I don’t think hunter-gatherers took up farming of their own free will, the lifestyle downgrade is too obvious. More likely some hunter-gatherer bands enslaved others and forced them to farm. If that’s true, there’s no need to imagine an impersonal optimizer arising: the change was caused by specific people, who gained elite status from it.
I don’t think hunter-gatherers took up farming of their own free will, the lifestyle downgrade is too obvious. More likely some hunter-gatherer bands enslaved others and forced them to farm. If that’s true, there’s no need to imagine an impersonal optimizer arising: the change was caused by specific people, who gained elite status from it.