Danquebec

Yea, the idea that a trait could be present everywhere in humans as early as 3000 years ago and be non-existent now was the first gaping hole I saw in this hypothesis.

I’ll never understand explorers and colonial leaders’ tendency to kidnap natives.

In my region, Jacques Cartier did this to friendly people for no fucking good reason and naturally caused them to turn hostile and it caused the failure of France’s earliest colonization attempt.

This has no relation to the emergence of civilization.

Good points but we should also be careful to distinguish the cradles of agriculture and the cradles of civilization. They’re two very different things and are a long time apart.

Every region’s history is different yet somewhat similar, but here I’ll focus on the region referred to in the meme.

About twelve thousand years ago, in the Levant and then in the Zagros mountains, people have broadened their diet and became settled. This allowed them to domesticate domesticable plants and animals. Agriculture was born.

About five thousand years ago, people brought domesticates to river valleys and exploited their banks, which wasn’t necessarily an easy feat.

At least in Mesopotamia, it required irrigation.

In Egypt, I’m less clear on this time period but it seems to be tied to domesticates arriving in the region and desertification.

In both cases however, high productivity allowed high population, and the fact that people couldn’t really flee attempts at taxing production, imposing corvée, and other forms of forced requirements allowed primary states to emerge.

The area around a major river being greener helps in no way the emergence of a river civilization.

What matters is that the river banks are fertile, the area has a good climate (especially a long growing season), domesticates were brought, and the area around is worse for sustenance.

Much to the contrary, the area around being better for sustenance probably makes it more difficult and unlikely for a civilization to emerge, as it allows people to freely escape taxation / corvée by just migrating away from such attempts.

It would have been better if they had used hexagons.

I’m especially surprised to learn that the existence of ghosts has been confirmed by science. What amazing times we’re living in.

Certainly not like a Scandinavian.

Probably more like a brown Palestinian man.

You can avoid a lot of back and forth with a call. Sometimes something is easier to explain through voice too, especially if sharing your screen helps.

The ancient Greeks really seem to love over-dramatic legends like this. I’m thinking about the dude sent running to announce the victory at Marathon, who just had the time to announce it before collapsing and dying from exhaustion.

why it didn’t work out

Hitler and Stalin. That’s why.

Any natural language is way harder than Esperanto.

If I’m not mistaken, the same issue didn’t happen in England because the lords were allowed to participate in the lucrative world trade.

Amazing info on an intriguing question, thanks!

Now I’m intriguided by the question of why Western Europe wasn’t plagued by the same issues.

To an extent, it was. France famously lagged behind because of land wars in Europe.

But what helped, I think, is the natural borders such as mountains, and all the neighbors being settled people.

Even the sea-based threat that Taiwan was was caused by the Qing’s arrival, which was caused by a land-based threat (the Manchus).

I haven’t. I don’t really see how it’s such a big deal. I often see someone offer a bad take. I just read a bit and then scroll down.