Fun fact, agriculture was a far bigger pain in the ass. We didn’t transition to settled agrarian society because it was pleasant
Are you telling me something from a Philomena Cunk sketch wasn’t entirely accurate?!
Hard to believe I know
I will write to the BBC about this!!!
Turn’s out plants can run away.
We did it because we figured out dropping seeds near rivers and deltas worked consistently well for some reason.
Which meant far less nomadic gathering, and thus stationary civilization could brew. We’re so good at it now, that many people don’t like leaving their house.
Yes and we were hunting our megafauna to extinction. You need the carrot and the stick. Agriculture wasn’t just a nice tool we disovered we could utilize, it was increasingly becoming something we needed as large game became more scarce. People don’t adopt a new system of production that radically changes their social formations unless their current one is failing. There is a good reason settled agriculture took so long to take hold even after we figure out planting.
Agriculture actually lowered the standard of living and nutrition.
BUT it fed more people per area.
So agricultural communities could support more fighting men to drive away nomadic ones and expand.
It wasn’t a peaceful transition.
We didn’t transition to settled agrarian society because it was pleasant
More pleasant than starvation.
Yeah. Although the fossil record is full of evidence agrarianism actually increased malnutrition since we were relying on a very undiversified diet based mainly on a grain, as opposed to a more varied diet based on gathering and hunting.
Yep. Evidence of malnutrition increases in early agricultural societies, while signs of intermittent starvation decrease.
No perfect solutions…
But it was much more predictable and the main reason we are the architects of our own eco system. Which seems like it might become our undoing.
We did it so we could make beer!
It was at first, we’ve made enough modifications to our plants that they’re significantly easier to grow, produce more yield per harvest, etc etc.
When wheat found us, it decided to use us to become the most populous plant on earth, and so was very agreeable to work with. Until wheat, agriculture was a net energy loss.
According to the Bible, we should be vegetarian. It says God made plants for us to eat and plants for animals to eat. It says nothing about eating the animals.
Genesis 1:29-31 NRSVUE [29] God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. [30] And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the air and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. [31] God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
This comment posted to be funny but is also accurate.
Obligatory shoutout for The Dawn of Everything, which explores the current findings regarding the “agricultural revolution”, among other things of prehistoric civilizations. Fucking amazing book
We probably ate plants by foraging more than hunting before agriculture, right?
