ABSTRACT
The nomadic life of the surviving hunters and gatherers the authors have discussed is therefore in part due to the marginally productive areas in which they live. Those in more fertile areas no doubt built permanent or semi-permanent villages, and eventually developed agriculture. The villages, some of which were to become cities, were therefore totally dependent on the agricultural industry which supported them, and, equally important, on an adequate water supply. The observation and understanding of Nature— the Natural Sciences—eventually were to become the main keys to increasing resources, and their extraction from the environment. Culture is, however, more than technology. It can be defined as the totality of what a human society practises, produces, and thinks, that it is possible to transmit by learning. Culture is the non-biological part of society's adaptation to its environment, and therefore it is not surprising that cultures vary as much as environments do.
