African hunter-gatherer social organization: is it best understood as a product of encapsulation?

Abstract

In a paper published in 1980, Hunters and gatherers today and reconstruction of the past’, I made some preliminary comments about the relevance of political and economic relationships with neighbouring pastoral and agricultural societies for understanding hunter-gatherer social and economic organization and, in particular, for understanding why some hunter-gatherers have what I call ‘immediate-return’ organization while others have what I call ‘delayed-return’ organization. Stimulated by recent work (for example, Leacock and Lee 1982 ; Schrire 1984 ), my aim in the present chapter is to develop those preliminary comments. 1 As always, I regard the argument I am putting forward as tentative and I warmly welcome discussion and evidence, both in support of what I say and opposed to it, that will help me to improve or to discard aspects of the case presented here.

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