In world history, humans have adapted many innovations and cultures that our ancestors had followed. In the article, The Worst Mistake In The History Of The Human Race, professor Diamond, had focused and challenged the idea that agriculture has been the worst mistake in the history of human race. For the most part of history, philosophers have regarded hunters and gathers as savages who hunt wild animals and forged a life without civilized manners. Jared Diamond explained how archaeological findings demonstrated that after the Neolithic Age, civilizations had been better off with the lifestyle of hunting and gathering. Discoveries suggested that the adoption of agriculture, one of the most decisive step towards a better life, has been a occurring …show more content…
Paleopathologists had learned of the average height of the hunter-gatherers from skeletons that were found in Greece and Turkey. It showed that average height for men was 5’9” and 5’5” for women. The statistics showed that the hunters and gatherers were getting the nutrition they needed in order to survive. After the adoption of agriculture, the average height had slowly decreased to 5’3” for men and 5’ for women. The mix of wild plants and animals in the diets of hunter-gathers provided more protein and a better balance of nutrients than the farmers. Most farmers ate mostly high carbohydrate crops like rice and potatoes. Studies showed that modern Greeks and Turks still have not been able to regain the average height of their distant ancestors. At Dickson Mounds, archaeologists had excavated about 800 skeletons that showed the health changes that occurred when farmers adopted maize farming around A.D. 1150. It showed that the farmers had a 50 percent increase in enamel defects indicative of malnutrition, a fourfold increase in iron-deficiency anaemia, infectious diseases and an increase in degenerative conditions of the spine. These conditions reflect hard physical labor, nutritional stress and inflections that affect their ability to survive. Majority of the farmers were gaining cheap calories at the cost of poor nutrition. The …show more content…
One of the many problems that ad arose because of farming was class divisions. Hunter-gatherers lived off of wild plants and animals and they did not store any food, or tame any animals like cows. But farming allowed people to separate one another by the amount of land they own. Skeletons from the tombs in Greece showed that the upper class had a better diet than commoners, since the upper-class skeletons were two or three inches taller and had better teeth. Not only did the problem of class divisions arose but farming also encouraged inequality between the sexes, as well. Farming puts pressure on women to have more children so there would be more hands to help out on the fields. Farming women also tended to have more frequent pregnancies than hunter-gatherers which drains out their health more quickly. Women were also sometimes looked as a piece of burden and they usually carry the heaviest items while the men carry the lighter load. Hunter-gatherers were forced to choose between a limiting population or to try to expand food production. So even though the quality of life is worst for farmers, the hunter-gatherers still opted for this
Hunting and gathering is probably a preferable lifestyle compared to a farmer, but it seems a bit over the top to blame absolutely every problem in our society on agriculture. It’s a common argument, but Jared Diamond's theory does seem to be quite an over-simplification. For example, he argues that inequality between sexes could be caused by agricultural because women were made beasts of burden and given greater pressure to work on the fields. However, the root cause of that isn’t agriculture, it’s sexism and stereotyping, because without an outdated sexist mindset no one would treat women differently in the agricultural department, and it is an oversimplification to ignore this. Furthermore, because of farming and globalization people now are given even more opportunity for a diverse diet. Although early farmers had access to only one or a few crops versus hunter-gatherers who had an entire forest of varied food, people nowadays have many more options than both hunter-gatherers and early farmers combined. A grocery store has ten times as many diverse and varying food items as a forest does, providing food from all corners of the world not just a single location or country, allowing people to create a perfectly balanced diet if they so choose. In conclusion, I agree with Jared Diamond's thesis on certain grounds, but I mostly disagree that the introduction of agriculture was the “worst mistake in human
Diamond addresses his narrative by discussing the general overview on why the rise of food production had such a significant impact on the
Life before the agricultural revolution was made out to be awful. It was a huge advancement that let us keep up with our population increase. What I did not think about is what agriculture is doing to other species. Agriculture is not our downfall; the extent to which man takes it is our downfall. It is stated that agriculture supports population growth, and that can damage diversity. The more our species expands, the more of a threat it poses to other species. Ishmael states that Takers and Leavers pass down different types of knowledge from generation to generation. Takers pass down knowledge of knowledge and how to grow crops where as the Leavers pass down ways to live a better life. In Takers culture we want to keep advancing so we discard old ideas and keep creating new ones to replace the old ones. In Leavers culture, each generation learns ways to live from the previous and so on. We are taught to believe that technology advancements are great successes and that before it life was not as great, when in fact they could be our downfall. I had a Pre-calculus teacher in high school that believes this as well, he believes technology is our greatest downfall and claims it is dumbing us down. He would always yell at our class and say that back in the day they did not have calculators and everyone was smarter back then because they all had to think for themselves.
