tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785493.post6625958320849011092..comments2024-01-04T04:11:55.717+02:00Comments on Dienekes’ Anthropology Blog: Affluent hunter-gatherers revisitedDienekeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02082684850093948970noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785493.post-47135868564702017692011-10-10T02:54:27.654+03:002011-10-10T02:54:27.654+03:00But in the 60s, there were even Safaris where they...But in the 60s, there were even Safaris where they (the !Kung) were the prey, so I don't think they are an ideal population for studying abundance... Not to mention the fact that they weren't native to the Kalahari, they were just there because the Bantu had driven them out of their original lands.Santiago F. Ballinahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03901226005633030091noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785493.post-17603045398396703662011-10-02T20:52:54.007+03:002011-10-02T20:52:54.007+03:00"Primitivism in the sense of either fads like..."Primitivism in the sense of either fads like the "Paleolithic diet", or in glorifying living hunter-gatherers as some sort of ideal is a rejection of the progress our species has made."<br /><br />It is also an ignorant and childish view of the very hard facts of life during the glacial periods of the past 4 million years. The "collective" and "specialization" approaches to problem solving that civilization has permitted tend to disappear very quickly as climate and environment change. Great examples in Central and South America during the past 1k years.<br /><br />Unless they are made of stone, our accomplishments seem to crumble rather quickly once we lose the mulitfacited environment in which they grew.Pascvakshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08311382875179534062noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785493.post-3454752035067627372011-10-02T18:29:43.978+03:002011-10-02T18:29:43.978+03:00It's always worth noting on this subject that ...It's always worth noting on this subject that most of the really productive land on the planet was long ago appropriated for agriculture/pastoralism. There may have been reversions, Aristotle (IIRC) refers to "disasters" in a sense that sounds like massive depopulations, and we have the historical depopulation of the Americas through disease that appear to have been accompanied by widespread reversion to a H/G lifestyle, but these were probably temporary. With returning population levels pastoralism and agriculture probably normally returned.<br /><br />An exception may be Australia, where agriculture appears not to have developed [Gilligan 2010]. Perhaps a survey of recent pre-colonial societies specifically targeting various measures of "affluence" would help answer the question(s).<br /><br />Ref:<br /><br />Gilligan, I. (2010) <a href="https://digital.lib.washington.edu/ojs/index.php/BIPPA/article/viewFile/9978/10664" rel="nofollow">Agriculture in Aboriginal Australia: Why Not?</a> <i>BULLETIN OF THE INDO-PACIFIC PREHISTORY ASSOCIATION 30, 2010</i><br /><br />P.S. While searching for ref's, I found two other interesting papers I don't have time to discuss (and anyway they're behind paywalls):<br /><br />http://www.library.uq.edu.au/ojs/index.php/aa/article/viewArticle/1914<br /><br />http://www.springerlink.com/content/u9h1100854714205AKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10905636789614137068noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785493.post-68308196840583966512011-10-02T02:46:39.631+03:002011-10-02T02:46:39.631+03:00As I point out in my book (see especially chapter ...As I point out in my book (see especially chapter Five -- http://soundingthedepths.blogspot.com/2011/02/chapter-five-hunter-gatherers.html), it's a huge mistake to generalize about hunter-gatherers, aka "foragers," as though there were some universal characteristic that could be called "hunter-gatherer-ivity."<br /> <br />"If they hunt and gather, and have no other visible means of support, that means they must belong to some mysterious cultural sub-species of the human race that for some mysterious reason shares all sorts of interesting beliefs, attitudes, methodologies, etc."DocGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17359004200002936544noreply@blogger.com