amusement, and preparation
It's so cold, wet, and cloudy here in Washington. It seems like a fitting way to start off Fall with the weather that will resembale Davis in 2 months. I'm getting more excited about Fall. Having a car will make getting out of Davis easier, and will help me have more options are December graduation. It feels wierd that I will be done with undergrad life in under 13 weeks. Weird yet liberating. I'm totally going to travel.
I'm re-reading this book for my Ecology anthro class- Guns, Germs, and Steel, and I hella enjoyed this quote:
"Scientists used to quote a phrase of Thomas Hobbes's in order to characterize the lifestyle of hunter-gathers as "nasty, brutish, and short." They seemed to have to work hard, to be driven by the daily quest for food, to lack elementary material comforts, and die young.
In really, only for today's affluent First World citizens, who don't actually do the work of raising food themselves, does food production (by remote agribusinesses) mean less physical work, more comfort, freedom from starvation, and a longer expected lifetime. Most peasant farmers and herders, who constitute the great majority of the world's actual food producers, aren't necessarily better off than hunter-gathers. Time budget studies show that they may spend more rather than fewer hours per day at work than hunter gathers do."
In fact, the Kung San of South Africa actually spend on average 5-7 hours less aquiring food than agriculturalists, and they are far more egalitarian than us, though still having hierarchy based on age and gender. It's pretty hella funny when you realize all those history books praizing the development of agricultural as the bedrock for the rise of civilization are simply only referencing the rise of their ability as a leisure class to not have to feed themselves, so they are free to follow they're intellectual interests, like studying the world. Oh, who does that remind me of?
Oh yeah, college students!!!!!! Woot. It's always good to have a reminder that you are actually the modern equavalent of ancient aristocracy. This is the reason I love anthro. Highschool textbooks seriously need to be alot more transparent on how their knowledge is generated, cause here I have to clean out so much bullshit from the intellectual septic tanks it takes time away from actually coming up with new information.
Haha, I haven't had a good political rant in a while. Yay for it coming back, as it always seems to do at my Dad's affluent estate. Of course, I'm obviously just as implicated as the rest. Now, I'll go drink harvested, feremtned and rotten wheat with sugar, both which I didn't grow myself, and pass out like the drunken aristocrat I am.
I'm re-reading this book for my Ecology anthro class- Guns, Germs, and Steel, and I hella enjoyed this quote:
"Scientists used to quote a phrase of Thomas Hobbes's in order to characterize the lifestyle of hunter-gathers as "nasty, brutish, and short." They seemed to have to work hard, to be driven by the daily quest for food, to lack elementary material comforts, and die young.
In really, only for today's affluent First World citizens, who don't actually do the work of raising food themselves, does food production (by remote agribusinesses) mean less physical work, more comfort, freedom from starvation, and a longer expected lifetime. Most peasant farmers and herders, who constitute the great majority of the world's actual food producers, aren't necessarily better off than hunter-gathers. Time budget studies show that they may spend more rather than fewer hours per day at work than hunter gathers do."
In fact, the Kung San of South Africa actually spend on average 5-7 hours less aquiring food than agriculturalists, and they are far more egalitarian than us, though still having hierarchy based on age and gender. It's pretty hella funny when you realize all those history books praizing the development of agricultural as the bedrock for the rise of civilization are simply only referencing the rise of their ability as a leisure class to not have to feed themselves, so they are free to follow they're intellectual interests, like studying the world. Oh, who does that remind me of?
Oh yeah, college students!!!!!! Woot. It's always good to have a reminder that you are actually the modern equavalent of ancient aristocracy. This is the reason I love anthro. Highschool textbooks seriously need to be alot more transparent on how their knowledge is generated, cause here I have to clean out so much bullshit from the intellectual septic tanks it takes time away from actually coming up with new information.
Haha, I haven't had a good political rant in a while. Yay for it coming back, as it always seems to do at my Dad's affluent estate. Of course, I'm obviously just as implicated as the rest. Now, I'll go drink harvested, feremtned and rotten wheat with sugar, both which I didn't grow myself, and pass out like the drunken aristocrat I am.