Dawn of Agriculture: Worst Mistake EVER? Pulitzer Prize Winner (Guns, Germs and Steel) Jared Diamond thinks so...
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Ishmael is a 1992 philosophical novel by Daniel Quinn. The novel examines the hidden cultural biases driving modern civilization and explores themes of ethics, sustainability, and global catastrophe. Largely framed as a Socratic conversation between two characters, Ishmael aims at exposing that several widely accepted assumptions of modern society, such as human supremacy, are actually cultural myths that produce catastrophic consequences for humankind and the environment. The novel was awarded the $500,000 Turner Tomorrow Fellowship Award in 1991, a year before its formal publication.[2]
Metahuman
Level 7
May 27, 2019
0
One thing that has to be taken in to account, is that the change to agriculture may have been more of a drift than a revolution. It may well have started in small ways such as putting water on the ground in dry semi desert areas, to make grass grow and thereby attract game which could be hunted more easily. In a way which hardly changed the hunter gatherer lifestyle at all to begin with. Each new innovation may have brought some small and real gains to begin with, and to the people living though the changes it may have been so slow that they were not aware their lives were being significantly changed.
Fernapple
Level 9
Jan 18, 2019
2
This article is from either 1987 or 1999. Either way it's a bit dated. But the discussion points out that agriculture began at different times and different places. But only for 1 reason. Man, the ultimate predator, hunted much, or even most, game to extinction. As hunting became less productive and food became scarce, humans turned to plants.
MojoDave
Level 9
Jan 17, 2019
2
I work as a custodian for high school who was using it for discussion in class. Awesome book
Treehugger
Level 6
Jan 17, 2019
3
This article continues the belief that agriculture arose 10,000 years ago in the fertile crescent, when in fact it arose about 50,000 years ago in tropical Africa. I doubt that when it began it involve any great expenditure of time than hunter gathering did in that environment it likely require a lot less.
HeathenFarmer
Level 8
Jan 17, 2019
0
@MoonTiger Here is one of many: [arstechnica.com]
@MoonTiger I understand your point but this only applies to grain based agriculture were the product became a commodity based on its long term storage and ability to be traded for other forms of wealth. Many types of agriculture exist that do not commodify the food that is produced or at least not to the same extent. For a more recent exampl,e you can look to Cyprus prior to the introduction of cattle and grain where deer were raised as the source of meat in much the same way they were cultivated and harvested in North America pre-Columbus.
When i was reading it several years after publication it was already pushed back by new evidence. But the general idea is of human connquest no matter what!
@MoonTiger You are aware that the first domesitic animal after the dog was most probably the chicken, not an easy animal to commodify.
True, but it was inevitable given population increase.
Krish55
Level 8
Jan 17, 2019
1
@MoonTiger Diff increase. By 10,000 BC the habitable world was pretty much filled. Pop increased slowly but steadily. No choice but for some to settle if the envir. was amenable to modification. In our modern middle class capitalist world, we think all people make conscious choices. They don't. People just react...
Sorry. But you have it backwards. Agriculture as we practice it, totalitarian agriculture, is what fuels the population growth.
@Krish55 my point is that people are made of food.
More food equals more people.
Whether a population increases or decreases is not the only issue it's a matter of degree.
There was no emergency which required a solution in the form of totalitarian agriculture to solve at that point.
Agriculture's existed almost as long as humans have.
Totalitarian agriculture on the other hand is relatively recent beginning about 10000 years ago.
Reliance on agriculture was not inevitable because of population.
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