Climate, risk, and the rise of agriculture - Many Minds
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- Title
- Climate, risk, and the rise of agriculture
- Description
- <p class="MsoNormal"><span style= "font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> It's an enduring puzzle. For hundreds of thousands of years, our ancestors were nomadic, ranging over large territories, hunting and gathering for sustenance. Then, beginning roughly 12,000 years ago, we pivoted. Within a short timeframe—in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and the Americas—humans suddenly decided to settle down. We started to store our food. We domesticated plants. We set off, in other words, down a path that would reshape our cultures, our technologies, our social structures, even our minds. Yet no one has yet been able to account for this shift. No one has been able to fully explain why agriculture happened when it happened and where it happened. Unless, that is, someone just did.</span><span style= "font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style= "font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> My guest today is <a href="http://www.andreamatranga.net/">Dr. Andrea Matranga</a>. Andrea is an economist at the University of Torino, in Italy, with a focus on economic history. In a <a href= "https://academic.oup.com/qje/advance-article/doi/10.1093/qje/qjae012/7654002"> new paper</a>, he puts forward an ambitious, unifying theory of the rise of agriculture in our species. He argues that the key trigger was a spike in seasonality—with certain parts of the world, particularly parts of the northern hemisphere, suddenly experiencing warmer summers and colder winters. This led risk-averse humans in these places to start to store food and, eventually, to experiment with farming. </span> <span style= "font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style= "font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> In this conversation, Andrea and I talk about how he developed his theory, in steps, over the course almost 20 years. We consider the weaknesses of earlier explanations of agriculture, including explanations that focused on climate. We discuss how he wrangled vast historical datasets to test his theory. And we talk about some of the downstream effects that agriculture seems to have had. Along the way we touch on: salmon, wheat, taro, and milk; agriculture as a franchise model; Milankovitch Cycles; risk-aversion and consumption-smoothing; interloping in the debates of other disciplines; the possibility of a fig-based civilization; and how we inevitably project our own concerns onto the past.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style= "font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> Alright friends, I hope you enjoy this one. As I said at the top, the origins of agriculture is just one of those irresistible, perennial puzzles—one that cuts across the human sciences. And, I have to say, I find Andrea's solution to this puzzle quite compelling. I'll be curious to hear if you agree. Without further ado, on to my conversation with Andrea Matranga. Enjoy!</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style= "font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> A transcript of this episode will be available soon.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><em><u><span style= "font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Notes and links</span></u></em></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style= "font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"> </span><span style= "font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">8:00 – Various versions of the fable ‘The Ant and the Grasshopper’ are compiled <a href= "https://sites.pitt.edu/~dash/type0280a.html">here</a>.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style= "font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">13:00 – One of the last remaining ziggurat complexes is <a href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chogha_Zanbil">Chogha Zanbil</a>.</span></p> <p class="Ms
- Publication Date
- 2024-06-12T10:00:00+00:00
- Status
- completed
- Website
- https://manyminds.libsyn.com/climate-risk-and-the-rise-of-agriculture
- Length
- 71:08
- File
- /podcasts/Many Minds/1718186400-4824.mp3
- Size
- 97.7 MB
- Bitrate
- 187-CBR
- Channels
- 1
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