hunter-gatherer

American  

[huhn-ter-gath-er-er] / ˈhʌn tərˈgæð ər ər /

noun

Anthropology.

1. a member of a group of people who subsist by hunting, fishing, or foraging in the wild.

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hunter-gatherer British  

adjective

1. (of a society, lifestyle, etc) surviving by hunting animals and gathering plants for subsistence

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noun

1. a member of such a society

Example Sentences

Back before California was settled by Europeans and others, the Miwok and Nisenan subsisted on a hunter-gatherer diet of acorns, venison, salmon, pine nuts, elderberries, and other berries and plants.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 23, 2025

That was probably useful in a hunter-gatherer society.

From Slate • Aug. 5, 2025

Few details are known about the group, other than they are a hunter-gatherer community who live in small settlements and are "extremely healthy", he said.

From BBC • Apr. 3, 2025

Hewlett explains that the findings are likely due in large part to how children in hunter-gatherer societies learn from a variety of sources, including parents, peers and even unrelated adults in the community.

From Science Daily • Nov. 19, 2024

Unlike Easter Island and other remote Polynesian islands, Greenland could not support a self-sufficient food-producing society, though it did support self-sufficient Inuit hunter-gatherer populations before, during, and after the Norse occupation period.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond