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GREATEST MISTAKE

1

The Agricultural Revolution: Greatest Achievement or Greatest Failure?
Jared Diamond challenges his readers to think critically about how our modern society obtains its food and the havoc it has wreaked on humankind. His title “The Worst Mistake in the
History of the Human Race” clearly rings of passion but is it hyperbole? And what is the subject of his scrutiny? The adoption of agriculture. Modern American society is encultured in what he calls the “progressivist” mentality which is the belief that “human history over the past million years has been a long tale of progress” (Diamond, 1987). As explained by Diamond, progressivists celebrate the agricultural revolution crediting it with our ability to enjoy a variety of foods, have more leisure time, create art and build empires, lead long and healthy lives without the daily worry and trouble to find wild foods and avoid starvation. But Diamond brings forth some troubling news to rain on the progressivist’s parade. Those recent archaeology discoveries (now outdated) attempted to discredit the long held beliefs that the human race is better off because of adopted agriculture.
“The adoption of agriculture, supposedly our most decisive step toward a better life, was in many ways a catastrophe from which we have never recovered. With agriculture came the gross social and sexual inequality, the disease and despotism, that curse our existence.”
(Diamond, 1987).
The support for this hypothesis is in the findings of indirect and direct tests. The indirect method examines modern day hunter-gathers: “Are twentieth century hunter-gatherers really worse off than farmers? And directly by the paleopathologist’s tests on primitive hunter-gather cultures turned farmers. Both provide evidence that fail to support the progressivist view.
The case study on the modern

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