The Ethno-archaeology of Hunting Strategies in Gangir river basin, Aivan, West Central Zagros

Hunting different animals was one of the first strategies that human beings adopted to obtain food. This way they could secure their lives through hunting in small groups. Little by little they became so skilled that they could hunt huge animals, too. Hunting involves such skills as tracing, following, and killing the prey. Therefore, it has devoted an important part of anthropological and ethno-archaeological research to itself. On the other hand, due to its nature as a means of living, hunting depended on natural resources on which the human had no control. This factor had a direct influence on the population of human groups. Following the developments in technologies and domestication of wild animals, which were affected by hunting, hunting lost its importance to a great extent. Even though all the aspects of hunting had been specialized, it could no longer continue as an independent means of living. Studying various methods of hunting within Kalhor Tribe in Aivan township, the kinds of animals hunted and the purposes for which they were hunted, the strategies in the region to protect and sustain natural resources, and also the tools and devices people of this region used for hunting, nowadays and some decades ago, provide us with valuable information on the system of hunting from Paleolithic era to recent times.