> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paleolithic Eating Support List
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
> [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2008 10:36 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Timetable of diets
> 
> > - Neolithic era (first agricultural revolution; marked increase in
> grain consumption in fertile river valley areas in what is now Egypt,
> Iraq, Israel and China) began around 9-16 thousand years ago
> 
> Although this is true, I think you rightly said elsewhere that the
> overwhelming majority of the world's population didn't begin to consume
> the fruits of agriculture in quantity until much later, depending of
> course on where they were from.

Yup, that's right. I'm not sure why you said "although" because we are in complete agreement here.

> > Around 3,000 BCE to 0 CE these armies spread the pernicious practice
> of eating grain as a staple food across much of the Near East, North
> Africa and Europe, slaughtering or enslaving those who refused to
> submit to a system of totalitarian grain agriculture and labeling
> hunter-gatherers and pastoralists as "barbarians."
> 
> I believe most people made the conversion to the neolithic willingly. --Jim

Yes, I agree. By "those who refused" I meant a minority of the "barbarians," not a majority. Also, many of the barbarians had some amount of grain agriculture themselves (such as the Long House Danubian farmers), just not nearly as extensive, intensive or excessive as that of the Romans and other populous empires (which I labeled with Daniel Quinn's descriptive, arresting term "totalitarian" that makes one think twice about whether the adoption of large-scale monoculture was really such a wonderful "revolution"), so my wording could have used more clarification--an error that's easy to fall into when trying to condense millions of years into a brief timeline. Thanks for providing some important detail. 

> Be interesting though to know how much resistance there was -- or at
> least regret after the switch had been made.  The record certainly
> bears
> out that the effects of the abandonment of Eden were marked and
> pernicious.
> 
> Jim

Yes, I recall either Cordain or Audette writing that one of the European steppe cultures abandoned agriculture and returned to the hunter-gatherer lifestyle. I couldn't find it in their books when I checked, though. If anyone remembers it, I'd appreciate the book and page or chapter reference.