Though one may argue that the use of the term mode of production has become somewhat clichéd, at the same time, it is a fact that this broad-based terminology does provide an effective yardstick to examine society and social formations. But before hurtling headlong into an exercise trying to examine the mode of production of a society and its corresponding social relations, one should seek to gain an overview of the nature of the inter-relation forged by man with his environment and the manner in which he utilises his surroundings for survival and progress. At first sight, it may appear that the fundamental factor which determines man's relation with the environment and the nature of resource utilisation is largely determined by geographical realities. Interestingly, the cultural idiosyncrasies of a given society coupled with its technical and scientific knowledge would largely explain the nature of resourse utilisation and its redistributive mechanism. In this vein one may examine the observation made by W.W. Rostow that ‘societies presented by the environment around them with similar investment possibilities, involving ranges of risks and degrees of change in existing productive methods, will exploit those possibilities in differing degree.’ In other words, the basic and fundamental connection between the physical environment and man's reaction to it, the ingenuity applied by the society in question needs to be examined in relation to the level of its knowledge and other cultural factors.