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> But it's easy to forget that humans have spent most of human history trying to escape subsistence farming. Do you define human history as the last ~10k years
by stunseed 6mo ago
> But it's easy to forget that humans have spent most of human history trying to escape subsistence farming.
Do you define human history as the last ~10k years or last ~100k-500k years?
But yes, certainly at least the last 3000 years for most humans have been spent farming to a large degree. But if we are even moderate in estimations of human origins, farming is very recent.
- throwaway27448 6mo agoHistory certainly does not predate sedentary farming. It seems reasonable to put at around ~8kya. Certainly, some people still live as hunter gatherers. I presume people can deduce I do not refer to them.
- Noumenon72 6mo agoI think specifying "recorded history" would remove the confusion. Human history could refer to the history of anatomically modern humans, including before farming.
- throwaway27448 6mo agoHistory is a bit of a confusing word that way; I suppose I can see it can be used in an informal sense to refer to any timeline outside of just historiography, which does tend to refer to a distinct study from archaeology and anthropology. Noted.
- satvikpendem 6mo agoYou used the word correctly don't worry. Seems like the initial replyer meant prehistory.
- satvikpendem 6mo agoHistory is recorded, that's the definition of the word. Prehistory is not recorded which is what the 500 kya to 10 kya refers to.
- Noumenon72 6mo agoThe wikipedia for "Recorded history"[1] draws the distinction this way: - Before writing: prehistory - After writing: recorded history - Both together: human history[2] 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recorded_history https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recorded_history 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_history https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_history
- satvikpendem 6mo agoHistory means the time of recorded events, the 10 kya to present day, they used the word correctly. Anatomically modern humans are prehistory.