Why Humans Took Up Farming: They Like To Own Stuff

[True Earthling]

Food for thought...

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/05/13/183710778/why-humans-took-up-farming-they-like-to-own-stuff

Think of these early farmers as prehistoric suburbanites of sorts. The first farmers emerged in less than a dozen spots in Asia and South America. Bowles says they were already living in small villages. They owned their houses and other objects, like jewelry, boats and a range of tools, including fishing gear. They still hunted and foraged, but they didn't have to venture far for food: They had picked fertile places to settle down, and so food was abundant. For example, one group in what is present-day Iraq lived close to a gazelle migration route. During migration season, it was easy pickings — they killed more animals than they could eat in one sitting. They also harvested more grain from wild plants than they knew what to do with. And so, they built "pantries" — structures where they could store the extra food.

These societies had seen the value of owning stuff — they were already recognizing "private property rights," says Bowles. That's a big transition from nomadic cultures, which by and large don't recognize individual property. All resources, even in modern day hunter-gatherers, are shared with everyone in the community. But the good times didn't last forever in these prehistoric villages. In some places, the weather changed for the worse. In other places, the animals either changed their migratory route or dwindled in numbers. At this point, Bowles says these communities had a choice: They could either return to a nomadic lifestyle, or stay put in the villages they had built and "use their knowledge of seeds and how they grow, and the possibility of domesticating animals."

Stay put, they did. And over time, they also grew in numbers. Why? Because the early farmers had one advantage over their nomadic cousins: Raising kids is much less work when one isn't constantly on the move. And so, they could and did have more children. In other words, Bowles thinks early cultures that recognized private property gave people a reason to plant roots in one place and invent farming — and stick with it despite its initial failures.

Bowles admits that this is just an informed theory. But to test it, he and his colleague Jung-Kyoo Choi built a mathematical model that simulated social and environmental conditions among early hunter-gatherers. In this simulation, farming evolved only in groups that recognized private property rights. What's more, in the simulations, once farming met private property, the two reinforced each other and spread through the world.

[daleanime]

1. Bookmarked

[Viva_La_Revolution]

2. uh. i'm pretty sure it's cause they didn't like being hungry

So they saved some for the future. They did the same with food caches when they were still nomadic. Staying in one place just allowed them to accumulate and store even more.

[rogerashton]

3. Right.

And what can be stored can be stolen, so they had to have somebody to guard the storehouses. And if there is not enough to satisfy the hunger of everyone -- undernourished guards aren't very effective as guards -- so the guards got to eat first. And, naturally, the guards began to think of that as their property right....

[The Straight Story]

4. Ok....

People do like to own things. No news there. They also like to share things as that promotes a better society (roads, food, labor, weapons, etc).

Society is a mixed bag in that respect, "Do what is best for yourself and the group for the best results". Sadly, there are people who insist only one or the other is best.

[AxionExcel]

5. Lots of people think it's so they could concoct alcohol

Takes a pretty parcel of farm product to brew beer, distill grain, or ferment wine. You have to grow it before you can turn it into booze and get snockered. Lots of folks suggest that was the true motivation: to get lit up. The original 'Grow Your Own" movement?

Here's the documented scientific photographic evidence of early farmers getting juiced, with no freakin GMOs or glyphosate in their drinks !!!

[braddy]

6. I thought it was started for beer making.

"Did Beer Spur the Rise of Agriculture and Politics?"

"More than 10,000 years ago, at the dawn of the Neolithic Period, the rise of agriculture changed the course of human history. There's evidence, however, that the first farmers' ancestors—members of the Natufian culture, which developed around 13,000 B.C. in the eastern Mediterranean region known as the Levant—sowed the seeds for the revolution by cultivating cereals on a modest scale. What made these hunter-gatherers start harvesting? They needed the extra grain to produce beer, according to a paper published last week in the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory."
http://www.history.com/news/did-beer-spur-the-rise-of-agriculture-and-politics