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market-farming - RE: [Market-farming] Another book suggestion

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  • From: "Jill Bussiere" <jdt AT itol.com>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: RE: [Market-farming] Another book suggestion
  • Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 17:52:24 -0500

Yes, hunter-gatherers have a much easier life than farmers - both have the
possibility of hard seasons - but farmers work harder, generally.

Interesting thought of the author that you report below, Ken - that humans
"want" to settle down. You have whetted my appetite for looking at that
part of the book to see what evidence, if any, the author provides for that
statement. I find it to be quite a generalization, and it has made me
curious.

Jill Bussiere, Wisconsin

Interesting aspect of the book = the reading about gatherer-hunter tribes
that I did back in my anthropology classes suggested that gatherer-hunters
preferred to not do agriculture, because it was easier (4 hours/day) to be
gatherer-hunters... and that it was only when human population built up to
the point that the land could no longer support gathering and hunting that a
tribe would settle down to take up agriculture (working more than 4+
hours/day in exchange for more food to support a higher population).

Stanley Diamond -- the author of Guns, Germs, and Steel -- argues that
humans have a tendency to WANT to settle down, and that this is the main
reason why humans took up agriculture when the local ecology allowed for it.
(OK, it's been several years since I've read the book, but that's how I
remember it.) That's an argument I hadn't heard before, and I've wondered
about it ever since I read the book...

Ken Bezilla
southern Missouri








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