From: Keith Elis (hagbard@ix.netcom.com)
Date: Tue Apr 15 2003 - 18:06:18 MDT
>Damien Sullivan wrote:
>
>> It's worth noting that most surviving H-G cultures were the ones
>> pushed into marginal habitats, ones unusable by farmers or
>> pastoralists.
>
>Is this a speculation of yours, or are you relating something
>you learned from a reliable scientific source? If the latter
>then do you have any refs? I'd like to see the evidence because
>if what you're saying is true, studies of living HG
>cultures would be less reliable indicators of the prehistoric
>life-style.
I would recommend Jared Diamond's _Guns, Germs, and Steel_ for a close
look at the hunter-gatherer lifestyle including the current state of H-G
peoples. I think Diamond would agree with Sullivan here.
Futhermore, the diet of modern hunter-gatherers cannot be said to
closely mirror that of our paleolithic ancestors simply by virtue of the
fact that millenia of agriculture coupled with millenia of importing and
exporting staple crops, have created enormous, extremely hardy grains
and roots which now grow wild almost everywhere. The wheat, corn,
barley, rice, soy, and potatoes of our ancestors were paltry, sickly
things, with a fraction of the nutritional value of modern wild foods.
If you want an extropian diet, instead of trying to figure out what
ancient humans ate (they only lived to be 30 anyway) consider the foods
of the greatest Western civilizations. A Mediterranean diet is not just
tasty as hell, but olives, breads, leafy greens, fish, red wine, and
tons of garlic have been the staples of Mesopotamia, North Africa, and
Southern Europe for a very long time. On a personal note, this diet has
likely contributed to the fact that several of my ancestors lived beyond
a century. Take it or leave it, but it has served me quite well.
Keith
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