum africanum leaves, snails, tortoise, weevils, longicorns, beetles, caterpillars, honey.
/Gui and //Gana of the Central Kalahari Desert
Photo credits: "Botswana Deception Valley D90_0360" by youngrobv is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0; "Botswana Deception Valley _D7C15343" by youngrobv is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0; "Botswana Deception Valley D90_0377" by youngrobv is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.
Silberbauer, G.B. 1981 Hunters and Habitat in the Central Kalahari Desert. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Tanaka, J. 1980 The San, Hunter-Gatherers of the Kalahari, a Study in Ecological Anthropology. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press.
Major foods: 80% plant foods (tubers, nuts, berries, melon, truffle, lily), 20% animal meat (e.g. antelope, springhare)
Hadza of the Rift Valley and Serengeti Plain
Photo credits: "Hadza archerty" by Woodlouse is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0; "making fire" by Woodlouse is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0; "Hadza montage" by Hadzabel.jpg: Idobi Hadzabe2.jjp: Idobi Hadzabe4.jpg: Idobi Hadzabe_returning_from_hunt.jpg: Andreas Lederer derivative work: Joey Roe is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Marlowe, F.W. 2010 The Hadza Hunter-Gatherers of Tanzania. Berkeley: University of California Press. Wooburn, J. 1970 Hunters and Gatherers: The Matierial Culture of the Nomadic Hadza. London: Trustees of the Briish Museum.
Hunt to Survive / Hadza Tribe (Unchanged for 50000 Years). In this video, Youtuber Ruhi Cenet joins groups of Hadza men on several hunting expeditions. Note that these forays usually last several hours or more at a time, as they have to cover a lot of ground to acquire sufficient quantities of food, mostly in the form of meat from captured animals. Virtually all of the animal is used or eaten, including small bones as an important source of calcium and marrow, and stomach contents which offer a form of fermented food beneficial in controlling cholosterol composition in the body (HDL vs LDL). Walking, not running except in short bursts, characterizes the majority of their locomotion or movement across space, while also carrying weapons and intermittently engaging in vigorous tasks using upper body strength. Note also that foraging for honey is key to supplying the hunters with short-term energy needs as well as a commodity to use in trading for metal arrow heads that allow the hunt to continue in an ever shrinking Hadza world.
I Spend 5 Days with the Hadza Hunter-Gatherers. Video of Eva zu Beck joining the Hadza. While other popular videos focus on the hunting side of Hadza life, important food gathering practices of women are key to rounding out an omnivorous diet, particularly baobab fruit and tubers as important carbohydrate sources. Note the upper body workout the women get by crushing baobab, digging for tubers, and carrying water long distances.
Major foods: antelope (kudu and impala), baboon, squirrels, hyrax (including stomach contents), buffalo, giraffe, zebra, bush pig, bush baby, dove, snails, baobab fruit, tubers, honey.
Ju/'hoansi of the Savannah
Photo credits: "San hunter with bow and arrow" by CharlesFred is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0; "San Bushmen II" by David Barrie is licensed under CC BY 2.0; "8952 - EKUTA" by HerryB is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Biesele, M. 1993 Women Like Meat: The Folklore and Foraging Ideology of the Kalhari Ju/'hoan. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Lee, R.B. 1979 The !Kung San: Men, Women and Work in a Foraging Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lee, R.B. and I. DeVore, editors 1976 Kalahari Hunter-Gatherers: Studies of the !Kung San and Their Neighbors. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Marshall, L. 1976 The !Kung of Nyae Nyae. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Major foods: two-thirds vegetable food (mongongo nuts and fruit, morama bean, baobab fruit, marula nut, grewia berries), one-third meat from 55 animal species.
Mbuti Pygmies of the Congolese Ituri Forest
Photo credits: "New York City USA - American Museum of Natural History - Hall of African Peoples - Mbuti Pygmies" by Daniel Mennerich is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0; Mbuti woman with mushrooms" by teresehart is licend under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0; "Pygmee-15" by Marc Louwes is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Schebesta, P. 1933 Among Congo Pygmies. London: Hutchinson. Turnbull, C. 1965 Wayward Servants: The Two Worlds of the African Pygmies. New York: Natural History Press. 1973 The Mbuti Pygmies: Change and Adaptation. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Major foods: forest duikers, arboreal monkeys, bushpigs, buffaloes, elephants, traded agricultural crop foods, landolphia and canarium fruits, irvingia nuts, invertebrates, honey.
