As to Otzi's cultural affiliations, it is difficult to be too precise, because such conclusions are heavily based on ceramics, burial practices etc. among other things, and Otzi was killed in the mountains, not in his settlement. Some have speculated that he was a member of the Tamins-Carasso-Isera 5 Alpine culture, but it is just speculation so far. There were obviously also ties between Otzi's people and those of the Copper Age Remedello culture of northern Italy, as the blade is fashioned in the Remedello style.
What is beyond doubt, however, is that he was a man of the Copper Age, or, if you prefer, the late Neolithic. The age of the hunter-gatherers had long passed in this part of Europe. The fact that he happened to be hunting wild game, and had just gorged himself on the meat of these wild animals in no way contradicts that fact...hunting was often used in northern Italy and the greater Alpine regions to supplement the Neolithic diet. In addition, Oetzi may well have been on the run in these mountains, and merely using his survival skills.
One way we know that he was a man of the Neolithic, if it wasn't clear in other ways, is that his diet is Neolithic, as evidenced by analysis of his intestinal contents and by hair analysis as well.
From Wiki:
Analysis of Ötzi's intestinal contents showed two meals (the last one consumed about eight hours before his death), one of
chamois meat, the other of
red deer and herb bread. Both were eaten with grain as well as roots and fruits. The grain from both meals was a highly processed
einkorn wheat bran,
[15] quite possibly eaten in the form of bread. In the proximity of the body, and thus possibly originating from the Iceman's provisions, chaff and grains of einkorn and
barley, and seeds of
flax and
poppy were discovered, as well as kernels of
sloes (small plumlike fruits of the blackthorn tree) and various seeds of berries growing in the wild.
[16] Hair analysis was used to examine his diet from several months before.
Hunter Gatherers didn't consume bread made of highly processed eikhorn wheat.
In addition:
Ötzi's teeth showed considerable internal deterioration from cavities. These oral pathologies may have been brought about by his grain-heavy, high carbohydrate diet.
[22]
Analysis has also shown that:
By examining the proportions of Ötzi's
tibia,
femur and
pelvis, Christopher Ruff has determined that Ötzi's lifestyle included long walks over hilly terrain. This degree of mobility is not characteristic of other
Copper Age Europeans. Ruff proposes that this may indicate that Ötzi was a high-altitude shepherd.
[19]
So, he may indeed have been a shepherd. Regardless, herding is a development from the Neolithic revolution. Hunter Gatherers were not herders. Domesticated animals had to be bred for hundreds if not thousands of years, and learning domestic animal managment required other hundreds of years. Herding was just the type of Neolithic economy that was practiced in marginal areas that weren't suited to Neolithic crops.
In addition:
High levels of both copper particles and
arsenic were found in Ötzi's hair. This, along with Ötzi's copper axe which is 99.7% pure copper, has led scientists to speculate that Ötzi was involved in copper
smelting.
[18]
So, he might have been traveling because of his craft. Regardless, I don't see, given all this detailed evidence, how he wouldn't have been living in a farming community.
He probably did not trade for his copper items; he created them of either Alpine copper, or, as I have seen stated, copper from the Ligurian copper mines.
