Hunter-Gatherers

It is said that farming is "the worst mistake in the history of the human race."(2). In An Edible History of Humanity, chapter two, Tom Standage explained the reasoning behind this statement. The explanation is, farming took longer, created health issues and changed the structure of our bodies.

The emergence of agriculture was a major stepping stone in human history. During this birth of agriculture, also known as the Neolithic revolution, humans began inhabiting permanent settlements, grow their own crops, and domesticate both plants and animals for food (Weisdorf, 2005). Considering humans have been hunter-gatherers for the majority of their approximately 7 million years of existence, the emergence of agriculture in the Old World only occurring 10,000-5,000 years ago, marks a significant transformation in food sustenance techniques (Weisdorf, 2005). However, this turning point in history is associated with both positive and negative implications. There is much controversy over whether or not the introduction of

Jared Diamond, in his article, “The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human race”, explains that the worst mistake that humans made was the decision to change from a hunter gatherer society into an agriculture society. Jared Diamond gives evidence of how switching from an agricultural society was a bad mistake. Many believe that adopting an agricultural society and leaving the hunter gatherer society was the way to a more qualitative and sustainable lifestyle. As Diamond says, it is true that because this society was adopted and evolved because we have longer lifespans and live better now than how people lived back in the old days. But Diamond`s claim that the hunter gatherer society gave humans more benefits individually than what the agricultural society had to offer is agreeable.

Diamond explains that our worst mistake was the transition from hunter-gathers to farmers. Diamond believes that humans were better off chasing our food rather than planting it due to the consequences that followed after such a dramatic change of life. His reasoning expands further out than one might think of about this subject. He talks about the social changes that were created when agriculture began. Diamond spews empowering points that leave a reader pondering if he is correct. People are only sure of how the world is now but the possibilities are endless on what our world could have been if agriculture had not begun.

From the early prehistoric society until now, we often heard the word “adaptation”, which means the process of changing something or changing our behavior to deal with new situations. The ways people adjust their natural environment varies according to time, place, and tribe. Foraging is common way of adaptation that people uses for most of human history; however because of the population pressure, some people adopt agriculture to fulfill their need. This essay, will discuss the positive and negative aspects of life in hunting and gathering societies compared to the agricultural societies based on Martin Harris’ article “Murders in Eden” and Jared Diamond’s article “The Worst Mistake in the History of Human Race.”

Approximately 2.5 million years ago humans lived as hunter-gatherers that would move in bands, later on, they would turn into the great civilization of the ancient world due to better technique and a more organized society. Starting from the neolithic age which consists of hunter-gatherers. There were basically early modern humans. Hunter-gatherers had populated a lot of the earth by 30,000 years ago, continued the hunter and gathering way of life. They would feed off of wild plants and animals and move from one location to another. They would also use the fur of their killings as clothes. In a hunting and gatherings economy, they would move from one location to another to secure their food supply. Hunter-gatherers were very self-sufficient.

health. Hunter-gatherers have a varied diet, however, early farmers gained poor nutrition and cheap calories. In addition, farmers ran the risk of starvation due to the dependence on crops. Diamond states that agriculture encouraged the creation of civilizations, which then led to the spread of infectious diseases and parasites that can seriously jeopardize our health. Social inequality between deep class divisions came out of agriculture as well. According to research on skeletons from ancient times, royals had better diets than the commoners due to the fact that they were a few inches taller and had better teeth than them. Thus, Jared Diamond supports his claim that agriculture was a terrible mistake made in human history due to inequality, bad health, and a difference in lifestyles between hunter-gatherers and

In the 1930's, V. Gordon Childe proposed that the shift to food production was one of the two major events in human history that improved the condition of human societies. Childe described the origins of agriculture as a 哲eolithic Revolution.But the shift from hunting and gathering to food production was not as advantageous to humanity as Childe believed. Although there were benefits, there were also serious drawbacks, and humans paid a price for the advantages of agriculture.

Things need to change in a human society after so long. Paleolithic societies started right after the Ice Age. When the earth grew warmer the life of the plants and animals completely changed because their environment changed around them. The animals and plants were used to the cold so they started to die off. As a result the people needed food so they began to migrate to where the food was which was in other places around the world. The people's food began to die off forced the people to figure out a new source of food. It also shaped the world in a few ways. The agricultural Revolution took shape in various parts of the world in many different ways. The Revolution affected areas around bodies of water tremendously. Bodies of water were in high demand for people because of what they held. Water was a source of protection in a way and a lot of people liked that comfort. Water also had species in it that the people were able to eat. Being close to water was an advantage because everything was in your fingertips. These colonies that settled in the area were affected by this water in a positive way. They used the natural resources that came with the bodies of water and were able to grow food due to the very rich soil. This was extremely revolutionary for the people living there. Unfortunately they got too accustomed to the area, and forgot how to do some of the things they once knew how to do. They didn't have to work near as hard as they did before because they had everything they needed in a close distance. It affected America a tad bit differently than it did to Africa and Eurasia. Africa was a complete different story than America because of where the places were located. In America, there were different types of animals, bodies of water, and a complete different climate. In Africa, they had different animals, less water, and a much warmer climate. These key factors play a huge role in how the Agricultural

