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Aside: Bret Devereaux has a series on the remarkably similar lives of a peasant farm laborers throughout time and space here: https://acoup.blog/2025/07/11/col

• fulafel 1y ago
  Things really went downhill when people started farming. Wars, disease, hard labor, etc.
  • Balgair 1y ago
    Probably not? I can't find the link, but I think Bret also had an article on how nomadic cultures had generally worse lives than settled ones, from what little we can know. If I recall correctly, it's hard to tell, as nomadic cultures don't really record things. But from the burial sites and little other evidence we have, it seems (again via mostly their bones) that their lives were much harder, shorter, more disease ridden, and more violent than what we see in agricultural remains. But also, trying to say for certain that any one set of bones was from a nomad, a settler, or something of a mix, was very difficult. Like, such categories aren't really all that 'real' when you have to sit down and fit a particular femur into a category. But, again, I want to stress that I'm trying to recall something here, and that the thing I'm recalling also stressed that the physical evidence is quite scant as is and very hard to discern when you have it.
    • fulafel 1y ago
      Sounds like you've been reading stuff that has the opposite views on this than what I have. I thought about linking book and journal article sources but i'm sure you can look up the scientific consensus yourself and it'll be more credible that way.