Grain domestication gets all the press because grains allow large armies and empire, so those societies and stories won out and became foundational. But cultivation of other plants – tubers, nuts, fruits, fibers, herbs, honey and sap, whatever rhubarb is, etc. – was going on alongside if not before that, and remained foundational in other regions, who developed consciousnesses and social orders not centered on war and empire, perhaps not on kings and priests – more decentralized and democratic, more localized and close-knit, more organic

July 9, 2024

The grain-fed army as the original machine