Beyond "the hunting and gathering mode of subsistence': culture- sensitive observations on the Nayaka and other modern hunter- gatherers

This article argues that the current debate concerning the status of modern hunter-gatherers has so far ignored a critical question, namely, how they carry out their "other' subsistence activities and combine them with hunting and gathering. It shows how these combinations fall into characteristic patterns common among modern hunter-gatherers and connected with their own particular way of relating to their environment. It then formulates a model of their heterogeneous yet distinctive "mode of subsistence'. The argument is supported ethnographically by a detailed account, spanning 40 yr of the South Indian Nayaka, combined with brief references to many other groups. -Author