The Advent of Agriculture

• The adoption of agriculture is considered a catastrophe, leading to social inequality, disease, and despotism.

The Progressivist View

• Modern life is better than in the Middle Ages or cave dweller times due to abundant food, tools, longer lives, safety from starvation, and energy from machines.

Hunter-Gatherer Lifestyle

• Hunter-gatherer life is often perceived as a constant struggle for food.
• The agricultural revolution began 10,000 years ago.

Ecological Modernization Perspective

• Agriculture is viewed as a more efficient way to obtain food with less effort.
• Agriculture is credited with enabling art by providing free time for architecture and music.

Challenges to the Progressivist View

• Modern hunter-gatherers have ample leisure time and work fewer hours than farmers.
• Bushmen devote an average of 12-19 hours weekly to obtaining food.
• The Hadza nomads of Tanzania spend 14 hours or less obtaining food.
• Hunter-gatherer diets provide more protein and a better balance of nutrients than the diets of farmers.
• Bushmen consume 2,140 calories and 93 grams of protein daily when food is plentiful.
• Hunter-gatherers eat a wide variety of wild plants, making them less susceptible to starvation.

Archaeological Evidence

• Archaeological evidence helps determine when people switched from hunting and gathering to agriculture.
• Paleopathology is the study of signs of disease in ancient human remains.

Paleopathology Findings

• Skeletal remains reveal sex, weight, and approximate age.
• Average lifespan can be calculated from multiple skeletons.
• Growth rates are determined by bone measurement.
• Teeth are checked for enamel defects (malnutrition).
• Bones are examined for scars of anemia, tuberculosis, and leprosy.
• Hunter-gatherers had an average height of 5'9" (men) and 5'5" (women).
• With agriculture, average height decreased to 5'3" (men) and 5' (women) by 3000 B.C.

Dickson Mounds Study

• Study of Indian skeletons showed health changes after the transition to intensive farming.
• Farmers experienced a 50% increase in enamel defects, a fourfold increase in anemia, a threefold rise in bone lesions from infectious disease, and increased spinal degeneration.
• Life expectancy at birth decreased from 26 years (pre-agriculture) to 19 years (post-agriculture).
• Farming was adopted out of necessity due to growing populations.

Health Impact of Agriculture

• Hunter-gatherers had varied diets.
• Early farmers relied on a few starchy crops, resulting in poor nutrition.
• The human diet is heavily based on wheat, rice, and corn, each deficient in essential nutrients.
• Dependence on limited crops led to starvation risks.
• Agriculture led to crowded societies, promoting the spread of parasites and infectious diseases.
• Epidemics were less common in scattered hunter-gatherer populations.
• Tuberculosis and diarrheal disease increased after farming.
• Measles and bubonic plague appeared with large cities.

Art and Agriculture

• Modern hunter-gatherers have as much free time as farmers.
• Hunter-gatherers produced great paintings and sculptures 15,000 years ago.

Social Impact

• With agriculture, the elite benefited while most people became worse off.
• Farming supports higher population densities(100 times more) compared to hunting and gathering.
• Hunter-gatherers limit births due to the need to carry children.
• Farm women bear children more frequently.
• As hunter-gatherer populations rose, the choice was between limiting population or increasing food production.
• Groups that chose increased food production outbred and displaced hunter-gatherers.

Conclusion

• Agriculture led to starvation, warfare, and tyranny and was "the worst mistake in human history".
• Hunters and gatherers practiced the most successful lifestyle in human history.
• Human history began at midnight and agriculture was adopted at 11:54 p.m.
• The future will be determined by whether we succumb to famine or find a way to support the population.

An analysis of the adoption of agriculture, its impact on society, and its comparison with the hunter-gatherer lifestyle. The text questions the progressivist view, challenges the perception of hunter-gatherer life, and explores the ecological modernization perspective.