Mikea of Southwestern Madagascar
Photo credits: "Bushpig Potamochoerus larvatus" by nik.borrow is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0; "Voatango ou Pasteque" by Claudia Rahary Soa is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; "Lesser Hedgehog Tenrec (Echinops telfairi)" by David Cook Wildlife Photography is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.
Major foods: lemurs, feral cats, wild boar, tenrec, tubers (dry season - babo, ovy, tavolo), small thick-rinded melons, tree nuts and fruit, fish, honey
Okiek of Kenya
Photo credits: "Bushbuck Male" by Arno Meintjes Wildlife is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0; "African Buffalo" by Lukas Vermeer is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0; "Bongo" by Mathias Appel is marked with CC0 1.0.
Major foods: honey, bushbuck, buffalo, elephant, duiker, hyrax, bongo, giant forest hog, traded grains.
Tyua of Eastern Botswana
Major foods: 83 plants, 52 mammals, 18 birds, 7 reptiles, 8 insects, 3 fishes.
South-Central Asia
Andaman Islanders of the Bay of Bengal
Photo credits: "turtle" by abby chicken photography is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0; Jackfruit hanging" by Augustus Binu : flickr is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0; "Turtle eggs close up" by muhawi001 is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Cipriani, L. 1966 The Andaman Islanders. New York: Praeger. Man, E.H. 1885 On the Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands. London: Royal Anthropological Institute. Portman, M.Wv. 1859 History of Our Relations with the Andamanese. Calcutta: Government Printing Press. Radcliffe-Brown, A.R. 1922 The Andaman Islanders. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
India's Forgotten Ocean Tribes. Andamanese tribes of India, including those of the Andaman Islands.
Major foods: turtle eggs, honey, yams, larvae, jackfruit, wild citrus fruit, berries, fish, crabs, shellfish, sea turtles, pigs.
Birhor of the Central Indian Jungle
Photo credits: "Semnopithecus entellus (Gray Langur or Hanuman Langur)" by Arthur Chapman is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0; "Monkey in a tree" by shankar s. is licensed under CC BY 2.0; "indian Bush Rat at Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur, India" by Aranyaparva is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Roy, S.C. 1925 The Birhors: A Little-Known Jungle Tribe of Chotoanagpur. Ranchi: Man in India Office. Vidyarthi, L.P. 1964 Cultural Contours of Tribal Bihar. Calcutta: Punthi Pustak.
Birhor Tribes - Tribes of India.
Major foods: monkeys, rats, small animals, agricultural products from local villages.
Chenchu of the Indian Deccan Plateau
Photo credits: "Sambar deer - Rusa unicolor - 01" by srikaanth, sekar is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0; "tamarind tree" by doc(q)man is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0; "Nuts!" by fredericknoronha is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
Bhomick, P.K., editor 1992 The Chenchus of the Forests and Plateaux: A Hunting-Gathering Tribe in Transition. Calcutta: Institute of Social Research and Applied Anthropology. von Furer-Haimendorf, C. 1943 The Chenchus: Jungle Folk of the Deccan. Londoon: Macmillan.
Major foods: mohua tree flower, tubers, deer, sambhur, rabbit, squirrel, fowl, fish, tamarind, gum, soap nuts, cashew nuts, bidi leaf, honey.
Hill Pandaram of the Montane Forests of Kerala
Morris, B. 1982 Forest Traders: A Socio-Economic Study of the Hill Pandaram. London: Athlone Press.
Major foods: yams, kalinga nuts, palm flour, azha pana, honey, tortoise, squirrels, monkeys, chevrotain, monitor lizard, giant hornbill.
Nayaka of the Nilgiri Hills of Wynaad
Hocking, P., editor 1989 Blue Mountains: The Ethnography and Bio-Geography of a South Indian Region. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. 1997 Blue Mountains Revisited: Cultural Studies on the Nilgiri Hills. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Major foods: Nine varieties of Dioscorea yam roots, soap nuts, honey, fish, deer, monitor lizard, wild pigs.
