[canuck_conservative]

I’m going with the “obvious” hypothesis ... people have always been lazy

Gathering plants means walking big distances, which uses a lot of time & energy, yet with no guarantee of finding anything; with agriculture, people knew what they had, had it close-by, and could use that freed-up walking time for other things

Plus, there’s also dangers from wild animals involved in plant searches, which agriculture helped reduce

[SunkenCiv]

That’s my wheelhouse...

[Sarcasm Factory]

Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner! :^)

I’m going with the “obvious” hypothesis ... people have always been lazy
Gathering plants means walking big distances, which uses a lot of time & energy, yet with no guarantee of finding anything; with agriculture, people knew what they had, had it close-by, and could use that freed-up walking time for other things
Plus, there’s also dangers from wild animals involved in plant searches, which agriculture helped reduce

[hanamizu]

How about this. Men hunt, women gather. This requires a nomadic lifestyle because game and stuff gathered begins to run out after a passage of time. So you have to move several days walk away.

But a good place to live will be close to a water supply and for the most part good places will always be good places. So in the course of a lifetime, the same place might be be used several times by the group.

When camp is set up people will use one spot or spots as a common toilet and garbage dump. Some clever person will remember that where the toilet was the last time the camp was there, there’s a lot of food to be gathered, since many seeds pass through the digestive system untouched. The next step, actually planting seeds and hanging around long enough to see them produce food is a big one.

Although agriculture and animal husbandry are more labor-intensive, they do produce a much bigger food supply, which allows for a larger human population in one area than hunting gathering. And of course there’s beer.

[GOPJ]

Plus women tend to do the ‘squaw’ work... gather small branches for fires (logs are men's work), planting kitchen gardens, not fields... and cooking. Produce makes meat taste better and go further. Safety, beer, and fear... always real... and ‘medical’ use of herbs etc etc.