Ep. 37 – The Origin of Early Civilization
Early civilizations came about with the domestication of fire, plants, animals, and humans. James C. Scott gives us the history of these early states and the problems they faced.
Featured Image: Grain by Paolo Fefe' via Flickr
I was stuck in the grade school version of the origin of civilizations and learned a lot from this
brief podcast. Thank you. While listening, I kept hoping for more information about the growth of human population and its effect on the grown of civilizations. And that led me to wonder: Does the transition to domestication lead to ever increasing populations? And the corollary question:
If humans remained hunter gatherers, would there be a limit to the growth of human population?
(Similar to the fact that wolves self limit their population to the abundance of food supply.)