Review of K. L. Kramer and B. F. Codding’s Why Forage? Hunters and Gatherers in the Twenty-First Century

I found Why Forage? stimulating and well worth reading. In a single volume it provides case studies of eight traditional hunting-gathering groups across the globe actively foraging in the twenty-first century. Each case is documented with ethnographic context, historical background, and various empirical measures of the economic and social returns from foraging practices. And as a bonus there are two appendices; one with cross-cultural and demographic data and the other economic activities for foraging populations. As such, it will be a very useful introduction for advanced graduate students of all stripes interested in hunter-gatherers, whether biological anthropology, archaeology, or social anthropology. It should also be of interest to the teaching anthropologist as well, whose concern is less with specifics of foraging than the implications of extant hunter-gatherers for understanding the human experience at its widest breadth.

Of course, any anthropologist would tell you there...