thread: Anarchy
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  #18  
03-03-2009, 05:23 AM
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oko
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: Nov 2002
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Rousseau clearly had no understanding of early man or prehistoric times. A desperate age of fear and death, where humans, who were most certainly not solitary, struggled to survive, competed with one another and other groups for resources (food, land, shelter, mates etc), and died before thirty years of age, often of the loss of their own teeth.
I'll agree with the first sentence, in that he seems to be guessing instead of actually having done some research. But I'll have to challenge some of what you said. I'll base this on the upper paleolithic era. humans lived in tribes or bands of 25-100 individuals before the onset of agriculture. Average lifespan then was 33, so most died after the age of thirty, and they had potential to live till 60+ even thought it was rare. Food was usually plentiful, northern and eastern Europe had heavy reindeer and horse populations, America had buffalo, and I don't think I even need to mention Africa. Most of these animals traveled in herds, and therefor could be hunted in great numbers. They were nomads and would move when food became scarce in a region. Depending on populations where the tribe lived, there would ussualy be more than enough land for everyone. They often lived in tents of animal skin. As to loosing their teeth, most of the evidence I've seen points towards populations on a natural or "caveman" diet having excellent dental health. They may have lost teeth due to injury or malnutrition during periods with food shortage, but I don't think teeth loss was a leading cause of death.

I think life might have been really good during this time. When not hunting, most time would be spent around a campfire partying, socializing and playing sports

sources:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/...#ref=ref424412
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn7035
http://journeytoforever.org/farm_lib.../pricetoc.html

EDIT: A world without jealousy!

Last edited by oko; 03-03-2009 at 07:53 AM..
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