True, but agriculture and herding made stable civilizations possible. Hunting and gathering meant you had to go where the food was, and if you overhunted or overgathered, or your staple foods got wiped out by disease/famine/natural disaster/etc then your society was probably just done.
Writing only comes into existence after the first cities are established. Arguably, the ability to share knowledge in this way has improved quality of life for everyone (not just rulers).
Sure, like I said, agriculture is great if you want to grow your population a lot, and I’m not saying life isn’t better now because of agriculture – just that it took a long while for that to become true and early sedentary cultures were usually worse off than the foragers.
Famines obviously didn’t stop being a thing after agriculture, and I’m fairly sure they increased as you’d have groups of people who are much more reliant on just one crop instead of a variety of sources.
True, but agriculture and herding made stable civilizations possible. Hunting and gathering meant you had to go where the food was, and if you overhunted or overgathered, or your staple foods got wiped out by disease/famine/natural disaster/etc then your society was probably just done.
Writing only comes into existence after the first cities are established. Arguably, the ability to share knowledge in this way has improved quality of life for everyone (not just rulers).
Sure, like I said, agriculture is great if you want to grow your population a lot, and I’m not saying life isn’t better now because of agriculture – just that it took a long while for that to become true and early sedentary cultures were usually worse off than the foragers.
Famines obviously didn’t stop being a thing after agriculture, and I’m fairly sure they increased as you’d have groups of people who are much more reliant on just one crop instead of a variety of sources.
You should read David Graeber for a conclusive counter argument to this.
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