From: Damien Sullivan (phoenix@ugcs.caltech.edu)
Date: Sun Apr 13 2003 - 11:46:07 MDT
On Sun, Apr 13, 2003 at 10:51:54AM -0400, gts wrote:
> I agree with your point, but state further that hunter-gatherer cultures
> (those very few that remain) are the best models we have of prehistoric
> Paleolithic cultures. The problem I was pointing out is that many primitive
It's worth noting that most surviving H-G cultures were the ones pushed into
marginal habitats, ones unusable by farmers or pastoralists. If they seem to
eat a lot of meat, it might be because of a scarcity of plants. The diet of
North American Indians might be a better gauge than that of Bushmen,
aborigines, or Eskimo.
As for the aborigines, in _Triumph of the Nomads_ by Blainey, Mervyn Meggit is
cited as saying perhaps 70-80% of the bulk of the food eaten in tropical
Australia had been vegetables. Also "A man who spent half a lifetime with
aboriginals recalled long periods in which roots were the main food and meat
was almost a luxury." On the other hand, where fish was plentiful it's
guessed that was a majority of the diet. So, it varies a lot. And technology
did change, both in hunting (spear throwers, fishhooks, nets, boats...) and
gathering (hey, we can eat that.) Although I'd guess knowledge of plants was
earlier established in our homelands, vs. the Last Continent...
> difficulty of hunting with primitive weapons. As I mentioned, it is
> theorized that prehistoric humans actually hunted many species into
And I'm sympathetic to that my view myself, but I also know it's disputed.
Lack of signs of butchery or large-scale hunting.
> extinction. This may have given impetus to the agricultural revolution.
> Hungry people had to find a way to survive.
For agriculture, I prefer the view that rising sea levels did it. Humans tend
to congregate on the coasts. Give them a double whammy of climate change
(changing the climate foragers had been used to) and a rising sea pushing a
large percentage of the population back into the suddenly crowded hinterland
and you might have a situation forcing any incipient horticultural skills to
turn into full agriculture, where possible.
> I'll find that Cordain article that you requested off-list, and post
So, what do researchers *besides* Cordain think? Are you citing a consensus,
or allying yourself with one side of a polarized academic debate?
-xx- Damien X-)
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sun Apr 13 2003 - 11:54:34 MDT