All hunter/gatherers are not the same. Although they can be discussed from many different perspectives, for the purposes of this book, there appear to be two constellations of cultural traits that have very different impacts on the presence or absence of feasting behavior. At one end of an idealized spectrum are simple hunter/gatherers (foragers) such as the Hadza who generally share food openly among band members, who maintain an egalitarian ethic and behavior concerning food resources, who prohibit private ownership of most or all food resources (and many other items), who prohibit any competition involving food resources, and who lack long-term storage and private wealth items. In contrast, complex hunter/gatherers, such as those on the Northwest Coast of North America, produce and store surpluses, hold ownership rights over food and food resources, accumulate privately owned wealth, compete with food and wealth, and exhibit marked socioeconomic differences between individuals or families. Testart (1982:529–30) has shown a strong tendency for hunter/gatherers to fall into either the simple or complex side of this dichotomy.

Because many of these characteristics are related to resource abundance, it is not surprising that complex hunter/gatherer populations are denser than those of simple foragers and that they exhibit seasonal or full sedentism and larger community sizes, often ranging into the hundreds. Ames (2004:367) has suggested that there is a population threshold of around 0.1 people/square kilometer that divides simple from complex hunter/gatherers. I suggested the same break point (Hayden 2003a:125). Complex hunter/gatherers are transegalitarian societies and constitute the focus of Chapter 4, whereas simple hunter/gatherers are the subject of this chapter.