On this note, I read a book by John Keegan where he talked about the nomadic archetype when it came to warfare. The critical component was horsemanship. Once horses were bred to be strong enough to carry a man plus his gear, nomads gained a lot. They gained the ability to travel large distances quickly, and chase game at high speeds, which developed into fabulous archery skill as they learned to shoot moving targets for their food as well as becoming expert riders. What I find endlessly fascinating is that, horse + nomad gave birth to the greatest conquerors the world has ever known (the Huns, the magyars, the Golden Horde, the Turks, the Persians/Parthians, Bulgars). In the Americas, the inhabitants of the plains lived for millennia without the horse as nomadic hunters, and as soon as the Comanche gained access to the horse, they became one of the best light cavalry soldiers in the history of they world. They took to it as fish take to water, and they conquered as easily as their Asiatic steppe nomad cousins did.

"Without these farmers we wouldn't get modern society". Point proven.

I found your channel a few days ago, and it is seriously refreshing and informative. Thanks for all of your hard work!

Looking back at the "simple" live with rose colored glasses is always interesting. That past might be a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there. As you said, everyone had to be pretty much self-sufficient which may sound ideal but also means constantly re-inventing the wheel since someone who lives three valleys away who invented something that would greatly benefit you would have a hard time passing it on to those not in his immediate circle of friends. And then, dealing with natural disasters was a bit of hit or miss too. Just ask all those perished because of the Toba volcano event. For all its faults, I'd rather live today with all that modern civilization has to offer.

Interesting that yuval harari wrote this given that he is revered as a prophet by Klaus Schwab. Gives you an insight on what they think about society.

William was right when he said modern tech and security was the worst mistake in human history. Voltaire would comment how he visited a utopia and found it incredibly boring despite seeing and hearing about people get disembowled and dying terribly in earthquakes. Funny enough, Voltaire's Candide would written to comabt the notion of "we live in the best of all possible worlds," but he would ultimately come to the same exact conclusion. The human being needs chaos and it needs danger. That's what fight club was about, "the great depression of our souls" These notions will always be relevant and our life can only be satisfied exploring the world. Unfortunately, the greatest mistake was already been made.

Your channel deserves more subscribers!

Looking at our hunter gatherers' universal Venus figurines, women not only grew taller and had fewer children at a later age, they also seem to have lived to an age where pounds piled up.

agriculture and diet: the inventors of agriculture did not stop hunting and gathering until extremely recently ... like in the last 100 years, and some do it even now in very modern and developed societies if they can get the permits :-) ; what changed is they did not depend on hunting or gathering hunter-gatherers having to carry the child until it was 4 ... what do you think the other children were doing, not caring for their younger siblings ? exclusive hunter-gatherers had very low population densities and when under stress killed their competitors ... same as the farmers, but the farmers could store grain for a few years

One thing we see from anthropology is that some people did, indeed, decide to escape the agriculture trap. Livestock domestication produced a class of herdsmen who, over time, moved ever farther from the cities and followed their herds to seasonal food sources. Once riding was developed they became the steppe nomads of central asia, returning to loot and conquer the settled lands numerous times. A friend once likened it to a volcano the periodically spewed forth motorcycle gangs.

Interesting. It actually validates my thoughts on the topic. My best friend is a farmer. I am a hunter. He works 14 hours a day 7 days a week.....for mediocre income. I work alot of hours too.....but in aerospace industry. My buddies farmland borders mine. They farm theirs. I hunt mine. They work their land.....i leave mine alone except to plant trees to draw more game. I also lease all their land for hunting. Their fields are fertile and grow good corn and hay. Deer also like corn and quality clover in their fields. So.....farming aint for me. Meat tastes way better than corn. But my hunting benefits from their farming. It all works out well.

What about nomadic pastoralism? Seems like a perfect mix between the two

Good stuff! Thank you!

Good info. Short well organized summary. (Unlike some comments) 👍

Great channel, by the way.

Yes it was

more people more tax money for the "government". women in the workforce. more taxes. and so on and so on. Less children? No problem! Illegals allowed into the country. More taxes....

great book

How were we meant to support such a high population without agriculture

I'd like to hunt and gather. From a .22 short to a 30/30. Stay close to base camp. Shoot rabbits and quail for the tribe. Be ever watchful for bears, giant cats, mad things.. or where and when to get cantaloupe. A good weed connect.

