-----Original Message-----
From: william <[log in to unmask]>
Day, Wally wrote:
>> I don't know what caused them to leave the leisurely life of
hunter-gatherers and take up the grinding toil of agriculturists;
neither does Dr. Schmidt. <<
Jared Diamond has a suggestion: "One answer boils down to the adage, “Might makes right.” Farming could
support many more people than hunting, albeit with a poorer quality of
life. Population densities of hunter-gatherers are rarely over one
person per ten square miles, while farmers average 100 times that...a hundred malnourished farmers can still outfight one healthy hunter.
It’s not that hunter-gatherers abandoned their life style, but that
those sensible enough not to abandon it were forced out of all areas
except the ones farmers didn’t want."
From http://www.awok.org/worst-mistake/