Paliyan of Kerala
Luiz, A.A.D. 1962 Tribes of Kerala. New Delhi: Bharatiya Adimjai Sevak Sangh. Markham, C.R. 1862 Travels in Peru and India. London: J. Murray.
Major foods: yams (80% of food), 15 roots or bulbs, two trunks or stems, eight leaves, 30 fruits, eight seeds / nuts, five fungi, vine sap, honey, traded for grain, two monitor lizards, 27 mammals (including chevrotain, barking deer, sambar, wild pig), tortoise, 14 birds.
Wanniyala-aetto of Sri Lanka
Brow, J. 1978 Vedda Villages of Anuradhapura: The Historical Anthropology of a Community in Sri Lanka. Seattle: University of Washington Press. Seligmann, C.G. and B.Z. Seligmann 1911 The Veddas. cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Major foods: spotted deer, Asian sambhur deer, wild boar, langurs, mouse deer, pangolins, birds, mongoose, hares, honey, leaves, berries, nuts, tubers.
Southeast Asia
Agta of Northeastern Luzon
Rai, N.K. 1990 Living in a Lean-To: Philipine Negrito Foragers in Transition. Ann Arbor: Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan.
Major foods: Philippine bearded pig, deer, monkey, monitor lizards, fruit bats, hornbills, fish, wild tubers.
Batak of Palawan Island
Warren, C.P. 1964 The Batak of Palawan: A Culture in Transition. Philippine Studies Program, University of Chicago, Research Series 3.
Visiting the Batak Tribe (Bushcraft / Survival). Note
Major foods: wild pig, monkeys, gliding squirrel, jungle fowl, wild honey, wild yams, wild fruits and greens, fish, molluscs, and crustaceans.
Batek of the Malaysian Peninsula Rainforest
Dentan, R.K.K., Endicott, A.G., and M.B. Hooker 1997 Malaysia and the "Original People." Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Skeat, W.W. and C.O. Blagden 1906 Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula. London: Macmillan.
Major foods: monkeys, gibbons, civets, squirrels, birds, bamboo rats, porcupines, wild pigs, mousedeer, turtles, tortoises, fish, tubers, wild yams (10 species), palm cabbage, palm pith, mushrooms, ferns, bamboo shoots, berries, nuts, seasonal fruits.
Dulong
Major foods: wild oxen, deer, goats, monkeys, wild boar, mang and ge roots, fish.
Jahai of the Northern Malaysian Peninsula Rainforest
Dunn, F.L. 1975 Rainforest Collectors and Traders: A Study of Resource Utilization in Modern and Ancient Malaya. Monograph 5 of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. Kuala Lumpur: Royal Asiatic Society. Schebesta, P. 1928 Among the Forest Dwarfs of Malaya (1973 reprint). Kuala Lumpur: Cambridge University Press. Skeat, W.W. and C.O. Blagden 1906 Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula. London: Macmillan.
How Isolated Tribes Hunt in Hostile Environments. Man Hunt Marathon / Earth Stories.
Major foods: Sambhar deer, barking deer, mouse deer, wild boar, honey bear, monkeys, small rodent, porcupines, birds, monitor lizards, fish, wild tubers (16 species), mushrooms, vegetables, ferns, palm cabbage.
Western Penan of Sarawak on Borneo
Photo credits: "Nyapun, Penan elder from Mulu, with Prof. Ian Swingland" by Ironside1946 is licensed under CC BY 4.0; "PB36 by TB Cave is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0; "Penan backpack" by tajai is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Davis, W., I. Mackenzie, and S. Kennedy 1995 Nomads of the Dawn: The Penan of the Borneo Rain Forest. San Francisco: Pomegranate Artbooks.
Major foods: palm sago starch, bearded pig, sambar deer, barking deer, fish.
Australia
Arrernte of the Desert
Roheim, G. 1974 Children of the Desert: The Western Tribes of Central Australia. New York: Harper and Row. Spencer, B. and F.J. Gillen 1927 The Arunta: A Study of a Stone Age People, 2 volumes. London: Macmillan.
Major foods: red kangaroo, hill kangaroo, emu, bush turkey, goanna, perentie lizard, rabbit, honey ant, witchetty grub, bush tomato, bush banana, bush currant, wild fig, wild orange, seeds.
