tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315236707728759521.post4000521557460059082..comments2024-03-27T22:28:06.861-06:00Comments on Dispatches From Turtle Island: Why Did The First Farmers Farm?Andrew Oh-Willekehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02537151821869153861noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315236707728759521.post-66879749446363529042015-02-06T21:27:35.861-07:002015-02-06T21:27:35.861-07:00I just wanted to add that this article about the t...I just wanted to add that this article about the transition to farming is excellent. <br /><br />Thanks for writing it.Marniehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10850856778953207810noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315236707728759521.post-84053947040777035232015-02-06T20:44:56.504-07:002015-02-06T20:44:56.504-07:00"the idea that hunter-gatherers didn't ha..."the idea that hunter-gatherers didn't have an idea of property really bugs me."<br /><br />Agreed. They probably had different rules and institutions, but they almost certainly had something resembling property.andrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08172964121659914379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315236707728759521.post-40630347191609620972015-02-06T13:14:17.341-07:002015-02-06T13:14:17.341-07:00This post is a very good critique of some the oft ...This post is a very good critique of some the oft thrown around ill constructed assumptions about the transition to farming.<br /><br />One further comment I would make is that although the definition of property probably became more specific with the transition to farming, it is improbably that "hunters-gatherers" did not have a good idea of territory.<br /><br />For instance, historical accounts of American and Canadian native hunter-gatherers had very specific ideas about the boundaries of their territories. These boundaries were usually marked by rivers or mountain ridges.<br /><br />Hunters also did a lot of gathering, and the areas where they gathered must have been very important, since the native grains, berries and tubers gathered would have been critical to survival.<br /><br />Sorry for the rant, but the idea that hunter-gatherers didn't have an idea of property really bugs me.Marniehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10850856778953207810noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7315236707728759521.post-63992392751667392982015-02-06T12:57:59.664-07:002015-02-06T12:57:59.664-07:00"Science magazine where a study with weak met..."Science magazine where a study with weak methodology used mathematical "entropy analysis" to argue that the Indus River Valley civilization's symbols were part of a written language. Science wasn't interested in publishing an attempted replication using better data and methods that contradicted this famous result, concluding that the Harappan symbols, like the symbols used by the Vinca civilization of the Balkans and symbols used by the Picts were a mere proto-linguistic symbol system and not a full fledged written language."<br /><br />I ran across this paper. What the authors didn't account for is that all "written" languages require some of the information content to be conveyed culturally. So, for instance, Europeans today are all taught their ABCs at a young age. Mandarin speakers are taught to read and draw their character sets from a young age. Similarly, Vinca script writers, or Blackfoot Winter Count keepers, existed within a cultural contexts where the meaning of their symbols was culturally conveyed.<br /><br />The amount of information conveyed culturally, vs in the written symbols, does vary in these different systems, but that does not mean that a system that more heavily weights cultural transmission (than standardized writing), is not a writing sytem.<br /><br />Anyway, I was quite surprised that anyone took the entropy argument, used to disqualify systems like Vinca script, at all seriously.<br /><br />Surprisingly, I've heard several well published archaeologists repeat the entropy argument in that paper.<br /><br />Makes me wonder what you guys are smoking.Marniehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10850856778953207810noreply@blogger.com