Great vid! I wish humans still hunted and gathered, you know the stone age life - Life would be more fulfilling, but hey it is what it is - Peace

This is a way more important story than most people think. And it is very strange for lack of a better word lol. I had always assumed that we slowly evolved into civilization but know According to Academia agricultural happen over night literally. Archeologists have discovered that agricultural was sarted in one town maybe even by one family a town in turky witch i am probably pronouncing wrong and i definitely don't know how to spell it. But back then the land was called Mesopotamia the land of the fertile crescent witch is modern dy Iran Turkey ext. Anyway in this one town they Domesticated 5 of the main crops that we eat till this day. Oat Barley Weat i cannot remember the other 2 lol my bad. But that is just crazy do have any kind of idead what it takes to domesticat one plant it is a lot to it. And this people or person did it with pretty much zero technology well its obvious that they had technology because it was done but domesticating one of these plants is huge let alone 5 o yeah they also domesticated several animals in this one town. To give you an idea how hard it is to domesticat plants this guy in Australia around 25 30 years ago was a 8th generation farmer so lot's of knowledge in farming and with modern day technology it took him 17 years to domesticat one plant yes one plant to take to the soil in Australia and they are telling us that in this one town with zero technology and zero knowledge of farming 5 of the main crops we eat till this day happen. Wow that blows my mind. Yes According to Academia we went from hunter gathering to civilization over night. If that is true then the big question how in the f... is that possible LMFAO

Agreed

Farming also created a huge demand for slave labor. Eventually, it became unacceptable to make people work for nothing more than some beans to eat and a shack to live in. So, the world adapted and started giving their workers money to buy their own can of beans and rent that little slave shack. This is how 90% of the people around the globe live today. We tend to judge everything by our own experience here in the USA but we are really the exception. And even here it's becoming more and more like a third world country as the corporate slave masters and billionaires take away market share and buy up the land. Welcome to the "enlightened" modern world.

Can't hear you

The last couple of days my neighbor has ploughed the field adjacent to my home and now that he's finished and the diesel fumes are finally gone out of the house everything soft including my lungs are full of dust. Soon it will be time to throw chemical fertilizers and pesticides on his crop and subsequently eventually settling as a fine dust on my breakfast cornflakes which incidentally basically lack any nutrition whatsoever. Civilization. Yay.

💗💗💗😊

There’s no corner like having your own corner

Ancient pioneers! I can drive my Toyota down the street thanks to them. 😎

Reminiscent of the Ishmael books by Daniel Quinn.

This could be the fruit from the tree of knowlege of good and evil that the bible talks about. Garden of eden was hunter gatherer society. What's your take on this?

🤠👍🏿

As someone with Addisons, screw that, I’d be dead.

Yuval Harari Shawb mascot.

Your definitely more of a nutritionist that culturalist It might be the fit approach

See vegetarianism is mostly found in India and we are one of the shortest.... lucky me that my parents aren't vegetarian.

Yep, together with industrial capitalism, both intensifications of human footprint. Ontological insanity.

I think a mic closer to your mouth would be beneficial coz sometimes I can't understand what you're saying due to room echo (even the subtitles can't pick up certain bits I.e 'march with hatred farming') nice vids otherwise

No.

Where's your roman helmet

Yes it must have been the biggest mistake in human history, don’t eat the forbidden fruit.

Hunter gathers never stopped hunting and gathering when they started farming. These farmers were the same people, so they should have gotten smarter.

It doesn't have to be either/or. We can improve mankind's health and longevity just by emphasizing the pastoral raising of livestock over crop monoculture. Cowboy culture, when you think about it, is a synthesis of hunter gathering and agriculture. All we need to do is stop cafo raising and get critters back where God intended them to be. On the land.

If your ancestors adopted farming early, then you are a smart person.

Not even considering happiness and quality of life, development of agriculture and human consciousness as a whole was clearly a misstep in evolution. Think about the planet. If agriculture never happened, earth might not be doomed for destruction which it now is (nuclear war mainly). I also don't think our way of life is good for our well being. Yeah you had to fight predators and it must've been chaos when times were bad but that's how it's supposed to be. Nature is chaos but also good for us. Current way of life will be the end of homo sapiens

A lot of speculation with (of course) vague numbers, a prickly statement about a modern society form were over almost the entire human history monarchies and cast systems ruled. Very disappointing video which let one wonder, what was the purpose of it? Was farming a mistake to make a pretty pointless video? I guess so. To be fair, newer videos improved in quality but the topic for this one was too vague and send mixed messages and ones which had nothing to do except out of context jabs/jokes.

I do not like admitting, at times, I am just an animal - it's there. We now control enough of our surroundings that the effects of our (wild!!) imagination are evident everywhere on the planet. What has a human produced that has had a positive impact on the planet - our spaceship. It seems that men have taken over control of what they can and in each case the long term impact on the planet is Bad. If i (we) think of ourselves as caretakers of Just our children what we I do? Take a few steps back with the realization that first of all there are too many of us... The next few steps are also obvious, slow down commerce, etc. and could be viewed as loss. No. The painful walk back to be responsible for the the surroundings and not destructive. Simple. Challenging. A better direction. A fool in the mountains will step on snow and find out it is a cloud.

Quoting YUVAL NOAH HARARI ... not a great way to start off anything. And I know you do a lot of reading. Could be you need to do a little more. OR ... you did your homework and still chose that to lead off with.

LoL

How were they supposed to live in those days? They didn't even have i-Phone 1!

According to the Bible Abel is a shepherd and Cain is a farmer. Shit hits the fan when farming takes off 😊

The healthiest people will have access to resources but not become lazy, indulging in the desires for comfort.