Cape York People in Northeast Queensland
Sharp, R.L. 1992 Footprints along the Cape York Sand-Beaches. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.
Major foods: yams, seasonal fruits, berries, freshwater fish, swamp turtle, reptiles, honey, dugong, crustaceans, shellfish, barramundi fish, colonial salmon, magpie geese, eggs, duck, ibis, brolgas, fruit bats, wallabies, kangaroo, bandicoot.
Kimberleys of Fitzroy Valley
Brandt, R.M. and C.H. Berndt, editors 1980 Aborigines of the West: their Past and Their Present. Nedlands: University of Western Australia Press. Crawford, I.M. 1968 Traditional Aboriginal Plant Resources in the Kalumburu Area: Aspects in Ethno-Economics. Records of the Western Australian Museum, Supplement 15. Perth: Western Australian Museum. Crough, G. and C. Christophersen 1993 Aboriginal People in the Economy of the Kimberley. Darwin: Northern Australian Research Unit and the Australian National University.
Ancient Australia: Arnhemland and the Kimberley. TRACKS - Travel Documentaries.
Major foods: goanna; lizard. snake, barramundi, catfish, freshwater prawns, bush potato, tomato, banana, onion, bush honey.
Ngarrindjeri of South Australia
Berndt, R.M. and C.H. Berndt 1988 The World of the First Australians. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press. 1993 A World That Was: The Yaraldi of the Murray River and the Lakes, South Australia. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press. Wood, J.D., editor 1879 The Native Tribes of South Australia. Adelaide: Wigg.
Major foods: birds, (especially ducks) mammals, marsupials, reptiles, fish, seeds, berries, vegetables, plants, shellfish.
Pintupi of the Western Desert
Gould, R.A. 1969 Yiwara: Foragers of the Australian Western Desert. New York: Scribner's. Rowley, C.D. 1970 The Remote Aborigines. Canberra: Australian National University Press. Tonkinson, R. 1978 The Mardudjara Aborigines: Living the Dream in Australia's Western Desert. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
The Pintupi Nine. Everything Everywhere film. Audio presentation discusses food sources gathered and hunted by a family who had no contact with the outside world until 1984, and the changes and health challenges facing them after that, including an introduction to sugar and subsequent obesity and diabetes, after having had no body fat in the bush.
Major foods: kangaroo, hare wallabies, emus, lizards, feral cats, small marsupials, rabbits, plant foods (60-80% of diet), honey, wood-boring grubs, grass seeds (ground into paste or cakes),
Tiwi of North Australia
Hart, C.W.M. A.R. Pilling, and J.C. Goiodale 1988 The Tiwi of North Australia (3rd edition). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Spencer, B. 1914 The Native Tribes of the Northern Territory
Major foods: possums, goannas, honey bees, shellfish, turtle eggs, wallabies, tubers, cycad nuts, fish, turtles, dugong, fruit bats, magpie geese.
Torres Strait Islanders
Beckett, J. 1987 Torres Strait Islanders: Custom and Colonialism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Haddon, A.C. 1901-1935 Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expeditions to Torres Strait, Volumes 1-6. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Major foods: dugong, turtles, wild ducks, geese, fish, tubers, aroids, edible mangrove, wild plum, native almond.
Warlpiri of the Desert
Meggitt, M. 1965 Desert People. Sydney: Angus and Robertson. Tindale, N. 1974 Aboriginal Tribes of Australia. Canberra: Australian National University Press.
Major foods: kangaroo, emu, yams, goanna, honey ants, bush tomatoes, grass and tree seeds, desert fruits
Yolngu of Arnhem Land
Photo credits: "Sacred stone bungul, Galiwin'ku 1971, 2 of 17" by Boobook48 is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0; "Galiwin'ku beach - sawfish" by Boobook48 is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0; "Creating Pandanus baskets, Galiwin'ku" by Boobook48 is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Altman, J. 1987 Hunter-Gatherers Today: An Aboriginal Economy in North Australia. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. Warner, W.L. 1937 A Black Civilisation: A Social Study of an Australian Tribe. New York: Harper Brothers.
Major foods: shellfish, eggs, vegetable foods, smaller game, fish