The concept of self-sufficiency is a very broad one that refers to the act by which a person, a community, a society can provide for themselves to satisfy their basic and most important needs. Self-sufficiency can have to do with supplying oneself with the products and goods that are considered relevant for survival (for example, food, shelter, protection) but it can also refer to the mood and emotional state that makes a person person does not depend on others if not that he can carry out the different situations of his life on his own.
When we talk about self-sufficiency around a society or community, we are usually talking about how that group of people can supply themselves with the most important elements for their survival. Thus, self-sufficient communities are those that do not require products or goods that they cannot produce by themselves, which is why it is understood that they are communities that do not resort to trade or other types of exchange more typical of large industrialized societies. Self-sufficient communities (as were the communities of the Middle Ages in Europe or as there are many today in different parts of the world) are rather small communities that do not resort to the use of technological or artificial elements but remain in greater contact with nature, obtaining from her everything that is necessary to subsist.
However, the concept of self-sufficiency is not only a social concept but can also be understood at the individual level to refer to the character and strength of a person. In this sense, when we speak of self-sufficiency at the individual level, we are pointing out that the person who demonstrates it is a person who can fend for himself to advance in life, for example, being self-taught or learning different knowledge on his own, managing with his own own means of living independently, or making different efforts that have to do with dealing with conflicts or obstacles individually and without resorting to the help of others.
