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Relationships between Hunters, Gathers, Farmers and Neojungian Typology

  • Published: 08-28-2015 Edited: 09-02-2015
  • According to the anthropological theory of hunters and gatherers, humans were nomadic hunters and gatherers for thousands of years, but then started farming and living settled lives. From a personality-perspective - when people stopped being hunter and gatherers and became farmers other personality-traits became more valuable than before.

    A hunter has to be aware of signs of their prey, dangers, and make snap judgements. This is a intense experience, where traits such as impulsivity and hyperactivity, are beneficial. So it is speculated that impulsivity and hyperactivity were more beneficial in a hunter and gatherer society than in a farmer society.

    Hunters, gatherers, farmers, nurturers are sometimes associated with distinct personality types. Something like this:

    • Hunters - Aggressively "hunt" new opportunities - impulsive, hyperactive, have unpredictable behaviour, explore new opportunities.
    • Gatherers - Passively pursue new opportunities - reflective, high impulse-control, work best when working within clearly defined structure and processes. Prospect new opportunities.
    • Farmers - Builds and cultivates relationships and opportunities, typically within existing resources. Team-player, Collaborative.

    So how would these types relate to the types in NJT?

    Since the hunters have traits related to impulsivity and unpredictable behaviour we would associate hunters first with Explorative types and second to Processors and third to Executors. Explorative types have a more reflexive behaviour in general so they are more impulsive than Evaluative types. Processors have higher temporal discounting, delayed discounting and thus are more impulsive than Executors. Executors have higher exploration due to uncertainty than Processors.
    Since gatherers are more reflective and like structure they would be associated with Executors.
    Farmers would be associated with Processors for their collaborative quality.

    Impulsivity top-list:

    1. Explorative Processors. (Explorers)
    2. Explorative Executors or Evaluative Processors. (Fighters or Teachers)
    3. Evaluative Executors. (Leaders)

    Exploring due to uncertainty top-list:

    1. Explorative Executors. (Fighters)
    2. Evaluative Executors or Explorative Processors. (Leaders or Explorers)
    3. Evaluative Processors. (Teachers)

    So to summarise:

    • Hunters - Processors (for impulsivity), Explorative Types (for impulsivity) and Executors (for exploration due to uncertainty)
    • Gatherers - Executors (for impulse-control, planning)
    • Farmers - Processors (for collaboration, for team-work)

    Read more:
    http://www.healthline.com/health/adhd/evolution
    http://www.inspireanation.org/blog/1252095
    http://www.adhd-health.com/philosophy/adhd-theory-hunter-farmer.php
    http://www.gtms-inc.com/Are-You-a-Hunter-or-a-Farmer_ep_240.html
    http://salestestonline.com/hunters.asp
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter_vs._farmer_hypothesis
    http://info.theladders.com/career-advice/hunter-farmer-job-search