MINDLESS MUSINGS

So, the ever-resourceful humans found another way to improve their living conditions. I have no idea how many generations it took to make a go of this botanic enterprise, but eventually it became a thing. These stone-age scientists worked out what to plant, where to plant it and the best times to do it.

I believe they were still on the move for a long time, so they probably had plots of plants at various stages along their migration path. I’m really going full throttle into conjecture here. Did they also build booby traps to prevent theft? Okay let’s stay on track.

Eventually this new discovery would have led to less need for vegetation gathering missions. The main reason for venturing out now was for hunting or fishing. The hunters still had a full-time job. Gathering was now only a part-time gig. These tribes were now Hunter Gatherer/Farmers!

I understand that the concept of a job did not exist and that it is common knowledge that these groups had plenty of down time, but please just take the ride with me. Remember this is just some dude piecing together 52 years of ‘what the fuck is this all about?’. I guess the easy explanation is laziness, and feel free to label me that. However, I never set out to write an academically rigid thesis. But I digress…

Specialist gatherers were now at that point DVD rental businesses were when streaming became a thing. Still viable but losing necessity fast. Things moved much slower back then (BC. not early 2000s) so it would have been a very slow decline in relevance. I don’t think tradie gatherers had to hastily retrain to avoid redundancy. Growing necessary plants simply became part of the skillset. Like a mechanic learning to cooperate with all the computer bullshit in cars these days. I’m stopping, I’m stopping.

They probably still had to remain mobile to keep up with the game they hunted and relocate to land more appropriate to the changing seasons. Nevertheless, they had begun laying down roots. Temporary ones but the seeds of a homebase were being planted.

Countless generations had honed the hunting process. These people’s ancestors had worked out the best way to hunt using their numbers and cunning. I’m sure they must have had pets, such as dogs by this stage. Sometime during this epoch another bright spark figured out that certain animals could be easily kept around and treated like pets. Once they were nice and plump… BAM! Dinner is served. 

I just had a slightly off-putting thought: There must have been many times when times got really hard and food was scarce. It is pretty much a surety that a lot of those ‘pet’ dogs suddenly became meat. I’ll stop there for now.