any group of people that depends primarily on wild foods for subsistence. Until about 12,000 to 11,000 years ago, when agriculture (agriculture, origins of) and animal domestication emerged in southwest Asia and in Mesoamerica, all peoples were hunters and gatherers. Their strategies have been very diverse, depending greatly upon the local environment; foraging strategies have included hunting or trapping big game, hunting or trapping smaller animals, fishing, gathering shellfish or insects, and gathering wild plant foods such as fruits, vegetables, tubers, seeds, and nuts. Most hunters and gatherers combine a variety of these strategies in order to ensure a balanced diet.

Many cultures have also combined foraging with agriculture or animal husbandry. In pre-Columbian North America (Native American), for instance, most Arctic, American Subarctic (American Subarctic peoples), Northwest Coast (Northwest Coast Indian), and California Indians (California Indian) relied upon foraging alone, but nomadic Plains Indians (Plains Indian) supplemented their wild foods with corn (maize) obtained from Plains villagers who, like Northeast Indians (Northeast Indian), combined hunting, gathering, and agriculture. In contrast, the Southwest Indians (Southwest Indian) and those of Mesoamerica (Mesoamerican Indian) were primarily agriculturists who supplemented their diet by foraging.

Conditions of such abundance are rare, and most foraging groups must move whenever the local supply of food begins to be exhausted. In these cases possessions are limited to what can be carried from one camp to another. As housing must also be transported or made on the spot, it is usually simple, comprising huts, tents, or lean-tos made of plant materials or the skins of animals. Social groups are necessarily small, because only a limited number of people can congregate together without quickly exhausting the food resources of a locality; such groups typically comprise either extended family units or a number of related families collected together in a band. An individual band is generally small in number, typically with no more than 30 individuals if moving on foot, or perhaps 100 in a group with horses or other means of transport. However, each band is known across a wide area because all residents of a given region are typically tied to one another through a large network of kinship and reciprocity; often these larger groups will congregate for a short period each year.

The proportion of cultures that rely solely upon hunting and gathering has diminished through time. By about AD 1500, some Middle and South American cultures and most European, Asian, and African peoples relied upon domesticated food sources, although some isolated areas in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Siberia continued to support full-time foragers. In contrast, Australia and the Americas were supporting many hunting and gathering societies at that time. Although hunting and gathering practices have persisted in many societies, by the early 21st century foraging was pursued in order to maintain cultural traditions, to supplement paid work, or to supplement subsistence agriculture rather than as any culture's economic mainstay.