Neanderthals have some of the worst skeletal injuries of the Homo lineage. Plus there are plenty of signs of cannibalism. While I am sure tropical hunter gathers have it pretty easy shooting small game and fishing and gathering fruits and plants? Outside of this narrow band life could be down right harsh. If you have ever killed and butchered a Moose or a Elk and packed it out on your back in a blizzard? Stark reality smacks you right in the face. Never mind hunting Mammoth with a spear? Or killing a Cave Bear so your family doesn’t freeze to death? Sure farming is hard work. But it’s nothing compared to what our ancestors had to do to survive before in most places globally. I don’t know who wrote this book? But I would take it with a grain of salt. The idea of the noble savage is grand, but we typically smooth over the rough spots of which there are many. Most northern native Americans employed both strategies and even sometimes that wasn’t enough!

First thing , no toilet paper. Yeah . Second thing lions tigers and bears oh my . Third thing WINTER . Any questions?

If we hunted and gathered our own food, all of us would be remotely thin lol and I wouldn't hate it x)

#carnivorediet

Quoting the current views does not solve the problem because none of the people actually "lived" the life style. I have done Keto for almost 17 years. Try eating any amount of grain now creates a whole host of discomfort within 30 minutes that persist for hours for me and others who try to switch back. Point here is I can not fathom WHY ancestors would take it up. Really though is the first problem. Any investigation of the few remaining hunter gather groups still has them believing that the bounty is provided whether they use the term God, Nature etc. We are fully aware that ancient man believed some more powerful creator was responsible for the food they had. Now you want me to believe that ancient man decided they were more capable then their "provider" Hmmmm Has anyone tried transplanting something even just a few yards away from where you found it. Unless we dig up enough of the current soil the plant is growing in it usually fails. Conditions are just not right even just a few yards over. Second big problem hunter gathers move with the prey, they have to move with the animals. They have no time for failure. The seasons change, they follow the prey, they gather from what is in the know area, they move again. Plants grow very quickly. Plants fill in an area within weeks. By the time hunters come back around by the next season there more to gather. It makes no sense to expel so much effort for what is provided. For hundreds of thousands of years we existed and evolved without agriculture and suddenly it appears. We were shown how to do it and it was needed to keep us in one place. Oh and during my years living on a high fat low carb diet running a cottage resort on sloped land I spent around 6 hours a day physically working hard and had no problem only eating 3 to 4 meals in a week and my weekly calories never exceeded 2000 calories in a WEEK and I did not lose weight, I can tell you that caloric requirment is not even close to what is claimed today

The ancient people were hybridizing plants. That means they had a science. I think this dissertation is a vast understatement of ancient people. Did you know that the Vedas of India have the history of mankind? Rather than listening to the ridiculous caveman stories, you should read and hear about ancient advanced civilizations that are cyclically destroyed on earth, as we will also perish.

Agriculture brought us HOT POCKETS . I'm for agriculture 👍

What we allways forget: where hunter gatherer lifestyle remained? Where the environment provided benefits to this lifestyle. And about health : its a typical survival biass. What (whose) pre agricultural bones we have? Those one, who lived long enough to became an important one to preserve their body. However agricultural people buried everyone who died. So among the agricultural people we see the whole population. But in the pre agrultural population, we just see the chieftans. And about violence: actual studies ahowed, thet among nomad people about 1/3 of them died by violence. The 15% is a big development there. So I would like not to be ancient nomad. Their life was sucks. At every level.

It's not agriculture vs nomadic it's nutrition education vs nutrition uneducated. #No war on farms.

why do you also think that farmers didnt hunt - didnt you notice as agriculture started, populations rose, animal herds disapeared across europe, the middle east and asia. thats cus they ate them all. Then there was the hunter gatherers making armies that decimated herds of animals across the land (Deer, moose, cats, dogs, wolves, bears) (eg mongols), everything they could kill. Even the hunter gatherers were farners of animals. I guess they attacked the civilized because they were killing and eating all the animals, they wanted to kill and eat. Which is in my mind the cause of all the conflict with unciv. and civ. alot of blame goes to the romans but there wasnt herds of animals in those times either. Thats why africa and north america were so great. They hadnt killed everything yet. and when they got to africa and north america, they started killing in mass, right away. Till no more herds and no more beavers, no more water from ponds that beavers made. Everything dies. We still do it now, someone sees a coyote and everyone is saying " we need a coyote cull" like wth! Omg i seen an animal anybody have a GUN?. Largest polar bear ever seen, some guy blew its brains out, biggest grizzlly, blew his brains out, biggest croc, blew his brains out. biggest lion, blew his brains out. Tiger, blew its brains out, elephant, rhino, brains out, all now in a museum, yeh!. Humans love to kill, sounds savage and uncivilized to me! So i conclusion we are all uncivilized. Might as well get naked and tie out penises to our bellies and go killing! search uncontacted tribes on youtube, see how many people they have killed, its fun for them and a lifestyle. Its what they do.