ABSTRACT
In the development of cultural systems it is generally agreed that humans were hunter-gatherers in the Palaeolithic period. In the ensuing Mesolithic they began to change towards the cultivation of plants, the storage of grain, and the keeping of dogs and maybe a few herd animals. In all interactions between predators and their prey there is an attack on the part of the predator and a defence on the part of the prey. The defence may be active, as when a moose is attacked by a wolf, and it will fight back, sometimes even killing the predator. Hunting may appear to the anthropologist to be a straightforward activity, a matter of applying the necessary skills to searching for prey, killing it, and then sharing the meat and other products amongst the nuclear family or band. This so-called contented world of the hunter-gatherers has been described by Sahlins as 'the original affluent society'.
