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That didn't seem to stop Genghis Khan uniting the nomadic Mongol tribes?

• jojobas 6y ago
  They were pastoralists long before that.
  • phaemon 6y ago
    Oh right. I'd always thought that the idea of agriculture leading to civilisation, it referred exclusively to farms and fields of crops. If you include pastoralists, was there really any time when most humans were hunter-gatherer?
    • AlotOfReading 6y ago
      Yes, about the same 98% of human history that we also weren't farmers. Domestication of animals and crops in the near east occurred very close in time.
    • netcan 6y ago
      It does generally exclude pastoralists. In fact, it pretty much ignores and overlooks them. There was definitely a time when most humans were hunter-gatherers, including or excluding pastoralists. The earliest evidence fore very much of either is only about 8000 years old. Hunting and gathering was probably the primary mode of food production while the pyramids were being built... even in areas near egypt. There is a very big BUT though. "Hunting and gathering" is an extremely big universe of possible lifestyles. Agriculture is a lot more monolithic.