Chapter 1. Postulate One

Extract

In Order to justify choosing a particular residence and social system as the system most likely to typify the majority of hunting societies, it is not enough that this system is ethnographically the most commonly known among hunting-gathering groups. It is desirable to state general reasons why this should be the case such that we may ask to what extent these conditions were present prior to the ethnographic present. If possible, especially for archaeologically testable deductions, this should include an estimate of temporal extent as well as the range of geographic and ecological diversity under which such a system would be expected.

Any such endeavor must, of course, be highly tentative. It will be approached in Section I through a series of postulates. Each postulate will be elaborated and its choice justified separately. These six postulates—rather, the conditions postulated—lead to a social organization which, it is believed, is a reasonable approximation to a system that typified most, although not all, past and recent hunting societies. The elaboration of the postulates should lead to an estimate of the range of conditions under which the postulates can be taken as valid.