>Would you agree that agriculture leads to the population explosion?
Oh, absolutely. The carrying capacity of land goes up dramatically when
cultivated. I think a factor of 10 is the rough rule.
But I do stick by my assertion that on a per capita basis, hunter-gatherer
societies have at least as much free time as agricultural societies. I've
seen several studies, and although the steriotype is that they have to spend
most of their time foraging, current hunter-gatherers don't. In many ways
their society resembles that of the information revolution - knowledge is
more important than sheer work, and child labor is consequently of little
value. Hunter-gatherers have fewer children than agriculturalists, even
though their diet and health seem better than any pre-industrial
agriculturalist.