On Mon, 1 Nov 1999 07:27:16 -0500, Todd Moody <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>On Sun, 31 Oct 1999, Robert McGlohon wrote:
>> Any ideas on where agriculture DID come from?
>> It seems to me that grains must have been a small part of the H-G's diet (as
>> a condiment, to borrow a phrase).  This I can understand (I think).  What
>> puzzles me is the seemingly wholesale and relatively sudden switch to grain
>> as a staple.

Among archaeologists it it still a debated theme, the "why"
so we'll probably not find out a commonly accepted solution for it.
I'd like to add a little thoughts, because this is a favourite theme for me.

It seems as if seeds of grains haven't been a much
 used food in gathering times
- although i think their usage (in smaller amounts) must have been very widespread
because grasses are so widespread on this earth.

What puzzles me most, is the *very* small space consumption of a farming village,
compared to a hunting population of the same size.

In middle europe, where neolithic culture spread in a few hundred years
(from greek area) there was a very "rich" area, full of best woods, wild fruit,
wild animals, fishes in rivers and so on.
It has been found, that using the very best hunting strategies one person
needs about 10 square kilometers (about 3km*3km),
to have enough resources for a living *on the long run*.
Temporarily 1 square kilometer would be enough, but after that
all the wild game would be dead and the area empty of further resources.
This is, what might have occured several times in history, when big animal
herds have beed s
laughered up to extinction - like mammouth in the US
(after the year 10000bc, Jared Diamonds opinion) - and - bison.

Ok this space makes about 30*30km (900 square km) for a group of 90 people
- 10 or 20 families.

Middle europe *was* populated by that much people (that makes 35000 people for
whole germany for example) assuming the densest paleolithic population.

Now imagine what a equal big farming group would require on space, moveing to
the same 30*30 km area. Even with the most primitive grain agriculture
with the smallest yealds, and storage for bad years to keep, these 90 people
would need only about 1* 0.5 kilometers. If you would draw such a settlement
on the 30km *30km space you'd hardly see the small settling space.
(Sorry maybe someone could find the appropiate US measurements in miles,
acres, or a matching 30*30km area easy to imagine in the US).

Now, this small and constant settl
ement space for the first time
had the opportunity and comfort to
- build nice and comfortabel houses (sleep in a bed) heated by fire and
  with a roof against rain .. this is a good health benefit, isn't it?
- have a storage of several months to withstand food shortages
  this is a tremendous advantage above having only a little dried food, like before

I imagine how it would be for a hungry hunter, encoutering that small settlement
meeting there a girl with a seemingly endless food supply (months of storage)
in a comfortable house, while it was raining outside.....

Ok, as second: a grain is (a little similar to a nut) a kind of
perfect package of nutrients: energy - protein - vitamins and minerals.
Only protected -like all plants are more or less- by antinutrients.
Given a technology to remove that stuff (heating and sprouting)
makes this "perfect package" available, at last.
The grains
 and pulses *are* still lacking two vitamins (vitamin A and C)
like Loren Cordaine pointed out. But these are relatively easy to get
by wild fruit and further crops.
And they are short and imbalanced on essential fats (esp. w-3 fats).
These are included by .. *flax* (available 4600 bc)
and hemp (available a little k years later).

Ok sorry for my long posting again, but a complicated theme
needs some thinking about.

Todd:
>To state the paradox differently: The less grain paleolithic
>hunter-gatherers ate, the more inexplicable is the rather abrupt
>switch to grain domestication and cultivation; the more grain
>paleolithic hunter-gatherers ate, the less reason there is to
>insist that the paleolithic diet was grain-free.

Probably they knew the possibility to eat it, but heating , sprouting
and the varieties with bigger yields at last made them important.

regards