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Hunter-Gatherers and the Behavioural Ecology of Human Occupation

Background. Despite growing interest in indigenous peoples within occupational therapy in Canada and elsewhere, there has been little consideration of hunter-gathering—an occupation that retains great material and symbolic significance for many indigenous groups. Purpose. A preliminary analysis of occupational behaviour amongst hunter-gatherers was conducted to aid understanding of the nature and evolution of human occupations and inform policy in indigenous occupational therapy. Methods. Human behavioural ecology was used to analyze four aspects of hunter-gatherer occupations: occupational diversification, the sexual “division of labour,” the long dependence of juveniles on adult provisioning, and active foraging by postmenopausal women. Findings. It was concluded that many occupational adaptations of human foragers can be related to life-history traits, namely slow maturation, long lifespans, weaning before independent feeding, and postmenopausal longevity. Implications. Further research will help understand how our hunter-gatherer heritage has affected the evolution of occupational behaviour and to develop program designs using foraging occupations.