13. And in the columns of heaven I beheld fires, which descended without number, but neither on high, nor into the deep. Over these fountains also I perceived a place which had neither the firmament of heaven above it, nor the solid ground underneath it; neither was there water above it, nor anything on wing; but the spot was desolate.
fire upon the deep epub 11
Scott describes the gradual process of transforming their environment that was undertaken by early humans. He begins by recounting the impact of mankind's use of fire, calling it "a species monopoly and a trump card" and detailing its desirability for its capacity to reduce the radius of a meal by concentrating foodstuffs in a smaller area around human encampments. Scott describes the beginnings of sedentism in wetlands prior to the cultivation of cereal grains. He then tackles the 4,000-year "gap" between the cultivation of domesticated grains and the emergence agricultural societies, claiming that it was in the best interests of early people to supplement their existing diets with cereal grains and other domesticated crops rather than to rely upon crops exclusively. He thinks adaptability in subsistence strategies was a better option than early agriculture for our ancestors.
Scott's point in this chapter is that humans domesticated the planet more extensively than taming cattle and planting crops, and that this had deep consequences. He examines the changes that mankind has brought to its environment by being an artificial natural selection of sorts, to bring out plant types that are now unrecognizable from their progenitors and are also unable to survive without human care. We also domesticated animals by casting out those with undesired characteristics and cultivating that which pleases us. This changed animals both in behavior and physiologically, making them permanently docile and un-reactive, while also having smaller brains. These changes have negative effects upon the animals themselves, though they do result in a positive effect in output for their domesticators. 2ff7e9595c
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