When the Europeans immigrated to North America they established the Indian Bureau in the War Department due to the Indian Problem who main goal was to manage the Native Americans. Disease was a huge epidemic it caused tremendous amounts of Native people to die due to no immunity to the diseases. The federal government began the Indian Removal of the Native tribes. From that, the federal government created the boarding schools where they were enculturated by religion, language, physical features, clothing, and vocational education. The Dawes Act contributed to 90 million acres of land loss to Native tribes. The 1982 Merian Report contributed to changing the school system. The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 began with assimilating the Sioux nation into the European way of life which effected their health and overall welfare. The Europeans used the education system to assimilate them into their culture and language. Due to the assimilation it affected the Sioux people through the NCLB act. In order to decolonize our people the education system needs respect and to add our cultural side into the pedagogy. In order for Native students to be successful in school they need to acknowledge how important it is to learn our culture in schools. The U.S. Indian office supported the schools to be culturally sensitive and began educating teachers to teach in Native schools. Alaska has experienced the assimilation through boarding schools. Stephen talks about his experience as an educator and

The first beginning we had hunter and gatherers, and that became something that everybody started doing. People would use resources around them, and they would not stay in permanent settlements. Than a new life began and it was called Emergence of Agriculture. People know started having permanent settlements, the population has became bigger, and their health might be becoming shaky. These changes might have been better or worse.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to assimilate our hunter-gatherer ancestors? Well here is how it would go: We would wander around until we found a food source and then we would see how many people it could sustain. When it couldn't feed anymore people, we would move on and find a new food source. It’s simple. It’s easy. You only have to go in search of food when you need it. It’s practical. I agree that farming was the worst mistake in the history of the human race because it led to the division of social classes and it had a negative effect on human health.

Many of the farmers were less healthy than the hunter-gatherers, the farmers even died, on average, earlier than the hunter-gatherers. Many of the farmers had more serious diseases than the hunter-gatherers did too. Some people, including the northeastern Australian people even saw their neighbors practicing domestication and farming but did not take up what their neighbors did because they preferred the hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Some hunter-gatherers did, in a way, produce food. For example some Australians burned the land they hunted on to encourage new seeds to grow so they could eat them. A reason why the hunter-gather way of living got less popular is simply because over the years less wild food was available. Over the past 13,000 years the amount of animals and edible plants has got less prevalent. The reason why many people still believe that food production was better than hunting and gathering is because food production led to more people and more technological advancements like guns and

One of the greatest revolutions in the history of homo sapiens was the adoption of agriculture, which changed the face of communities at every level of class. Though this change was built upon new ideas and allowed us to provide more food for more people, was it in fact a positive change at the time? Today in 2017, we can all look around and see where the agricultural revolution has gotten us in the long run, but authors such as Yuval Noah Harari (2011) claim that during the infancy of the agricultural revolution, life for the average citizen was often a worse one than that of the common forager. A change in food production created many other changes, such as permanent human settlement, biologically unconventional labor, and a larger population density. This paper explores the pros and cons of the agricultural society and the hunter-gatherer society

How did early civilizations effectively develop and utilize early plants and vegetables to move from hunter-gatherers to agriculturists, and what were the impacts socially, politically, and technically? “Agriculture did not emerge from an untapped resource base or randomly distributed family or tribal units of Homo sapiens sapiens. It emerged as the result of efforts by highly organized ecologically canny communities composed of skilled hunter-gatherers.” In the beginning of what is considered burgeoning civilization, humanities ancestors were what were called hunter-gatherers. They moved from place to place, following the source of their food in order to survive the brutal aspects of early life. If they could not find food, or not find it in sufficient amount, they would starve and eventually die off. Thus, the only decision facing them was to relocate their tribes in order to better take advantage of the available game. As the second portion of their name implied, they were also considered gatherers, in which they subsisted on whatever grains and green vegetables or fruits they could find to eat. It was this kind of lifestyle which led to a smaller, tribal mindset in which you ate what you could, when you could. Over time this began to change, with the establishment of agricultural practices which allowed for availability of much needed crops and the decision of tribes to establish permanent communities, as well as the increase in both number of members and life terms.