"Ramblin' Man"
by Joel Bowman
“Lord, I was born a ramblin’ man,
Tryin’ to make a livin’ and doin’ the best I can.
And when it’s time for leavin’, I hope you’ll understand
That I was born a ramblin’ man.”
~ "Ramblin’ Man" by the Allman Brothers
Sao Paulo, Brazil - "We are on the road today, dear reader… or rather, up in the air. Our peripatetic family of three (wifey, daughter, and yours truly) is hopping its way up the content to a little hideaway in northeastern Brazil. We’ll have more from our destination in due course, but first…
When we left you last week, we were meditating on the fate of mankind. Are our AI Overlords plotting and planning their creator’s (that’s us) extinction? Are we to be its master… its servant… or, as Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak predicts, its best friend. “They’ll treat humans as pet Labradors,” he once told TIME Magazine.
More on the future in… well, the future. Today, we offer a few words about the vagabond, the gypsy, the restless wanderers of our distant past. Polite society tends to look somewhat askance at the rootless among us, the shiftless, the itinerant. They are the drifters...the hobos...the rolling stones. And they are nothing new.
Prior to the Agricultural Revolution, the human race had no need for such descriptions. Back then, everybody was a “ramblin’ man.” Before they became farmers, Homo sapiens were nomads, hunter-gatherers, vagrant workers who went wherever opportunity presented itself. Usually, that opportunity was determined by seasonality and, in turn, food supply...or lack thereof. (Of course pestilence, inter-tribal conflict, religious mythology and other factors drove people in various directions at various times too.)
Forget about building walls to keep people out...or in. These ancient folk didn’t even have walls to keep roofs overhead. As for travel visas...reciprocity fees...passport stamps and all the rest...well, they weren’t yet baked into the cosmic firmament, taken as given.
Then, sometime around 12,000-10,000 BC, a curious thing happened. Ramblin’ Man decided life on the road was not for him after all. He wanted a home of his own...a white picket fence...a place to rest his weary head and let his blisters heal. Or something like that.
Beasts of Burden: There’s some disagreement among historians as to how this “lifestyle change” came to pass. Some think the first farms were little more than a few seeds sprouting near common latrines. Members of the wandering tribes noticed they could, with a bit of primitive fertilizer and some modest attention, grow their own food. Thus the imperative to wander, to hunt and gather, fell out of fashion.
Others suggest a more concerted, determined effort to put down the proverbial roots. Experimentation and tinkering, they argue, resulted in technological advancements that allowed man to produce surpluses with increasing regularity and, eventually, some dependability. With this newfound, relative abundance, they decided to stay put.
Still others attribute the transformation to agreeable climates...favorable demographic shifts...certain socio-economic catalysts...even the impulse of the power hungry to throw ostentatious feasts to showcase their political and societal dominance.
However it came about, man domesticated certain crops, probably beginning in the Fertile Crescent (modern-day Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, and Northern Egypt) with three primary cereals - einkorn wheat, emmer wheat, and barley - and soon growing to include four legumes (lentil, pea, bitter vetch, and chickpea) and flax. Other regions began with slightly different diets...maize (corn), beans, and squash in Mesoamerica...millet, and later rice and soybean in China.
Around this time, our budding farmer also domesticated animals, both for meat, milk and wool as well as for general guarding and herding assistance. Among the first were dogs, sheep, goats, cows and pigs. Shortly thereafter, he brought beasts of burden under the whip, using oxen, onagers, donkeys, horses, and camels to plow his fields, turn the earth and transport his harvest to market.
As the story goes, our ancient forefathers prospered in their new, sedentary life. Certainly the population exploded as food stores were able to support ever larger “city centers.” (Probably only thousands or perhaps tens of thousands of inhabitants.) From a purely biological perspective, the species appeared to be thriving. But for the individual, quality of life may have been no better than before these primitive, technological advancements..."
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