"Folks in Fort Harmon country don't take to free grazers or free grazing. They hate them more than they used to hate the Indians."
Posted on 12/03/2010 4:23:39 AM PST by decimon
More is Mes ping.
Right. Same thing happened in the US west about 100 years ago. Remember “Don’t Fence Me In” and the range wars? Open range cattle drivers are hunter-gatherers.
I thought more of the Injuns.
One study involving domestication of pigs reveals that they were domesticated NUMEROUS TIMES in NUMEROUS PLACES and even the original pig breed was eventually displaced by a European pig breed brought in at a later time.
Then there's this problem with Mt. Hekla ~ it spews fluorine compounds ~ and there's a nice neat swath across Great Britain, Pays Bas and Jutland suggesting some LONG PAUSES in occupation ~ like maybe they were waiting to repopulate the area while the plants grew back after a vigorous bubbling in Iceland.
Comparable disturbances along the Mediterranean coast are shorter in duration simply because there's no fluorine in the mix, it's warmer, and the worst of the lot, like Santorini, are UNDERWATER.
No doubt the farmers would have loved to have moved into Western Europe at a faster pace, but even in Julius Caesar's day, nearly the modern era given this chart's timescale, he found it necessary to REMOVE some of the more rambunctious tribes from around the Northern Adriatic and use them to settle Pays Bas.
Sure, he could do it, but these people were set to work farming and herding ~ where were those nests of Mesolithic hunters in those areas? In Caesar's view (and I've read him) there was no one worth fighting North of the new settlement areas for the Boii ~ it was like it'd not recovered from the events of the early 1800 BCE period ~ and whatever those events were they created a world depression.
The chart does show an agricultural/neolithic advance in the far North that's consistent with present conditions ~ take a good look at the Sapma ~ there's a zone on the Arctic Coast where grass grows sufficient to sustain sheep ~ but by the time you get much further West than Petsamo/Pechenga that's all replaced with moss since the winter climate is entirely too vigorous for grass.
Did the arrival of grass eaters from the South simply take advantage of empty land, or did they advance into an area already occupied by hunter/gatherers?
We know the great reindeer herds of the Fenno Scandian peninsula migrated along hillsides where a plant called "reindeer moss" grew ~ which appears to be NECESSARY for their existence. If the moss doesn't grow in an area, which is usually due to displacement by grass, there are no naturally occuring reindeer.
I cannot help but note here that outside of the use of tame reindeer that can be hauled back and forth in trucks from one type of forage to another, the mesolithic folks still dominate that particular countryside ~ and it's only in quite modern times they've had much trouble with the neolithic peoples and their warfare.
Another consequence of farmer’s victory is the rampant spread of disease with clusters of humans.
And WHY was the the hunter-gatherer more prevalent in the north? Well, perhaps it was because farming was more difficult due to the chillier climates...
Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
Guys who raise sheep, as distinct from just following them around, are also Neolithic farmers (and herdsmen).
Hunter/gatherers live on dried meat from game and fish, low-glycemic wild berries and fruit, and root crops commonly found near game trails.
From about 1648 to maybe 1830 there were numerous American Indian groups throughout the more settled areas of what is now the United States who made their living HUNTING GAME for the farmers. Some of this was done on an industrial scale! It's sometimes forgotten that their forebears were, themselves, neolithic farmers ~ not mesolithic hunter/gatherers.
The mesolithic types are still here and live in the North where grass doesn't grow. They make a living as hunting or fishing guides, or off the Canadian dole. I guess they have to toss up a tipi from time to time to maintain their eligibility, but they still effectively occupy the greater part of North America WITH EASE!
Hunter gatherers take advantage of temporary bounties of nature. A base in more stable locations becomes desirable at some point, at which farming communities develop. As technology advances to the point where farmers can expand into slightly less stable environments, they will do so.
We are now seeing the next encroachment, that of cities and suburbs into farming communities. We could ask a similar question, is city expansion being slowed down by the farming community? In some manner, yes, due to political pressure and some tax laws to restrict “sprawl”.
This seems to be saying that population density, probably clustering, was higher in the hunter-gatherer north.
I thought that interesting as, when we get to recorded times, there is contention as to how populous were the groups we call Germanic and Mongolian. IOW, did they come to prevail much out of force of numbers.
There is a limit to how large a city can grow, since its survival is entirely dependent on the existence of farms for food.
An increasing amount of our food is being imported. There is much land in the world that can be farmed that is underutilized.
A significant problem is that bases develop into farming regions and then into cities, these often were among the most stable and suitable areas for farming. Expansion of the population base from a farm to village to town to city takes the best land out of production. This forces additional technological changes to that will expand farming into areas that are less suitable.
It’s likely that at some point Africa will be a major food producer for the world. I am aware that several multinational seed companies like to keep their finger on the pulse of agriculture in that continent. It is a major growth opportunity for agricultural technology.
It does make a bit of sense, if I say so myself, as shepherding societies tend to be patriarchal and worship male gods (including the Hebrew God) and agricultural societies tend toward matriarchies and Earth mother flim-flam.
"Folks in Fort Harmon country don't take to free grazers or free grazing. They hate them more than they used to hate the Indians."
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“For the the first ten thousand years our people lived in fur and fears...”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxnBSb4OKeU
You really can't get much further away from this place than India ~ so how are cities limited in these modern times?
It's been pretty much nonstop since that time.
I believe humanity took a wrong turn when we settled down in cities and ceased to be hunter gatherers. Disease and warfare followed.
Could be, but the bears and wolves became much easier to handle.
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