From: Steve Davies (steve365@btinternet.com)
Date: Sat May 24 2003 - 15:09:21 MDT
gts wrote
You wanted evidence for "a move in that
> direction" toward writing and math prior to agriculture. Cave paintings
are
> exactly such evidence.
>
> I agree of course that our intellectual progress accelerated dramatically
> when we settled into complex farming societies. I just wanted to make it
> clear that this was only an escalation of a process that started long
before
> the advent of agriculture. We cannot thank agriculture for the ability to
do
> math and write language. We can thank it only for adding more selection
> pressure to the development of these traits that were already under
pressure
> for development anyway. There is no reason to think we would not have made
> it to this level eventually even had we never learned to plant seeds.
> Farming only got us here faster.
>
> We humans are, by nature, curious about the world. This trait of curiosity
> is I think at the root of intellectual progress. Farming did not make us
> curious. It only made us fat. :)
>
> -gts
I think this is right. The consequences of agriculture, good and bad, are
ultimately the consequences of having a larger (and denser) population. Our
nature clearly didn't change. We actually know very little about the way of
life of our paleolithic ancestors because of the lack of sources. We need to
be vary wary about the kind of argument that says "this is what
hunter-gatherers are like now, so that is how our ancestors lived". All
sorts of things wrong with that.
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