ABSTRACT
Drawing on the debates on the relevance of studying modern hunter-gatherers for understanding past groups, this chapter suggests that there are many important ideas to be gleaned from a study of hunter-gatherer ethnography. Indeed, hunter-gatherer ethnography has been used extensively by Neolithic scholars who use it to offer insights into people who were clearly using domesticated animals and plants to a greater or lesser extent. The classic delayed return system hunter-gatherers such as the Northwest Coast groups were the result of rather unique historical circumstances, this time resulting in a heavy reliance on fish and sedentism, both possibly the result of increasingly complex social relations brought on by colonial encounters. The chapter shows how the environment is very important in shaping how hunter-gatherers do things, but again, the environment is not the only thing that influences choices and decisions about different aspects of life.
