There is evidence that the diet of gathering peoples was better than that of cultivators, that starvation was rare, that their health status was generally superior, that there was a lower incidence of chronic disease (Lee & De‐Vore, 1968), and not nearly as many cavities in their teeth (Angel, 1984).
The question must be raised: Why farm? Why give up the 20‐hr work week and the fun of hunting to toil in the sun? Why work harder for food less nutritious and a supply more capricious? Why invite famine, plague, pestilence, and crowded living conditions? Why abandon the Golden Age and take up the burden?
References
1 Akazawa, T., & Aikens, C. M. (1986). Prehistoric hunter‐gatherers in Japan. Tokyo, Japan: University of Tokyo Press.
2 Angel, J. L. (1984). Health as crucial factor in the changes from hunting to developed farming in the eastern Mediterranean. In M. N. Cohen & G. J. Armelagos (Eds.), Paleopathology at the origins of agriculture (pp. 51–73). New York, NY: Academic Press.
3 Bancroft, J. (1884). Food of the Aboriginees of central Australia. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, 1, 104–106.
4 Bicchieri, M. (1972). Hunters and gatherers today. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.
5 Burkill, I. H. (1935). A dictionary of the economic products of the Malay Peninsula. London: Oxford University Press.
6 Campbell, A. H. (1965). Elementary food production by the Australian Aboriginees. Mankind, 6, 206–211.
7 Chase, A. K. (1989). Domestication and domiculture in northern Australia: A social perspective. In D. R. Harris & G. C. Hillman (Eds.), Foraging and farming: The evolution of plant exploitation (pp. 42–54). London: Unwin Hyman.
8 Coon, C. S. (1971). The hunting peoples. Boston, MA: Little, Brown, and Co.
9 Coursey, D. G. (1972). The civilizations of the yam: Interrelationships of man and yams in Africa and the Indo‐Pacific region. Archaeology and Physical Anthropology of Oceania, 7, 215–233.
10 Cribb, A. B., & Cribb, J. W. (1975). Wild food in Australia. Sydney, Australia: Collins.
11 Dahlberg, F. (1981). Woman the gatherer. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
12 Downs, J. (1964). Significance of environmental manipulation in Great Basin cultural development. In W. L. D’Azvedo, W. A. Davis, D. D. Fowler, & W. Suttles (Eds.), The current status of anthropological research in the Great Basin (pp. 39–56). Reno, NV: Desert Research Institute.
13 Drucker, P. (1963). Indians of the Northwest Coast. Garden City, NY: Natural History Press. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.68277
14 Fernald, M. L., & Kinsey, A. C. (1943). Edible wild plants of eastern North America. Cornwall‐on‐Hudson, NY: Idlewild Press.
15 Flannery, K. V. (1968). Archaeological systems theory and early Mesoamerica. In B. J. Meggers (Ed.), Anthropological archaeology in the Americas (pp. 67–87). Washington, DC: Anthropology Society.
16 Foley, R. (1988). Homonids, humans and hunter‐gatherers: An evolutionary perspective. In T. Ingold, D. Riches, & J. Woodburn (Eds.), Hunters and gatherers I: History, evolution and social change (pp. 207–221). New York, NY: Berg Oxford.
17 Fox, F. W., & Young, M. E. N. (1982). Food from the veld: Edible wild plants of southern Africa botanically identified and described. Johannesberg, South Africa: Delta Books.
18 Gentry, H. S. (1942). Rio Mayo plants: A study of the flora and vegetation of the valley of Rio Mayo, Sonora. Botanical Gazette, 104(4), 652.
19 Gifford, E. W. (1967). Ethnographic notes on the southwestern Pomo (pp. 1–48). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
20 Gregory, A. C. (1886). Memoranda on the Aboriginees of Australia. Journal of Anthropological Institute, 16, 131–133.
21 Grey, G. (1841). Journals of two expeditions of discovery in northwest and western Australia during the years 1837, 38 and 39 under authority of Her Majesty’s government (Vol. 2). London: T. & W. Boone.
22 Hallam, S. J. (1975). Fire and hearth: A study of Aboriginal usage and European usurpation in southwestern Australia. Canberra, Australia: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.
23 Harlan, J. R. (1967). A wild wheat harvest in Turkey. Archaeology, 20, 197–201.
24 Harlan, J. R. (1989). Wild grass‐seed harvesting in the Sahara and sub‐Sahara of Africa. In D. R. Harris & G. C. Hillman (Eds.), Foraging and farming: The evolution of plant exploitation (pp. 79–90). London: Unwin Hyman.
25 Harrington, J. P. (1932). Tobacco among the Karuk Indians of California. Bull. 284. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institute Bureau of Ethnology.
26 Harris, D. R., & Hillman, G. C. (1989). Foraging and farming: The evolution of plant exploitation. London: Unwin Hyman.
27 Hayden, B. (1981). Subsistence and ecological adaptations of modern hunter/gatherers. In R. Harding & G. Teleki (Eds.), Omnivorous primates (pp. 344–421). New York, NY: Columbia University Press. https://doi.org/10.7312/hard92188‐011
28 Hesiod (1983). The poems of Hesiod ( R. M. Frazer, trans.). Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.
29 Ho, P.‐T. (1969). The loess and the origin of Chinese agriculture. The American Historical Review, 75(1), 1–36. https://doi.org/10.2307/1841914
30 Hublin, J.‐J., Ben‐Ncer, A., Bailey, S. E., Freidline, S. E., Neubauer, S., Skinner, M. M., … Gunz, P. (2017a). New fossils from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco and the pan‐African origin of Homo sapiens. Nature, 546, 289–292. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature22336
31 Hublin, J.‐J., Ben‐Ncer, A., Bailey, S. E., Freidline, S. E., Neubauer, S., Skinner, M. M., … Gunz, P. (2017b). Author correction: New fossils from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco and the pan‐African origin of Homo sapiens. Nature, 558, E6. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586‐018‐0166‐3
32 Ingold, T., Riches, D., & Woodburn, J. (1988a). Hunters and gatherers I: History, evolution and social change. New York, NY: Berg Oxford.
33 Ingold, T., Riches, D., & Woodburn, J. (1988b). Hunters and gatherers II: Property, power and ideology. New York, NY: Berg Oxford.
34 Irvine, F. R. (1957). Wild and emergency foods of Australian and Tasmanian Aborigines. Oceania, 28(2), 113–142. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1834‐4461.1957.tb00733.x
35 Jardin, C. (1967). List of foods used in Africa. Rome, Italy: FAO.
36 Johnson, A. W., & Earle, T. (1987). The evolution of human societies: From foraging group to agrarian state. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
37 Johnston, T., & Cleland, J. B. (1933). The history of the Aboriginal narcotic, pituri. Oceania, 4, 201–223. 268–289. doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1834‐4461.1933.tb00101.x
38 Jones, R. (1969). Firestick farming. Sydney, Australia: Australian Natural History Museum.
39 Klimek, S. (1935). Culture element distributions.