RE: The mistake of agriculture (was: evolution and diet)

From: gts (gts_2000@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu May 22 2003 - 20:33:18 MDT

  • Next message: gts: "RE: The mistake of agriculture (was: evolution and diet)"

    Mike Lorrey wrote:

    > An animal herder would not suffer from the same sort of
    > nutritional deficiencies that Diamond ascribes to exclusively plant
    > based farmer.

    Where is Diamond ascribing anything to exclusively plant based farmers?

    Diamond seems to include the domestication of both plants and animals under
    the general heading of agriculture, as in the following paragraph:

    "For most of our history we supported ourselves by hunting and gathering: we
    hunted wild animals and foraged for wild plants. It's a life that
    philosophers have traditionally regarded as nasty, brutish, and short. Since
    no food is grown and little is stored, there is (in this view) no respite
    from the struggle that starts anew each day to find wild foods and avoid
    starving. Our escape from this misery was facilitated only 10,000 years ago,
    when in different parts of the world people began to domesticate plants and
    animals. The agricultural revolution spread until today it's nearly
    universal and few tribes of hunter-gatherers survive."

    -gts



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