A REAL Different view on farming.......

[boggybranch]

....and it's effect on mankind (at least one man's opinion).

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/spencer-wells-at-root-were-still-hunters-1993055.html

 

[hoodat]

It's interesting that when the skeletons of Hunter/gatherers are compared to farming societies in the same geographical areas the hunter/gatherers are invariably found to be larger, stronger and in better physical health than their farming neighbors. Maybe I'll start eating my weeds and bugs.

 

[elf]

I dunno...have you ever looked at paintings that depict John the Baptist after he'd been living in the wild, eating locusts? They always show him wearing some animal hide and looking kinda green and puny.

When I see how much taller the weeds in my garden are than what I planted, I think, " What a pity we don't like to eat those!" and " If only we could digest grass..." Omnivores, my foot! I used to wonder why the deer went straight for my garden when surrounded by ample grass. I was informed (though not positive of this info.) that they too, need tender plants rather than grass. We've all become rather specific, I suppose. Least we're not koalas hunting for a eucalyptus tree...yet.

 

[davaroo]

This was kind of a no-brainer really: When humanity settled and began agriculture, it was bound to affect, if not doom, the environs in which it settled. That IS the entire premise behind human generated climate change, isn't it?

While the hunter-gatherer lifestyle sounds good, even appealing, that is actually only so much eco-romantic dreaminess. In reality, it is unsustainable for a mass of humans. If you can't kill or deter those who would intrude on your foraging area, then they compete - and you suffer at some point. You are also at the mercy of the elements and deprivations of Nature herself - lets face it, Nature can be a beeyatch when we least want her to.
I mean, having sabre toothed tigers trying to eat you while you gather berries is definitely NOT conducive to a meaningful foraging experience.
Ditto droughts and floods, disease and infection, etc... It is very rare for animals to die of old age in Nature.

It's kind of a bummer, really.

Inevitably, a foraging lifestyle allows us to rise little higher than the animals themselves - at each others throats for the few resources we don't deplete by our presence, while we try not to die from disease, starvation or being some other creatures dinner.

That whole, "Balance of Nature" jazz is great for fork tailed swifts or bristling thistles, but for humanity to actually get anywhere in it's development, we had to settle down and do something besides wait on the shoots to sprout.

 

[boggybranch]

I would imagine that had man NOT settled down and had kept following the game animals they hunted.......there would, probably, be very little chance that we would be communicating via internet right now.

 

[davaroo]

I would imagine that had man NOT settled down and had kept following the game animals they hunted.......there would, probably, be very little chance that we would be communicating via internet right now.

And no beer. I shudder to think....

 

[hoodat]

Giving up the hunter/gathering way of life was the first and very necessary step in the development of civilization.
I spent some time with the Negritos in the Phillipines. At that time they still lived almost entirely by hunting and gathering. I don't know whether that's still so or not. They had a regular circular route they had traveled for generations, migrating from one area to the other as certain plants and animals became ready. It took them almost 10 years to cover the whole circular route. It was that long before the jungle grew back to cover the damage to its ecology they left behind them. By the time they left an area to move on it was pretty well depleted of its usable resources so hunter/gathering is not as gentle on the balance of nature as most people think it is.

 

[davaroo]

Giving up the hunter/gathering way of life was the first and very necessary step in the development of civilization.
I spent some time with the Negritos in the Phillipines. At that time they still lived almost entirely by hunting and gathering. I don't know whether that's still so or not. They had a regular circular route they had traveled for generations, migrating from one area to the other as certain plants and animals became ready. It took them almost 10 years to cover the whole circular route. It was that long before the jungle grew back to cover the damage to its ecology they left behind them. By the time they left an area to move on it was pretty well depleted of its usable resources so hunter/gathering is not as gentle on the balance of nature as most people think it is.

And of course we've all heard of the Amerinds running entire herds of bison off cliffs so as to snag the hides, some meat for drying and their favored cut, the tongue.

The early pioneers were in awe of the mass bison graves left behind by the Indians.

 

[davaroo]

According to my research, the invention of beer was THE pivotal event in the settling of humanity.

About 12,000 years ago, humans existed as members of small bands of nomadic hunter/gatherers. They lived on game in the mountains in summer & would go to the coast & live on fish & lobster in winter. They ate and drank whatever they could find or kill, at that point.

Then beer was invented. Once the brewing of beer was perfected, it became obvious that a steady supply of grain was needed. Without it, there would be no beer. The production of this grain was the beginning of agriculture. In time, they learned that they could grow whatever they liked along with the all important grain. Those early humans were no slouches, no sir.

Since neither the glass bottle nor aluminum can were invented yet, our early human ancestors simply remained close to the breweries. Beer is at its best when fresh, after all. That's how villages were formed.

Eventually the second most important of man's inventions arose - the wheel. The wheel was immediately seen to have but one purpose, to get man to the beer, and vice versa.

These two were the real foundations of modern civilization & together were the catalyst for all that was to follow.

Now you know.

 

[hoodat]

Then the Scotch and Irish figured out how to distill whiskey and the rest is history.