Agricultural Revolution: A Short Course in World History of Agriculture - We will learn how in just fifteen thousand years humans transitioned from hunting and gathering.
Mr. Green, Mr. Green! Will this be a test?
Yes,
about the test: The test will measure whether you are an informed, engaged, and productive
citizen of the world, and that will happen in schools, bars, and hospitals and
dorm rooms, and in places of worship.
You
will be tested on the first date; in a job interview; while watching football;
and while scrolling through your Twitter feed.
The
test will assess your ability to think about things other than celebrity
weddings; will you be easily persuaded by empty political rhetoric; and will
you be able to place your life and your community in a wider context.
The
test will last your whole life, and it will consist of millions of decisions
that,
when taken together, make your life yours. And everything — everything — will be
on it. I know? So pay attention.
In just
fifteen thousand years, humans went from hunting and gathering to creating such
things impossibility like airplanes, the Internet, and a ninety-nine-cent
double cheeseburger.
It's
been a wonderful journey, which I will now symbolize by embarking on a journey from
myself ... to camera two.
Hi,
camera two... it's me, John Green. Let's start with that double cheeseburger.
Ooh,
food photography! So this hunk of hot meat contains four hundred and ninety
calories.
To get
this cheeseburger, you have to feed, raise and slaughter the cows, then grind
them meat, then freeze and send to its destination; You also have to grow wheat
and then process it bullshit lives off of it until it's whiter than Queen Elizabeth
the First; then you should milk some cows and turn their milk into cheese. And
it hasn't even grown yet and pickling of cucumbers or sweetening of tomatoes or
grinding of mustard seeds, etc.
How in
the sweet name of all that is holy we ever lived in such a world where?
something
can even be made? And HOW could it be four hundred and ninety?
calories
can be served to me for that amount of money, if I make a minimum wage here in
the U.S., can I earn in ELEVEN MINUTES? And most importantly: should I be
happy?
or
worried about living in this strange world of relative abundance?
Well,
to answer that question we won't be able to look at history closely, because there
are no written records of much of this.
But
thanks to archeology and paleobiology, we CAN look deep into the past. Let's go
to Thought Bubbles.
So
fifteen thousand years ago, humans were gatherers and hunters. Looking for food
means gathering fruits, nuts, as well as seeds and weeds; hunting is allowed
for a more protein-rich diet as long as you can find something with meat to
kill.
By far
the best hunting show in the pre-historic world it just so happened to be
fishing, which was one of those reasons if you look at the history of the
people who inhabit this planet, we tend to run to the beach and then stay
there.
Marine
life is:
A) abundant, and
B) relatively unlikely to eat you.
While
we tend to think that the lives of hunters are poor, brutal, and short fossil
evidence shows that they are actually quite good: their bones and teeth are
healthier compared to farmers. And the anthropologists who have studied the remaining gathering societies have noted that they actually spend fewer hours working
than the rest of us and they spend more time on art, music, and storytelling.
Also if
you believe the anthropological classic, NISA, they also have more time for
skoodilypooping. What? I call it skoodilypooping.
I won't
apologize. It should be noted that crop cultivation appears to have increased
independently over traveling thousands of years in a number of places ... from
Africa to China to America ... using crops that grow naturally nearby: rice in
Southeast Asia, maize in Mexico, potatoes in the Andes, wheat in the Fertile
Crescent, yam in West Africa.
People all over the world began to leave them
foraging for agriculture. And because so many communities make this choice independently,
it must be a good choice... right? Even if it means less music and
skoodilypoop.
Thank
you, Thought Bubbles.
Well,
to answer that question, let's look at the advantages and disadvantages of
agriculture.