Re: An idle question (Paging Mark Isaak)

J.LyonLayden wrote in talk.origins

On Sep 10, 11:27 am, *** C <foo.dic...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Well, whether the indians overkilled or not, they didn't overkill as
much as western man did.

But, they did over kill, and that renders many of your points
wrong.
What's more, thier myths and fables teach conservation, as do the
myths of pretty much all hunter-gtherers. Whereas western man's myths
and fables are comparitively devoid of conservation lessons.

What indian myths teach conservation? However, remember they were hunter
gatherers. Their life depended upon the continued existance of the
food. So they would not over hunt an area, or destroy the plants, because
they had to have them to survive.



I think it is safe to assume that hunter gatherers' philosophies on
conservation have been, historically more condusive to non-
exploitation than industrial man's have been.

The europeans and mediterranean peoples have been farming simce before many
of their stories and myths came about. They did not rely to any great
extent on hunting to survive. Plus they would routinely destroy the
habitat of many animals in order to establish farms.
Just so you realize that any focus on conservation was for self
presevation.


Just to clarify, you guys are argueing that primitive cro-magnon drove
70% of megafauna and many other animals to extinction, but industrial
man has driven only a handful of species to extinction. And that makes
perfect sense to you.

No, you are trying to claim that is our position. Most, if not all, are
arguing that hunting, along with other factors, drove the mega fauna to
extinction.
For instance, I have read that the prey to predator ratio is about ten to
one. Ten prey animals to one predator. When the ratio drops then the
predators starve. In normal conditions this allows the prey population to
recover, followed by the predators in a year or two. But if the conditions
are changing, and a new hunter comes on the scene, they will fight the
other predators, and also work on reducing the prey even more. Eventually
the population of a whole range of animals drop to low to sustain itself.
One thing you also need to realize is that often times predators are
specialists, evolved to the point that they are truly only capable of
chasing and eating one or a few species. The sabre tooth cats of the time
were not suited to chasing the more normal sized animals, rather their
teeth and size pretty well forced them to go after the megafauna.


--
*** #1349
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
~Benjamin Franklin

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