Final answer:
Sedentary or complex foragers typically live in ecologically productive environments, such as coastal or equatorial areas rich in year-round resources, allowing for semi-permanent settlements. Their subsistence methods vary with location, using gathering or hunting based on plant and animal availability, and their social structures are influenced by resource abundance or scarcity.
Step-by-step explanation:
Sedentary or complex foragers are groups that have developed a way of life that enables them to live in one place for extended periods. This is possible mainly in ecologically productive environments, such as coastal, riverine areas, or near sources of year-round plant food like in equatorial regions. Sedentary foragers can develop semi-permanent settlements due to the ample availability of resources, notably fish, which allows them to have a less nomadic lifestyle compared to their counterparts in less resource-rich environments.
These foragers exhibit varied diet and labor patterns based on their geographical location. Close to the equator, where plant life is abundant year-round, groups rely heavily on gathering. Conversely, in cooler climates away from the equator, where winters limit vegetation, hunting becomes more prominent in the subsistence strategy. The degrees of social inequality and conflict within these societies can also vary, often in relation to resource availability. For example, scarcity can lead to social conflict. It's essential to acknowledge this strategy's diversity and the differences in sociocultural features among various groups.
Hunter-gatherer societies lived in various habitats, from dense rainforests and semitropical savannahs to temperate forests and icy plateaus, primarily settling in regions with mild climates and moderate rainfall. Despite the Neolithic Revolution's introduction of agriculture, many groups of hunter-gatherers persisted, likely due to the advantageous aspects of their lifestyle, such as more leisure time and healthier living conditions compared to early farmers.
As humanity evolved, gathering-hunting strategies were pivotal in places like expansive grasslands. The communities would rely on natural resources, hunting and trapping animals, fishing, and gathering plant-based foods. These activities usually limited their subsistence to their own territories but cross-territory resource access through agreements among groups was not uncommon. This flexibility was characteristic of the mobile lifestyle of most hunter-gatherer societies.