Jared Diamond makes the argument that when humans decided 10,000 years ago to no longer be hunter-gatherers and made the decision to become sedentary and start domesticating their animals and crops, the result is that the human race has experienced a steady downfall. Diamond makes the point that “with agriculture came the gross social and sexual inequality, the disease and despotism that curse our existence,” (Diamond). While the present system certainly is far from being perfected, Diamond’s various complaints and solutions certainly would not be of much use in the present time either.
One of the problems that agriculture caused is sexual inequality between men and women. This problem was already around, but it was more obvious after the adoption of agriculture. Farming have encouraged inequality between the sexes. Since women did not have to transport babies in traveling existence, women after
12,000 years ago, the discovery of agriculture triggered such a change in society and the way in which people lived that we now call this important era in time the “Neolithic Revolution.” Traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyles were cast away in favor of more permanent settlements and a reliable food supply. Agriculture helped form cities and civilizations, and because crops and animals could now be farmed to meet growing demand, populations skyrocketed from around five million people 10,000 years ago, to more the more than seven billion people that walk this earth today.1
Farming is the main supply for a country back then. The crops that farmers produce basically was the only food supply. That makes famers a very important part of society. Farmers back t...
People had to work for other farmers if they did not have farms of their own (Ganzel, 2003). They didn't have enough money for a farmland
“The discovery of agriculture was the first big step toward a civilized life.” (Arthur Keith)
Agriculture plays an enormous part in having a functioning society. The farming fields in the
Before the land of what we no class Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, and other countries in the middle east grains, such as wheat and wild barley, could be seen growing in the wild without human hand to cultivate and nurture it (Authors 2007). Over time, humans began to recognize the benefit of the plants and began the first signs of human agriculture. The skill of farming took time and trial and error, but along the way, humans began to settle down to tend to their crops. Though the first crops were nothing more than seed s thrown about without rhyme or reason to the process we know today such as fields having, rows and sorting out the seeds to create a higher yield each harvest (Authors 2007). Because of the trial and error process, agriculture of plants did not take place of a short period but took many, many years to evolve to what we know today as agriculture; the new fa...
The blessing and curse of the Agricultural Revolution is advocated with its augmentation and dissemination. Taking the stipulative definition of “blessing” and “curse” from the original premise, one can only superimpose the layman’s terms of “negative” and “positive”. Upon examination of the two classifications within the Neolithic Period and ancient Mesopotamian civilization one can confirm the premise. Therefore, the agriculture revolution was a blessing and a curse for humanity. Human society began to emerge in the Neolithic Period or the New Stone Age. This new age began around 9,000 B.C.E. by the development of agriculture in the region surrounding the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and what is commonly referred to as “The Fertile Crescent” located in West Asia.1 The very development of agriculture had benefited humans by no longer having to move about in search of wild game and plants. Unencumbered by nomadic life humans found little need to limit family size and possessions and settled in a single location for many years. One negative aspect of this settling is that the population increased so much so that wild food sources were no longer sufficient to support large groups. Forced to survive by any means necessary they discovered using seeds of the most productive plants and clearing weeds enhanced their yield.2 This also lead humans to develop a wider array of tools far superior to the tools previously used in the Paleolithic Period or Old Stone Age. The spread of the Agricultural Revolution in the Neolithic Period also cultivated positive aspects by creating connections with other cultures and societies. Through these connections they exchanged knowledge, goods, and ideas on herding and farming.3 Another major positive aspec...
Disease was able to make its way through communities at an extremely higher rate than through the foragers communities. Also the stress rate of the farmers were much higher in comparison to the hunter gathers because the farmers were completely reliant on so many changing variables to produce good crops. Another big difference in the two eras was the component of religion. In the Foraging Era people believed in spirits and every community believed in something different from the other. Whereas in the pastoralists communities people would follow the religion set by their leaders.
Agriculture has changed dramatically, especially since the end of World War II. Food and fibre productivity rose due to new technologies, mechanization, increased chemical use, specialization and government policies that favoured maximizing production. These changes allowed fewer farmers with reduced labour demands to produce the majority of the food and fibre.
Farming has evolved from providing food only for your family to providing food for your whole community. This aspect really kicked off in Europe during the middle ages when a new crop rotation plan emerged. Crop rotation is necessary. If every year the same crop is grown on the same soil the plants will keep taking the same nutrients needed for its survival. Previously the farmers used the Roman system, which is a two crop rotation. With this system the soil never had a break, there was always a crop being grown (“Feeding” par. 8). The new crop rotation plan was a three crop rotation. This system is very different from the Roman system. Every third year the field will lay fallow being used for pasture. When the field is used for pasture, the animals waste is spread out all over the field while they graze...