permaculture

[Sean Maley <semaley@yahoo.com>]

--- Toby Hemenway <toby@patternliteracy.com> wrote:
> Ah, I see Sean has addressed this nicely. Again, see Jared Diamond's "The
> Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race" at
> http://www.mnforsustain.org/food_ag_worst_mistake_diamond_j.htm

Thank you for the kudos.  I do want to point out a distinction between Jared 
Diamond and Daniel
Quinn, though.  Jared Diamond posits that larger populations forced people 
into farming.  Daniel
Quinn posits that a farming experiment, for whatever reason it was attempted, 
resulted in a
temporary food surplus, which in turn caused the constant acceleration of 
population of about 2%
per year.

Some have speculated that beer was invented, which became a reason to create 
a surplus;  the "big
man" theory of chiefs trying to out do each other with feasts.  Where most 
experiments with
"civilization" failed, the one in North Africa and the "Fertile Crescent" 
were able to spread to
adjacent lands, as soil fertility declined.  The endless race, creating more 
food for the poor,
began.  I'm interested to find a study on how long it took for slavery to 
emerge after agriculture
began.  Agriculture in this context means "the culture of civilization".


-Sean.

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