Saturday, August 1, 2020

Obvious and Fascinating

This is an example of what "Guns Germs and Steel" explained in the evolution from hunter gatherer to agriculturalist.

Basic premise - agriculture made humans sick and frail relative to hunter gatherers, but also let them reproduce at a 4x higher rate. It allowed humans to have specialists like blacksmiths, carpenters and politicians, and combined with the higher populations led to the displacement of the hunter gatherers all around the world. History was there to watch it happen in the 1800s in north america, when, for example, the dominant plains tribe, the Comanche reached a population of 20,000.  By then there were millions of european immigrants and their children. It was only a matter of time. 


-Roughly 9,000 years ago farmers from the Middle East headed toward Europe, seeking new land to cultivate.
-The farmers traveled either along the Mediterranean coast or the Danube River, encountering hunter-gatherers who lived in dense forests.
-At first, the farmers and hunter-gatherers traded or mated. By 5,000 years ago, however, agriculture dominated the continent and hierarchical societies had evolved.
-Genetic studies suggest that individuals with high hunter-gatherer ancestry may have been treated as inferiors.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/when-the-first-farmers-arrived-in-europe-inequality-evolved/

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