Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Noble or savage?
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10278703 ^ | 12/19/2007 | not stated

Posted on 12/31/2007 8:30:01 PM PST by dirtboy

The era of the hunter-gatherer was not the social and environmental Eden that some suggest

HUMAN beings have spent most of their time on the planet as hunter-gatherers. From at least 85,000 years ago to the birth of agriculture around 73,000 years later, they combined hunted meat with gathered veg. Some people, such as those on North Sentinel Island in the Andaman Sea, still do. The Sentinelese are the only hunter-gatherers who still resist contact with the outside world. Fine-looking specimens—strong, slim, fit, black and stark naked except for a small plant-fibre belt round the waist—they are the very model of the noble savage. Genetics suggests that indigenous Andaman islanders have been isolated since the very first expansion out of Africa more than 60,000 years ago.

About 12,000 years ago people embarked on an experiment called agriculture and some say that they, and their planet, have never recovered. Farming brought a population explosion, protein and vitamin deficiency, new diseases and deforestation. Human height actually shrank by nearly six inches after the first adoption of crops in the Near East. So was agriculture “the worst mistake in the history of the human race”, as Jared Diamond, evolutionary biologist and professor of geography at the University of California, Los Angeles, once called it?

(Excerpt) Read more at economist.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: godsgravesglyphs
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-28 next last

1 posted on 12/31/2007 8:30:02 PM PST by dirtboy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: dirtboy
How am I supposed to arrive at an accurate assessment with no pics?
2 posted on 12/31/2007 8:33:09 PM PST by kinoxi
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CrappieLuck; Diana in Wisconsin; george76

Ping.


3 posted on 12/31/2007 8:33:32 PM PST by girlangler (Fish Fear Me)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: kinoxi
How am I supposed to arrive at an accurate assessment with no pics?


4 posted on 12/31/2007 8:37:07 PM PST by dirtboy (Ron Paul - blame America first but still bill her for the shrimp)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: girlangler; dirtboy

Gee. Should I farm or should I flip burgers? Decisions, decisions!

Actually, I’m looking for the article, but today I heard that the number of Wisconsin farms owned and run by WOMEN is totally spiking. Wa-Hoo!

Hunt and gather? How cave-man like, LOL! Girls just wanna sew and reap and make a buck, Baby! :)


5 posted on 12/31/2007 8:37:22 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin (Save The Earth. It's The Only Planet With Chocolate.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: dirtboy
She'd look pretty noble after a few...
:)
6 posted on 12/31/2007 8:38:23 PM PST by kinoxi
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: dirtboy

Wasn’t pomoism one of the favored philosophies of the German national socialists?


7 posted on 12/31/2007 8:44:29 PM PST by Grimmy (equivocation is but the first step along the road to capitulation)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dirtboy

She’s prettier than Michael “Savage”!


8 posted on 12/31/2007 8:46:09 PM PST by johnthebaptistmoore
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: johnthebaptistmoore

What scale of pretty are you looking at?


9 posted on 12/31/2007 8:47:26 PM PST by kinoxi
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv
incipient cultivation ping
10 posted on 12/31/2007 8:47:54 PM PST by kitchen (Any day without a fair tax thread is a good day.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dirtboy
So was agriculture “the worst mistake in the history of the human race”, as Jared Diamond, evolutionary biologist and professor of geography at the University of California, Los Angeles, once called it?

Jared Diamond is obviously an idiot.
I refuse to end the old year reading such a low note from the intellectual, philosophical and moral basement of humanity.

Maybe next year...

11 posted on 12/31/2007 8:51:03 PM PST by Publius6961 (MSM: Israelis are killed by rockets; Lebanese are killed by Israelis.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dirtboy

Interesting. Though should have noted enclosure movement as part of reason for rural residents moving to cities to work in factories.


12 posted on 12/31/2007 8:55:19 PM PST by FFranco
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dirtboy
...strong, slim, fit, black and stark naked...

Your picture only passes on 3 of 5 criteria.

Keep posting until you get it right.

13 posted on 12/31/2007 8:55:22 PM PST by CurlyDave
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: dirtboy
So was agriculture “the worst mistake in the history of the human race

No, obviously Liberalism was the worst mistake of the human race, and we're still paying dearly for it.

14 posted on 12/31/2007 8:56:56 PM PST by webschooner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Diana in Wisconsin

Hey, I am sowing (sewing) and reaping.

Many moons ago I learned how to sew (from my dear departed MIL, God Bless Her), she taught me the old ways. She LIVED the ways of the Foxfire Series, as did many others that influenced my life in those long ago days.

I can make a handmade quilt from rags, and raise a vegetable or two to tide us over till hog killin’ time. Don’t have enough land to raise sweet potatos, but I could (if I needed to) go out and shoot enough protein to tide us over.

Does vegetarisim (sp) make men wimps?

Well, yea.

In my heathen days I went to college, and dated a few of these. I had one guy who actually wore hairspray. He turned me off.

Must of been something in my genes that made me turn off.

I will, and can, kill my own meat,if need be, will grow my own veggies. But I refuse to protect a pansy ass man when it comes down to this.

He can split the wood. If he can’t, he ain’t my man (grin).


15 posted on 12/31/2007 9:00:37 PM PST by girlangler (Fish Fear Me)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: CurlyDave
Keep posting until you get it right.

All five guarantees the mods will yank it.

16 posted on 12/31/2007 9:00:59 PM PST by dirtboy (Ron Paul - blame America first but still bill her for the shrimp)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: kinoxi

Here ya go:

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Sentinelese&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2


17 posted on 12/31/2007 9:04:19 PM PST by LibFreeOrDie (L'Chaim!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: dirtboy
From the !Kung in the Kalahari to the Inuit in the Arctic and the aborigines in Australia, two-thirds of modern hunter-gatherers are in a state of almost constant tribal warfare, and nearly 90% go to war at least once a year. War is a big word for dawn raids, skirmishes and lots of posturing, but death rates are high—usually around 25-30% of adult males die from homicide.

What a surprise. Hunters don't just hunt animals - they hunt each other too.

18 posted on 12/31/2007 9:34:15 PM PST by vbmoneyspender
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Myth of the Hunter-Gatherer
Archaeology | September/October 1999 Volume 52 Number 5 | Kenneth M. Ames
Posted on 08/13/2004 3:07:48 AM EDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1190694/posts


19 posted on 12/31/2007 10:16:10 PM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/____________________Profile updated Sunday, December 30, 2007)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Human Ancestors: More Gatherers Than Hunters?
Eureka Alert | 11-12-2007 | Carl Marziali
Posted on 11/13/2007 6:11:20 PM EST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1925292/posts


20 posted on 12/31/2007 10:17:25 PM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/____________________Profile updated Sunday, December 30, 2007)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-28 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson