"Subsistence" is understood as supporting oneself and family at a minimum level. Basic subsistence is the provision of food, clothing, shelter. A subsistence economy is an economy directed to one's subsistence rather than to the market.^[1] Often, the subsistence economy is moneyless and relies on natural resources to provide for basic needs through hunting, gathering, and agriculture. In a subsistence economy, economic surplus is minimal and only used to trade for basic goods, and there is no industrialization.^[2][3] In hunting and gathering societies, resources are often, if not typically underused.^[4]

The subsistence system is maintained through sharing, feasting, ritual observance and associated norms.^[5] Harvesting is an important indicator of social capital.^[6] Subsistence embodies cultural perspectives of relationships to places, people and animals.^[7]

In human history, before the first cities, all humans lived in a subsistence economy.^{[citation needed]} As urbanization, civilization, and division of labor spread, various societies moved to other economic systems at various times.^{[citation needed]} Some remain relatively unchanged, ranging from uncontacted peoples, to marginalized areas of developing countries, to some cultures that choose to retain a traditional economy.^{[citation needed]}

• Hunting and gathering techniques, also known as foraging:
  • Artisan fishing — a term which particularly applies to coastal or island ethnic groups using traditional techniques for subsistence fishing.
  • Aboriginal whaling, including the subsistence hunting of the bowhead whale in the Arctic.
• Agriculture:
  • Subsistence agriculture — agricultural cultivation involving continuous use of arable (crop) land, and is more labor-intensive than horticulture.
  • Horticulture — plant cultivation, based on the use of simple tools.
• Pastoralism, the raising of grazing animals:
  • Pastoral nomadism — all members of the pastoral society follow the herd throughout the year.
  • Transhumance or agro-pastoralism — part of the society follows the herd, while the other part maintains a home village.
  • Ranch agriculture — non-nomadic pastoralism with a defined territory.
• Distribution and exchange:
  • Redistribution
  • Reciprocity — exchange between social equals.
  • Potlatching — a widely studied ritual in which sponsors (helped by their entourages) gave away resources and manufactured wealth while generating prestige for themselves.
  • LETS — Local Exchange Trading Systems.
• A parasitical society, subsisting on the produce of a separate host society:
  • Raiding
  • Conquest
  • Garbage picking, when subsisting in a larger economy