'Modern' hunter-gatherers and farming

[bhavv]

The thing is due to the whole caste system thing in India, these unpaid workers never have a chance of getting a better job. They tend to lack education and skills, and most of the society there looks disfavorably upon them.

I'm sure they have unpaid workers on the farms too, simply working for food.

 

[Bibor]

Several key missing components from this discussion. First, hunter-gatherers are defined primarily by land. Indeed, on the grand scale there is not much difference between farming and gathering: seasons and good/bad years still exist, but generally food sources are replenished except in cases of major events (volcano, fires, huge climate changes etc). H/G also have stronger birth control (i.e. Less children) to keep the population sufficiently low. If farming is possible (land allows for it) many h/gs opted for semi-sedentary lifestyles, taking the best from both worlds. There are numerous advantages of a farming lifestyle, like easier management and chance for food surplus (which in turn leads to specialization of certain members of the community and all other nice benefits of civilization) but also has great disadvantages - plagues, famine, social unrest and being a magnet for plunder, to name just a few.


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[Bibor]

Aggressive nomads like mongols but also many tribes Around the world lived off slavery and war well into renaissance or even today.
But to answer your question, transition to sedentary lifestyle does not automatically mean that people become farmers. Many, if not most H/Gs take up a sedentary lifestyle that is akin to hunting/gathering, leaving the farming to... Farmers.

Current H/G societies have no real internal incentive to become farmers. What do they have to gain? Nothing, really.


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