May 16/17: Hmm, Agricultural Breakthroughs or Medical Breakthroughs - which is more significant?

When I finally went back and read Chapters One and Two the thing that stood out to me the most was the thought-provoking questions that the author asked.  Primarily, “does it make sense to ignore the first 200,000 years or more of the human experience?”  I say no.

In the text, the author talks about what researchers have found through fossils, stones, rock paintings, etc.  We are able to ascertain that these early paleolithic peoples made deliberate decisions regarding the “creation of the earliest human societies, the beginnings of reflection on the great questions of life and death”.  The author then points out that, from his perspective, “the breakthrough to agriculture arguably represents the single most profound transformation of human life in all of history”.  Is that true?  I’m not sure.  Clearly, these breakthroughs in harnessing the power and necessity of water and growing and cultivating food is the basis for the ability for men and women to focus on other aspects of thought.  Without the stabilization of agriculture in these cultures, I would argue that, there wouldn’t be the advancements in philosophy, art, science.  We know that conflict, war and the concept of us versus them also evolved from the ability of people to claim their land, cultivate it and thus, have others covet what wasn’t theirs.  But, the single most profound transformation?

I would argue that perhaps more significant was the advent of medical breakthroughs throughout human history.  It is through these medical advances that allowed human societies to, once again, focus – not on mortality – but on other aspects of human life, society and thought.  According to an article posted on the ABC News Website called, 10 Health Advances that Changed the World, (2007) the authors point out that it is easy for us to take for granted these advances.  And as a reminder, these advances also touch every human life around the world.  Vaccines are one of the advances listed and when we think about significant vaccines like the Polio or the smallpox vaccine it is easy to conceptualize the importance and impact of these breakthroughs.  Clean water and sanitation along with surgical anesthetic and antisepsis are two other categories that are listed to help us understand just how significant these advances have impacted our lives.


Obviously, there is no way to truly decide what advance or breakthrough was more significant but it’s worth critically thinking about it.  

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