Societies Based On Hunting And Gathering: Micro-Level Identity Formation Essay

Identity is a matter of inherent traits, but also a question of context (in space and time). Moreover, identity formation is associated with stability over a period of time. But it is important to be careful when defining what constitutes stability, for the term takes a complex perspective when it comes to the rather fickle societies based on hunting and gathering. These societies may be pastoral, moving with seasonal migrations of animals and availability of foods. Moreover, these societies are largely believed to operate in small groups (around 500 and 1000 people), perhaps to make migrations easy and also as a matter of being able to share the small resources there are).
But even small scale societies exhibit distinct properties that can be said to define a people. For example, because of changing locations, it might be hard to define culture as a matter of location. Location must, therefore, be considered from a wider context; the wider geographical location of other all such groups, rather than just where the 500-1000 people are. In other words, each group, even with their own cultural uniqueness, is part of a bigger culture. Besides, these groups only move about a given restricted area, a location for culture definition.
Part of the culture is marriage patterns within the groups and with other groups, which also have a major impact on other issues. For example, among the !Kung san, a hunting and gathering society living in the Southern Africa Kalahari Desert, kin relationship developed through marriages between members of different geographically localized groups influences the members’ access to average resources productivity.
These are only a few examples. But the show that the size of a society does not matter much. As long as there are distinct and definable patterns of life, identity is formed.