On Wed, 3 Nov 1999, Ray Audette wrote:

> Man may have accellerated this extinction.  It began when he joined with
> dogs to become the dominant predator of the steppe-tundra.  Homo Sapiens who
> had also evolved to occupy the steppe tundra and shared the dependence on
> grass with his game also faced starvation in the advancing forrest.  Even
> the most verdant rainforrests of today offer slim pickings for human food
> when compared to the happy hunting grounds of the steppe tundra.
>
> To survive, Man entered into a new partnership with grasses and the animals
> who ate them.  This new partnership is called the Neolithic Revolution.

This would be a better explanation of the transition to
pastoralism than to agriculture.  It is easy to understand why
people would cultivate grasses to support herds of cattle, but
less easy to understand why they would become grain-eaters
themselves under these conditions.

The scenario you describe suggests that man resorted to
deforestation in order to create pasture, and I suppose we would
expect to find widespread traces of this in the Fertile Crescent,
where agriculture began.  Is this correct?

Todd Moody
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