Posted on 05/24/2009 2:54:08 PM PDT by decimon
Listening to Tom Standage talking about his new book, An Edible History of Humanity this morning I was reminded of a paper written by the anthropologist and author Jared Diamond in the late 1980's.
Diamond described agriculture as, "the worst mistake in the history of the human race".
Farming was, he argued, a catastrophe from which we have never quite recovered. With agriculture came "the social and sexual inequality, disease and despotism, that curse our existence".
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Puperflect paleo ping.
I guess in a way he’s right, ‘cause if we stayed hunter-gatherer, this idiot wouldn’t be around.
God. To be stupid, yet paid well. Although, looking at Obama and Geithner, it does appear entirely possible.
Hunting and gathering is fine for a small society with lots of room to hunt and gather in. It helps if you don’t mind living on the edge of starvation as well.
If the billions of people on the planet today were to try it, cannibalism would become commonplace inside of a year as flora and fauna was wiped out on a scale never before seen.
Yep, farming has been a real disaster. LOL
Well this is weird ....
A hunter-gatherer economy is utterly incapable of supporting an advanced civilization. The very system of writing by which Jared promotes his ideas would never be developed without the surplus provided by agriculture. The most advanced economy possible without agriculture is that of our own NW coast. And there only because of uniquely favorable climate and other circumstances.
The article doesn’t mention the true reason agriculturists took over. Farming can support something like 500 to 1000 or more times the population. Any tribe that refused to adopt it was quickly overrun by their newly more numerous neighbors.
Migratory Hunter-Gatherer’s require Wi-Fi.
I’m still hard lined.
Well . . Mr. Standage could off himself and thereby help his cause . . . .
If mankind had not started farming, how could they have gotten a sufficient supply of the “necessaries” to make a sufficient supply of beer?
when man invented the first crops, the first liberals invented altruism and redistributionism
“With agriculture came “the social and sexual inequality, disease and despotism, that curse our existence”.
This is what the ‘social justice’ world view does to people... It distorts history in an effort to change the future.
Agriculture created a situation where technological innovation paid off and it laid the groundwork for the free market system. Excess production could be traded or sold. It also created a lot more free time, time used to advance social development... precisly the effect he thinks it DIDN’T have but SHOULD have had.
He’s a smart man made into an idiot by a leftist world view, where ALL things are political.
With lefto-enviro-schmucks you always have to read between the lines.
He doesn’t really mean we’d all be better off living like Paiutes eating cockroaches on the desert floor.
What he really means is, shut down 90% of all productive capacity in the Western World and put him and his friends in charge so that most of us can live like slaves and he and his friends can rule the roost.
When lefto-enviro-schmucks say they yearn for the hunter-gather lifestyle, what they really mean is they want a global Zimbabwe with them in charge.
Beat me to it. No agriculture, no beer. Case closed.
This is the type of person who thinks that Earth would be a wonderful place if there were no humans on it. But like Henry David Thoreau, who adored nature, he only adored it during the day. At night, he wanted the warm security of a cabin, with a hearty meal of good tasting food prepared by a cook, and a soft bed to sleep on.
I would hazard to guess that the author lives in a congested city, in a small, overpriced luxury apartment, and the only time he experienced real nature was as an asthmatic 14 year old, sent by his parents to “Camp Broken Rubber”, as it would translate from the pseudo-Indian name. Where camp counselors would play the guitar while everyone sang Where Have All The Flowers Gone and eat spaghetti every night.
In other words, his idea of Hell on Earth would be to have to live for a week on Ted Nugent’s ranch. Because after living to this drivel, Ted would probably reenact any number of variations of “The Most Dangerous Game”, in which his guest would have an hour to make himself scarce before Ted went after him with a compound bow.
What you say is clearly true. However, don't you on occasions lean back and think, "Hmmm, a life of hunting and fishing, no yard to mow, no job to work at, just hunting and fishing . . . "
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