Foraging bands were the quintessential form of human social organization for most of prehistory. Current arguments rage on the genesis of the contemporary descendants of these hunter-gatherers and their applicability to our understanding of lifeways before agriculture and domestication of animals. Sibel Barut Kusimba addresses this debate by synthesizing the archaeological evidence in Africa from the Middle Stone Age to the present, where the greatest time depth of foraging cultures can be traced. She develops a comprehensive picture of these foundational human societies, their social and...

Foraging bands were the quintessential form of human social organization for most of prehistory. Current arguments rage on the genesis of the contemporary descendants of these hunter-gatherers and their applicability to our understanding of lifeways before agriculture and domestication of animals. Sibel Barut Kusimba addresses this debate by synthesizing the archaeological evidence in Africa from the Middle Stone Age to the present, where the greatest time depth of foraging cultures can be traced. She develops a comprehensive picture of these foundational human societies, their social and...