Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
Some hunter-gatherer societies (the Indians of California and of the Northwest Coast, for instance) depart significantly from the commonly accepted definition. This paper demonstrates that in such societies the economic structure is based on seasonal and intensive storage of major food resources. The societies presenting this type of economic structure are (1) sedentary, (2) high-density, and (3) prone to socioeconomic inequality. These three characteristics set California and Northwest Coast Indian societies well apart from the small, nomadic and egalitarian hunter-gatherer societies traditionally considered typical and challenge the hypothesis that the adoption of agriculture represents in itself a major milestone in the social history of humanity. The three features outlined above are found in both agricultural and hunter-gatherer societies in which resources are systematically accumulated. Thus it seems that the adoption of agriculture is less significant for social evolution than the emergence of an economic structure based on food storage.
Testart et al. (Fri,) studied this question.