Foraging Wild Resources: Evolving Goals of an Ubiquitous Human Behavior
Abstract
Although human foraging behavior, i.e. the method used to get food procurement from the
wild, is the economic criterion usually used in the academic literature in order to define
hunter-gatherer societies, it is restricted neither to these societies nor to this goal. It consists of
the extraction of natural resources by means of various techniques, such as hunting, fishing
and gathering. It is applied to a broad range of wild resources – aquatic and terrestrial, plants,
animals and minerals – even though in some cases it could be limited only to some of these
resources such as the non-timber forest products (NTFPs). The aim of this paper is to
demonstrate that while foraging is an ubiquitous human behavior, its goals are evolving with
the passage of time. More precisely these goals that exist today have been present in some
form in the past, only their importance and emphasis has changed over time and with the
historical, sociological and ecological contexts. While subsistence seems naturally the most
obvious motivation of human foraging behavior, the latter also occurs in various contexts
such as in mixed economies. Moreover, other goals – different from the biological one – also
exist. Indeed, foraging can be a mean to obtain a – primary or secondary – source of income
provided through trade of harvested wild products. Socio-cultural goals may also motivate
human foraging behavior. They are related to culture and heritage, recreational values, or to
environmental conservation and sustainability, the latter being exemplified for instance by the
recent movement of urban foragers.
Fichier principal
ForagingWildResources_EvolvingGoalsofanUbiquitousHumanBehavior.pdf (146.11 Ko)
Télécharger le fichier
Loading...