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Re: Civilization? FEH.
Colin M. Alberts (alberts@access.digex.net)
Sun, 03 Nov 1996 15:45:03 -0800
Alexander N. Bossy wrote:
>
> thedavid@clark.net (David O' Bedlam) wrote:
>
> >Joshua Fruhlinger <jfruh@uclink4.berkeley.edu> wrote:
> >[...]
>
> >>On the other hand, your point about grain storehouses is interesting.
> >>Perhaps civilization arises where there is need for large scale
> >>organization? (i.e. Egypt's tricky flood system, Sumer's large-scale
> >>irrigation works.)
>
> > Had
> >there been no "Mighty Lords" there would've been no call for big farms
> >or complicated waterworks
>
> Get real. With or without "mighty lords", the common people of Sumer
> and Egypt would have wanted to eat. If that involved constructing
> "complicated waterworks", they'd have done so.
Not to seem like an anarchist or anything, but I remember reading
recently that anthropologists who examine human remains from
hunter-gather societies are always surprised to find that almost without
exception they find them to have been healthier and enjoyed better
nutrition throughout their lives than human remains examined from early
civilizations. If the need for food is the proximate cause of
civilization, it may be that for a few thousand years it was something of
a failed experiment.
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Colin Alberts
Arlington, Virginia
e-mail: alberts@access.digex.net
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