Before tribes were touched by modem civilisation they had greater mobility and roamed in a larger area. Like the Neolithic man, they always took good care to return to the soil the nutrients that they exhausted growing their produce.

Though the tribals had a much wider area to cultivate, even so they would return to the same plot of land after leaving it fallow for some time before saplings were planted, so that the forest may grow again.

The primitive then had come to terms with nature and his environment. In some cases he also learnt how to tame nature. This was most commonly evident in agricultural operations.

The tribals know of the less obvious properties of plants, fibbers, roots, stones, fish, animals, etc. They also know something about the planetary cycles, the movement of tides, weather systems, seasons and so on.

They can read signs in things. This helps them to forecast the length, duration and intensity of seasons, natural catastrophes, pestilence and so forth. Much of this knowledge was carried on and improved upon in folk and peasant societies.