Agriculture: a mixed blessing
Although agriculture acted as a spur to many aspects of social and technological development, increasing reliance on a narrow range of food crops had many downsides that sometimes caused people to revert to hunter gathering. The restricted nutrient content of some crops, especially cereals, led to a reduction in human stature and an increase in degenerative diseases. People adapted both behaviourally and genetically to their increasing reliance on crops and livestock. Genetic changes in various populations included reduced maxillo-facial structures, lactose tolerance, malarial resistance, and partial resistance to zoonoses. Although many of these changes had an adverse impact on human wellbeing at the individual level, the greater size and techno-social complexity of agrarian based societies enabled them to out-compete hunter-gatherers. Despite their superior individual fitness, hunter-gatherers were fewer in number, less well organized, and lacked access to new technologies developed by their sicklier but formidably equipped agrarian neighbours.
Keywords: human evolution, nutrition, size reduction, nutrient deficiency, hunter-gatherer, zoonoses, degenerative diseases, lactose tolerance, maxillary shrinkage
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