Whenever there are those anthropology shows where someone takes a camera into some place deep in the jungle where people still live some version of a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, there do seem to be some good points. They work hard, but there’s also a lot of relaxing. They can’t do much at night, so there’s often singing and dancing when the sun goes down. OTOH, there’s a lot of death. Child mortality is high, injuries that would be easily treated in a modern city are death sentences. And, there’s not much room for experimentation, following a different path, etc. Gender roles are rigid. Boys do what their father did. Girls do what their mother did. Life has been essentially unchanged as far back as anybody can remember, so you better accept that because as soon as you’re born your path is set.
And, as others have said, that only works in places that have abundant food year-round. Otherwise it’s way worse, with a lot more hard work just to not starve.
That makes me wonder about the hunter-gatherer lifestyle in areas that became the centres for farming, like the fertile crescent.
When they do find one of these primitive groups of people who are still living a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, they’re always going to be in some remote, inaccessible area. That’s the only way that they could still be doing hunting and gathering without the modern world catching up to them. But, that means that a whole lot of the world’s best land is unavailable to them because it’s where modern civilization exists.
So, what would a hunter-gatherer lifestyle have been like in the Fertile Crescent? Would it have been significantly easier than a hunter-gatherer lifestyle deep in the jungle in Indonesia or in the Amazon? It would have to have been easier than the hunter-gatherers who still hunt and gather in the Kalahari Desert, for example.
Fertile Crescent is a bit of a special case because they relied very heavily on their rivers, similar to Egypt. The land is kind of a wasteland already if you’re not immediately near a river or hand-dug canal.
I’m no historian or anthropologist so I’m just making things up here. But, I would guess that it’s not significantly easier than the hunter-gatherer that still exist. Mostly because I think otherwise they wouldn’t have switched to farming. The hunter-gathers that exist nowadays may lack formal education, but that doesn’t mean they’re all complete idiots. Somewhere in the last 30000 years some of them must have figured out that plants grow on the place you drop seeds. They haven’t switched to farming because it wasn’t worth the effort. Of course this is complicated by the issue that the amount of effort it takes to farm also varies from place to place. I’d guess farming is very hard in the desert. In the jungle farming is also difficult if you don’t have durable (i.e steel) implements to cut down hardwood trees. But given the climate hunting and gathering year round seems relatively easy there.
The fertile crescent has relatively easy farming, but enough seasonal changes to make year round hunting-gathering much more risky.
Also, the only defence against the outside world is to chuck spears at anyone who comes within spear-chucking distance of your island. Though, tbf, it has worked pretty well
Or to be in such a remote place that nobody ever comes within spear-chucking distance. AFAIK there are still uncontracted tribes in Brazil’s amazon jungle.
I’m definitely going to run the risk of sounding very privileged here, but “they work hard, but there’s also a lot of relaxing. They can’t do much at night, so there’s often singing and dancing when the sun goes down” sounds quite a lot like my job, the jobs of my friends, the jobs of my parents and of my parents’ friends, and apparently the jobs of most people in my town because all of our pubs are relatively full every night.
When I’m done with work for the evening, usually between 1730 and 2000, that remaining time is mine. It’s not loads of time, but it’s mine. I can go out, or see friends, or hang out listening to music. I can get up early and see friends too. I understand that must be a lucky position to be in but I’m sure a lot of other people could also do this, right? Sure the budget is tight, and I have to be careful that I don’t go out every night and spend too much money, but yknow… Singing and dancing and relaxing etc still happens!
Whenever there are those anthropology shows where someone takes a camera into some place deep in the jungle where people still live some version of a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, there do seem to be some good points. They work hard, but there’s also a lot of relaxing. They can’t do much at night, so there’s often singing and dancing when the sun goes down. OTOH, there’s a lot of death. Child mortality is high, injuries that would be easily treated in a modern city are death sentences. And, there’s not much room for experimentation, following a different path, etc. Gender roles are rigid. Boys do what their father did. Girls do what their mother did. Life has been essentially unchanged as far back as anybody can remember, so you better accept that because as soon as you’re born your path is set.
And, as others have said, that only works in places that have abundant food year-round. Otherwise it’s way worse, with a lot more hard work just to not starve.
That makes me wonder about the hunter-gatherer lifestyle in areas that became the centres for farming, like the fertile crescent.
When they do find one of these primitive groups of people who are still living a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, they’re always going to be in some remote, inaccessible area. That’s the only way that they could still be doing hunting and gathering without the modern world catching up to them. But, that means that a whole lot of the world’s best land is unavailable to them because it’s where modern civilization exists.
So, what would a hunter-gatherer lifestyle have been like in the Fertile Crescent? Would it have been significantly easier than a hunter-gatherer lifestyle deep in the jungle in Indonesia or in the Amazon? It would have to have been easier than the hunter-gatherers who still hunt and gather in the Kalahari Desert, for example.
Fertile Crescent is a bit of a special case because they relied very heavily on their rivers, similar to Egypt. The land is kind of a wasteland already if you’re not immediately near a river or hand-dug canal.
I’m no historian or anthropologist so I’m just making things up here. But, I would guess that it’s not significantly easier than the hunter-gatherer that still exist. Mostly because I think otherwise they wouldn’t have switched to farming. The hunter-gathers that exist nowadays may lack formal education, but that doesn’t mean they’re all complete idiots. Somewhere in the last 30000 years some of them must have figured out that plants grow on the place you drop seeds. They haven’t switched to farming because it wasn’t worth the effort. Of course this is complicated by the issue that the amount of effort it takes to farm also varies from place to place. I’d guess farming is very hard in the desert. In the jungle farming is also difficult if you don’t have durable (i.e steel) implements to cut down hardwood trees. But given the climate hunting and gathering year round seems relatively easy there. The fertile crescent has relatively easy farming, but enough seasonal changes to make year round hunting-gathering much more risky.
Also, the only defence against the outside world is to chuck spears at anyone who comes within spear-chucking distance of your island. Though, tbf, it has worked pretty well
Or to be in such a remote place that nobody ever comes within spear-chucking distance. AFAIK there are still uncontracted tribes in Brazil’s amazon jungle.
The Sentinelese have successfully fought off all agricultural people for literally this entire time! Including a 2018 Darwin Award winner.
I’m definitely going to run the risk of sounding very privileged here, but “they work hard, but there’s also a lot of relaxing. They can’t do much at night, so there’s often singing and dancing when the sun goes down” sounds quite a lot like my job, the jobs of my friends, the jobs of my parents and of my parents’ friends, and apparently the jobs of most people in my town because all of our pubs are relatively full every night.
When I’m done with work for the evening, usually between 1730 and 2000, that remaining time is mine. It’s not loads of time, but it’s mine. I can go out, or see friends, or hang out listening to music. I can get up early and see friends too. I understand that must be a lucky position to be in but I’m sure a lot of other people could also do this, right? Sure the budget is tight, and I have to be careful that I don’t go out every night and spend too much money, but yknow… Singing and dancing and relaxing etc still happens!