Re: [TML]Request David Jaques-Watson (31 Jul 2014 01:18 UTC)
Re: [TML]Request Knapp (31 Jul 2014 05:54 UTC)
Re: [TML]Request Kelly St. Clair (31 Jul 2014 06:38 UTC)
Re: [TML]Request Phil Pugliese (31 Jul 2014 15:42 UTC)
Re: [TML]Request Tim (31 Jul 2014 10:59 UTC)
Re: [TML]Request Kurt Feltenberger (31 Jul 2014 12:14 UTC)
Re: [TML]Request Bruce Johnson (31 Jul 2014 16:16 UTC)
Re: [TML]Request Knapp (02 Aug 2014 00:28 UTC)
Re: [TML]Request shadow@xxxxxx (03 Aug 2014 18:52 UTC)
Re: [TML]Request Rupert Boleyn (04 Aug 2014 00:48 UTC)
Re: [TML]Request Kelly St. Clair (04 Aug 2014 00:59 UTC)
Re: [TML]Request Rupert Boleyn (04 Aug 2014 01:58 UTC)
Re: [TML]Request Knapp (04 Aug 2014 06:28 UTC)
Re: [TML]Request Richard Aiken (04 Aug 2014 11:04 UTC)
Re: [TML]Request Rupert Boleyn (04 Aug 2014 11:22 UTC)
Re: [TML]Request Knapp (04 Aug 2014 17:44 UTC)
Re: [TML]Request Phil Pugliese (04 Aug 2014 14:35 UTC)

Re: [TML]Request Rupert Boleyn 04 Aug 2014 00:48 UTC

On 4/08/2014 06:52, shadow@shadowgard.com wrote:
> There's are reasons why almost all hunter/gather cultures switched to
> agriculture.
>
> Yeah, it involves a lot more work. But it also gives you a food
> supply that's far more reliable.
>
> Droughts and the like will be bad for you either way. But barring
> things like that you get to control your food supply instead of
> having the food supply control you.

There's an even stronger reason - even primitive farming allows a /much/
higher population density than hunting/gathering does. It's much harder,
you tend to live for a shorter time and less healthily - more epidemics,
less varied diet, and much more work will do that. The trade off is the
higher density, and being able to own stuff. Oh, and then there's that
other effect - immobile people tied down by possessions and crops they
can't up and leave can be forced to pay taxes, to provide labour, and
this allows specialisation, and once you've started down that road you
can't really go back.

It takes a very long time before farmers are, on an individual level,
better off than hunter-gatherers, though a small segment of the
population has it pretty good from even the earliest days.