Читать книгу Harlan's Crops and Man - H. Thomas Stalker - Страница 27

The ethnographic evidence indicates that people who do not farm do about everything that farmers do, but they do not work as hard. Gatherers clear or alter vegetation with fire, sow seeds, plant tubers, protect plants, own tracts of land, houses, slaves, or individual trees, celebrate first‐fruit ceremonies, pray for rain, and petition for increased yield and abundant harvest. They spin fibers, weave cloth, and make string, cord, baskets, canoes, shields, spears, bows and arrows, and ritual objects, recite poetry, play musical instruments, sing, chant, perform dances, and memorize legends. They harvest grass seeds, thresh, winnow, and grind them into flour. They do the same with seeds of legumes, chenopods, cucurbits, crucifers, composites, and palms. They dig roots and tubers. They detoxify poisonous plants for food and extract poisons to stun fish or kill game. They are familiar with a variety of drugs and medicinal plants. They understand the life cycles of plants, know the seasons of the year, and when and where the natural plant food resources can be harvested in greatest abundance with the least effort.

There is evidence that the diet of gathering peoples was better than that of cultivators, that starvation was rare, that their health status was generally superior, that there was a lower incidence of chronic disease (Lee & De‐Vore, 1968), and not nearly as many cavities in their teeth (Angel, 1984).

The question must be raised: Why farm? Why give up the 20‐hr work week and the fun of hunting to toil in the sun? Why work harder for food less nutritious and a supply more capricious? Why invite famine, plague, pestilence, and crowded living conditions? Why abandon the Golden Age and take up the burden?