CONTENTS - ouroboros ponderosa

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'IX Al il.:.!( 'III Tl ll':I' seeds of all mischief, have no place with them." rcads Piclro's I) II account of the natives encountered on C,olumbus' second V(ly"g
SII Many thcories havc been advanced, none convincingly. Childe alld others argue that population increase pushed human societies into more intimate contact with other species, leading to domcstication and the need to produce in order to feed the additional people. But it has been sho . wn rather conclusively that population increase did not precede agrrculture but was caused by it. "I don't see any evidence anywhere in thc world," ?oncluded Flannery, "that suggests that population pressure was responSIble for the beginning of agriculture." Another theory has it that major clImatIc changcs occurred at thc end of the Pleistocene, about 11,000 years ago, that upset the old hunter-gatherer life-world and led dlrcctly to the cultivation of certain surviving staples. Recent dating methods have helped demolish this approach; no such climatic shift happened that could have forced the new mode into existence. Besides, there are scores of examples of agriculture being adopted-or ret used-In evcry type of climate. Another major hypothcsis is that agnculture was Introduced via a chance discovery or invention as if it had never occurred to the species before a certain moment that, for example, food grows from sprouted seeds. It seems certain that Paleolithic humanity had a virtually inexhaustible knowledge of flora and fauna for many tens of thousands of years before the cultivation of plants began which renders this theory especially weak. Agreemenl with Carl Sauer's summation that, "Agriculture did not ongmate trom a growing or chronic shortage of fo od" is sufficient in fact, to dismiss virtually all originary theories that have been advaned. A remaining idea, presented by Hahn, Isaac and others, holds that food production began at base as a religious activity. This hypothesis comes closest to plausibility. Sheep and goats, the tlrst animals to bc domesticated, are known to have been widely used in religious ceremonies, and to have been raised In enclosed meadows lor sacrificial purposes. Before they werc domesti catd, moreover, shecp had no wool suitablc for textile purposes. The mam use of the hen in southeastern Asia and the eastern Mediterranean-the earliest centers of eivilization-"seems to have been," according to Darby, "sacrificial or divinatory rather than alimenta ry." Sauer adds that the "egg laying and meat producing qualities" of tamcd fowl "arc relatively late consequences of their domestication " Wild cattle were fierce and dangerous; neither the docility of oxen nr the modltled meat texture of such castrates could have been foreseen. Cattle were not milked until centuries after their initial captivity, and representations mdleatc that their first known harnessing was to wagons In relIgIOUS processions. ' I'I I'MI'HIS • II· 1{I'J' I IS:\ 1 Planls. lI('xt to Ill: contrulled) exhihit. similar backgrounds so ':ar as is 1l()WIl. (\lIlsidn the New World examples of squash and pumpkrn, uscd originally as ceremonial rattles. Johannessen discussed the rehglous . "n? lIlystical motives connected with the domestication of Ize, MeXICO s lIlost important crop and center of its native Neolithic relIglo . n. LIkeWIse, Anderson investigated the selection and developmnt of dlshnctIve types "I' various cultivated plants because of their magIcal slgnrflcance. The shamans, I should add, were well-placed in positions of powcr to introduce agriculture via the taming and planting involved m ntual and religion, sketchily referred to above. . . . . ' Though the religious explanatIon of the ongIns of agnclllture has been somcwhat overlooked, it brings us, In my oplOlon, to the very doorstep of the real explanation of the birth of production: that non-ratIonal, cultural force of alienation which spread , in the forms of hme, language, number and art, to ultimately colonize material and psychIC lIfe III agriculture. "Religion" is too narrow a conceptualization of thIS lllfectlon and its growth. Domination is too weighty, too all : encompassmg to have hecn solely conveyed by thc pathology that IS relIgIon. But the cultural values of control and uniformity that are part of religion are certainly part of agriculture, and from the heginning. Noting that strains of corn cross-pollinate very eaSIly, Anderson studled the very primitive agriculturalists of Assam, the Naga tribe, and theIr varIety of corn that exhibited no differences from plant to plant. True to culture, showing that it is complete from the beginning of production, the Naga kept their varieties so pure "only by a fanatical adherence to a Ideal type." This exemplifies the marnage of cllltur and productIOn In domestication and its inevitable progeny, repressIon and work. The scrupulous tending of strains of plants finds its parallel in the domesticating of animals, which also defies natural selechon and re establishes the controllable organic world at a debased, artIfICIal level. Like plants, animals are mere things to be manipulate . d; a dairy cow, for instance, is seen as a kind of machine for convertIng grass to milk. Transmuted from a state of freedom to that of helpless paraSItes, these animals become completely dependcnt on man for survival. In domestIc mammals, as a rule, the size of the brain becomes relatively smaller as specimens are produced that devote more eneq,'Y to growth and less to activity. Placid, infantilized, typified perhaps by the sheep, most domesticated of herd animals; the remarkable mtelligence of WIld sheep is completely lost in their tamed counterparts. The social relationships among domestic animals are reduced to the crudest essenllals. Non reproductive parts of the life cycle are minimized, courtship IS curtaIled, . SI .
Page 1 and 2: !\cknowleJgcmcnts Many people provi
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Page 29 and 30: the quantum theory, is that which i
Page 31 and 32: '1'111 CASI'. ;\"AINSI ;\1{1 reflec
Page 33 and 34: critique at best. Frequently compar
Page 35 and 36: AGRICULTURE Agriculture, the indisp
Page 37: I'anlll:rs starvTd ;tiS() kslil ' y
Page 41 and 42: \( ;]Z]( ' [ il.l'! IIZI cd, proces
Page 43 and 44: PART TWO
Page 45 and 46: INDI)STRIAIJSM ANI> i)(lMJSrJ('ATH
Page 47 and 48: INI)[ IS'II
Page 49 and 50: 11111 INIHI .... ,I";\ ] 1.'\1\.1 .
Page 51 and 52: IIJ.I INIHISII' Ir\I.lSM ANI ) 1)(I
Page 53 and 54: IllS dismayed hy the rash of strike
Page 55 and 56: ';' AXIS POINT OF AMERICAN INDUSTRI
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Page 61 and 62: 11·1 AXIS , 'c lIN l" eJl- ;\r\II-
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Page 65 and 66: THE PRACTICAL MARX Karl Marx is alw
Page 67 and 68: 1'111 " IL\( 'II( ,\ 1 MAle, revolu
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Page 71 and 72: - .. ORIGINS AND MEANING OF WWI Wor
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important local collahorativL: setu
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THE PROMISE OF THE '80s For many, t
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I ' THE '80s SO FAR " rom new lcvel
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,. MEDIA, IRONY AND "BOB" It is not
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I'( )HM ANI ) ('()Nrl-NT IN 1, ' 1
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Appendix: Excerpts from Adventures
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NUCLEAR MADNESS ... VIOLENCE AGAINS
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If it's humiliating to be ruled, ho
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CONTENTS - ouroboros ponderosa

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