Hunting and Gathering in Tropical Rain Forest: Is It Possible?

Abstract

Hunters and gatherers living in tropical forests represent an important part of the total range of variation among contemporary hunting and gathering societies. Studies of tropical forest hunting and gathering peoples have contributed to our perceptions of the foraging way of life. Yet no peoples have ever been directly observed living independently of agriculture in tropical rain forest. This article tests the hypothesis that humans do not exist nor have ever existed independently of agriculture in tropical rain forest. We find no convincing ethnographic evidence and, with the possible exception of Malaysia, no archeological evidence for pure foragers in undisturbed tropical rain forests. Negative evidence cannot be conclusive, but it suggests that we need to carefully reexamine common assumptions concerning the recent history of tropical forest dwellers, the adaptability of preagricultural humans, the geographic and environmental range of hominids, and the form and consequences of selection pressures acting on humans in warm, humid environments. The overriding purpose of this article is to stimulate further ecological and archeological research in the neglected tropical forest areas of the world.