The Lifeways of Hunter-Gatherers: The Foraging Spectrum Robert L. Kelly's is an English-language textbook that revises the anthropological perspective on hunter-gatherers. The book is aimed at students and professionals in the social sciences and archaeology.
Kelly challenges the preconceptions that hunter-gatherers were solitary remnants of the Paleolithic who lived in a rough natural state. Instead, he emphasizes diversity within these lifeways and rejects the preconceptions that hunter-gatherers represent a uniform foraging lifeway. The book examines variation in diet, mobility, technology, social organization, and more, within a framework of human behavioral learning.
The analysis goes further than explaining differences and focuses on testing theories with archaeological data, rather than using ethnographic analogies to reconstruct the past. This makes it an indispensable reference work for anyone seeking insight into the complex dynamics of hunter-gatherer societies.
The book is thematically aligned with topics such as social and cultural anthropology, cultural and social sciences, and archaeology.