Re: CHAT: Religion, Philosophy & Politics

On First Air of Tenderness, Nik Taylor wrote:

> "Carlos Eugenio Thompson (EDC)" wrote:
> > I would believe that for a family or a small village, hunter-gatherers
> will
> > use less land than primitive farming.
>
> Per person, agriculture, even the most primitive agriculture, uses less
> land than hunting and gathering.  That's why agriculture developed, and
> why once agriculture was developed, they couldn't go back.
.
For individuals: yes!  One individual hunting and gathering will use more
land than the plantation supporting the same individual, but in the same
place this individual hunts and gathers, some other few individuals (a
family) could do the same.  Of course, there is a saturation limit.  But the
space an individual farms its goods, must be doubled if we have two
individuals.

And primitive agriculture can't bring everithing this small society needs.

Well, I have no figures but I thing that small societies of hunter-gatherers
could use less space than a primitive agricultural society of the same size.

Well, of course it could be diferent in diferent enviroments: in a rain
forest a hunter-gatherer just have to wait, food is abundant, land usage is
minimal.  But rain forests are fragile and if you make space to grow up
crops, then you will be using more space.  In a dry grassland,
hunter-gatherers have to wander on a big territory to get their goods,
agriculture will concentrate some of those goods.

> --
> "If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men
> believe and adore, and preserve for many generations the remembrance of
> the city of God!" - Ralph Waldo Emerson
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