Population density of hunter-gatherer society

[Swordfry]

For a society that has 75% of its food coming from hunting and foraging, the rest from the farming of one or two crops, what should I expect the population size to be? Say that they live in an area of 200,000 acres. I am having the hardest time figuring this out.

 

[X Equestris]

There's a chart in here that might help.

Hunter-gatherer populations show humans are hardwired for density — Per Square Mile

 

[CupofJoe]

There's a chart in here that might help.

Hunter-gatherer populations show humans are hardwired for density — Per Square Mile

This is a great article and I'm going to have to read the paper.
It sounds counter-intuitive and some how obvious [and both at the same time] that the more people there are, the less room each of them needs.
I am guessing there is an upper limit to the population numbers of the hunter gather societal groups. A quick scan of the paper and they seem to be talking about Hunter Gather groups of less than 20 and some as small as 3.

 

[TheCatholicCrow]

World building question here ... how do they manage to balance hunting & gathering with farming? Farming usually ties you down to the land you're cultivating while hunter-gatherer tribes frequently rely on being nomadic. Without movement (or at least a rotation system) their presence would be felt in that region (presumably animals would move further and further away from their settlements). Jana Fortier did some wonderful research with the Raute people in the Himalayas. Her book is called Kings of the Forest and discusses her time spent with the tribe. It was required reading for her Anthro 1 course and you can find a bunch of used copies on Amazon (starting at 11 cents). It's been years since I've read it but I remember liking it at the time. It's cheap, pretty short, and should help you get a better idea of real world dynamics in a hunter-gatherer society. You'll probably find issues here that otherwise might not occur to you. If you don't want to get the book, you should look and see if she has any articles on them. As far as I know she's one of only a very select few people in the world who has had such extensive interactions with them. And if all else fails, she's working at UCSD so you could always shoot her an email with questions if you need help creating a truly believable hunter-gatherer society (though it might go over better if you read her book first). Hope this helps.

 

[Russ]

For a society that has 75% of its food coming from hunting and foraging, the rest from the farming of one or two crops, what should I expect the population size to be? Say that they live in an area of 200,000 acres. I am having the hardest time figuring this out.

That is a very tough question without knowing how productive the soil and crops are, and how hard it is to hunt and gather.

 

[Swordfry]

Thanks for all the feedback.

As for how they manage farming and hunting gathering: There are only a couple areas of their large forest that they hunt in at a time. This way they do not over hunt. There are not many predators in competition with this race, at least not for some of the bigger game. This allows them to maintain a balance in the forest, not needing to be nomadic. As for farming: they are really just beginning to farm. They have only just mastered the exact ways of farming. They farm right outside their forest, which also allows for further hunting there too.

 

[Swordfry]

So according to the chart in the provided link, my area of 200,000 acres would fit a hunter-gatherer population of 2,600? Am I reading this right?

 

[ThinkerX]

So according to the chart in the provided link, my area of 200,000 acres would fit a hunter-gatherer population of 2,600? Am I reading this right?

Can't speak for the chart, but those numbers seem...very roughly comparable with what I have read of local native American populations hereabouts (Alaska). However, you are probably talking about several villages rather than a single settlement. Also, local NA types were VERY big on fishing, undergoing seasonal relocations (summer fish camps). They did not practice agriculture, though certain crops (cabbages, potatoes, carrots, couple others) do very well here. 2600 / 200,000 acres is probably close to the upper limit.

So...any rivers or lakes stocked with fish in your forest? Note that a river junction, or inlet / outlet with a good sized lake is also the most likely location for a village. Village at the mouth of a river emptying into the sea would be even better.

 

[Swordfry]

Can't speak for the chart, but those numbers seem...very roughly comparable what I have read of local native American populations hereabouts (Alaska). However, you are probably talking about several villages rather than a single settlement. Also, local NA types were VERY big on fishing, undergoing seasonal relocations (summer fish camps). They did not practice agriculture, though certain crops (cabbages, potatoes, carrots, couple others) do very well here. 2600 / 200,000 acres is probably close to the upper limit.

So...any rivers or lakes stocked with fish in your forest? Note that a river junction, or inlet / outlet with a good sized lake is also the most likely location for a village. Village at the mouth of a river emptying into the sea would be even better.

Thanks a lot man. I have been so focused on developing just the forest that I completely forgot about the river I had planned on running through it *facepalm*. This will really help out.



How much do you guys think introducing a game species of great size would increase, if at all, this sociey's population? I have been thinking about adding a giraffe-like herbivore that lives on the outer edges of the forest. A creature that big will provide lots of meat, among other resources. So it would be these much larger animals, small to deer sized game, some fish, and a whole load of fruits and other vegetation supplying this society.

 

[CupofJoe]

How much do you guys think introducing a game species of great size would increase, if at all, this sociey's population? I have been thinking about adding a giraffe-like herbivore that lives on the outer edges of the forest. A creature that big will provide lots of meat, among other resources. So it would be these much larger animals, small to deer sized game, some fish, and a whole load of fruits and other vegetation supplying this society.

If I remember my Ecology lessons correctly, the bigger the animal the fewer there are of them by number and the lower the bio-mass for a given area... So if you can get 100 Bunnies for X area and your Giraffe is 10 Bunnies big you may only get 7-8 Giraffes in the same area (This has to do with food supplies and rates of reproduction being more critical in larger animals - if there is only food for 9 Bunnies one will die, if there is 0.9 food for a giraffe - 1 Giraffe will die). So there would be less "food" available...
That does have to be countered by the fact that to feed 10 people you only have to hunt one giraffe and not 10 Bunnies [assuming 1 Bunny per person], so it might more effective in time and energy and therefore still be a good deal.

 

[Swordfry]

Just an update:

I am in the middle of developing a rough map, and I have been basing some numbers off of some things I have read in this thread. These are some figures I have come up with after some number crunching:

Forest dwelling race: Population = 7,400. Land acreage = 566, 859 acres, sq miles = 886. ( I added some accounting for farming land right outside the forest. I have also decided that this race will rely a bit more on agriculture.)

For a second, smaller race dwelling on a nearby peninsula:

Population = 3,700. Land acreage = 288,000 acres, sq miles = 450.


I must say that I based this entire thing off of the size of the peninsula. I always imagined the forest dwelling race currently outnumbering the second race by about 2 to 1.

Time to take this to some grid paper and draw out a sensible map. If it turns out well I will share it on these forums.