ABSTRACT
In all parts of Australia, all Aboriginal people were hunter gatherers before 1788. Their food came partly from hunting, using often complex instruments, such as a weapon or a trap to catch mobile large animals that could not be caught with the bare hands. Hunting was not only enjoyable and exciting and prestigious, but occasionally, with luck, could bring a welcome influx of fresh meat into a camp. Hunter-gatherers tend to waste very little that is edible, and consequently get a good range of nutrients from their food. Like Australia, Europe was separated from the rest of the world for most of its history, and developed its economic systems in isolation. All the economic systems of Europe were based on domesticated plants and animals, but varied enormously, from the intensive agricultural practices of Western Europe to the very non-intensive sheep-herding of the alpine regions, and the reindeer-herding of the north.
