Sumerian Farmers
What is the world’s most important occupation? There are so many contenders: the brave soldiers who lay down their lives to fight oppression, the bankers who take all of the world’s money for themselves, the doctors who keep us healthy, the workers in the energy sector who keep society from falling into darkness and horror…even our leaders who bravely ensure that nothing gets done (so that society does not suddenly lurch in some scary direction). Yet all of these professions are only possible once there is enough food. Without farmers we would still all be hunter gatherers–and by “all” I mean the tiny handful of us who would exist. Pre-agricultural society was terrifying because of its lack of certainty. Humankind foraged hither and yon in hungry desperate bands. Everyone was involved in long-running internecine wars with local tribes. After the dawn of agriculture we were stuck with all sorts of oppressive megalithic forces: social hierarchy, ownership, organized religion—but in recompense humankind found literacy and science, the twin touchstones of wisdom and progress.
Thanks, farmer!
As spring begins the farmers are busy getting ready for the growing season. They are out there harvesting winter crops, fixing seed injectors, tilling fields, and doing other critical things that we soft urban dwellers don’t even know about. To celebrate the importance of agriculture and give the farmer his (or her) due, here is a gallery of farmer mascots from around the internet.
Old Farmer Mascot (mascotdesigngallery.com)
Fat Cat Farmer: mascot of Stilwell High, Stilwell, OK
I really hope this guy doesn’t raise pigs
Angry Farmer (Joe Apel)
Corn Cob Bob should probably be the national animal
Does a creepy cowgirl count?
Travis the Tractor
You could own the Farmer Duane costume for a mere $979.00 (facemakersincorporated.com)
Of course looking over these images raises some troubling questions. What is the difference between farmers and hillbillies? Do farmers still wear straw hats? To what extent is farming now controlled by a handful of quasi-monopolistic corporations? If farming is so important, why are so many of these mascots so primitive looking?
Farmer Mascot?
These questions will have to wait (or remain forever unanswered). For now let us celebrate the ancient profession of farming and each of us prepare for the spring planting in our own lives.
2 comments
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March 15, 2014 at 1:17 PM
katesisco
Actually, farming originally supported all other activities. Pottery, weaving, ship building and sailing same, but before farming was fishing. So why did we abandon fishing? Science has discovered before farming we fished, then relied almost exclusively on farming and dairy, then back to fishing again. Sounds like we couldn’t access the fishing for a while, doesn’t it?
Ancient Egyptians that settled at Lake Fainyum may well have migrated from the Saharan depression that was a lake with cattle and game as depicted by rock art. So the Fainyum start was a do over. Then as the culture grew to encompass the Nile delta, we find that there was a ruling elite ban on eating fish. Now why would that be?
This fish, farm, fish aspect was present in the ancient British landscape also, perhaps when Doggerland was above the water.
If climate drove our choices, then what drove the climate? No galactic super wave or gas cloud being consumed by Sag A but probably by our magnetar Sol. Its slow degrade in energy –we are experiencing the same now as a delay in magnetic pole reversal—caused the climate upheavals which were more energetic than now as our magnetar is exhausted.
Science says G2 is going to encounter Sag A this year and what will happen? Nothing if its just gas, but if it has a hidden LT starbit (light terminus electromagnetic body) it will join the larger Sag A and the Fermi bubbles will fountain spreading hot over the outside edges of our galaxy as most of the galaxies NASA has examined.
March 26, 2014 at 6:25 PM
Wayne
I sometimes think about Doggerland in relation to long term climate change… Have you read “After the Ice” by Steven Mithen? It recounts a great deal of information about the transitional period between hunter-gathering and agriculture.
I didn’t forget fishing people, however, I just classified them in my head as a different sort of hunters. It strikes me as outlandish that modern factory fishing (with all its outrageous waste) is the industrial form of those ancient subsistence activities.