Did We Domesticate Plants--or Did They Domesticate Us? The Answer Might Not be so Clear.

00:13:57
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzmH1kZA_iQ

Zusammenfassung

TLDRThe video discusses the significance of Çatalhöyük, an ancient settlement where around 8,000 people lived closely together around 7,000 BC. It highlights the innovations that arose from this community, particularly in agriculture and domestication, which fundamentally changed human society. The narrative explores the dual relationship between humans and domesticated plants, emphasizing how this dependency led to increased labor and technological advancements. However, it also addresses the negative consequences of agriculture, such as health declines and environmental degradation. The video concludes with reflections on the need for a long-term vision and a shift in human values towards sustainability and stability.

Mitbringsel

  • 🏛️ Çatalhöyük was a densely populated settlement around 7,000 BC.
  • 🔍 Innovations included mirrors and belt hooks, showcasing early creativity.
  • 🌱 Agriculture created a dependency between humans and domesticated plants.
  • ⚙️ Increased labor led to further technological advancements.
  • ⚠️ Agriculture also brought health declines and environmental issues.
  • 🔄 Humans often fail to consider the long-term implications of technology.
  • 🌍 A shift in values towards sustainability is necessary for the future.

Zeitleiste

  • 00:00:00 - 00:05:00

    The video discusses the early settlement of Çatalhöyük around 7,000 BC, where approximately 8,000 people lived in a densely packed community without streets, moving on rooftops. This period marked significant innovations, including the invention of mirrors and belt hooks, as well as the domestication of plants and animals, which laid the foundation for agriculture and civilization. However, this agricultural development also led to a dependency on these domesticated plants, creating a cycle of entanglement between humans and their environment, where humans had to work harder to sustain their agricultural practices.

  • 00:05:00 - 00:13:57

    As agriculture progressed, it brought about negative consequences such as environmental degradation, health declines due to less diverse diets, and the spread of diseases. The video emphasizes that while humans are adept at inventing technologies, they often fail to consider the long-term implications of their actions. It suggests that a reevaluation of our desires and lifestyles may be necessary for a more stable and fulfilling existence, rather than relying solely on technological advancements.

Mind Map

Video-Fragen und Antworten

  • What is Çatalhöyük?

    Çatalhöyük is an ancient settlement in Turkey, inhabited around 7,000 BC, known for its densely packed community without streets.

  • What innovations emerged from Çatalhöyük?

    Innovations included the invention of mirrors, belt hooks, and methods for managing hair, reflecting a time of significant creativity.

  • How did agriculture affect human society?

    Agriculture led to a dependency on domesticated plants and animals, which in turn required humans to work harder and innovate further.

  • What are the negative consequences of agriculture?

    Negative consequences include health declines due to less diverse diets, increased disease transmission, and environmental degradation.

  • What lesson does Çatalhöyük teach us about technology?

    It highlights that while humans are good at inventing, they often fail to consider the long-term implications of their technological advancements.

  • How should we approach technological change?

    We may need to change our way of being and reevaluate our wants and demands for a more stable and fulfilled life.

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Untertitel
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Automatisches Blättern:
  • 00:00:01
    (birds chirping)
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    (cowbell ringing)
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    (owl hooting)
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    (footsteps)
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    (ominous music)
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    - If you had sort of rolled up to Çatalhöyük
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    over 9,000 years ago, as you came across the landscape
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    you see this great mound in, in the distance where
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    around 7,000 BC, about 8,000 people started to live together
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    in a very densely packed community.
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    They lived so closely together
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    that they had no streets
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    so they moved around on the, the roofs of houses and went
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    down ladders through the houses.
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    So much had to be invented.
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    All these processes that make up a city life.
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    We're just digging up for the moment, the first mirrors
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    you know, so people had to invent mirrors.
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    They
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    had to invent belt hooks.
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    They had to find ways of holding their hair together.
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    It's a very, very innovative time.
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    You know, you can see people trying things out
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    tinkering with what we take for granted.
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    I think the sort
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    of way that we see the environment was not possible
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    before Çatalhöyük because the main changes
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    the main interventions are
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    are to do with domestication of plants and animals.
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    Agriculture is the, the building block of civilization
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    as we understand it.
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    But it also was a trap into which humans got drawn.
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    (laughing)
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    You ready?
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    (soft music)
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    The story starts small scale,
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    but you'll have to talk to Dr. Ceren about why.
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    - You know how some people think little bunnies are cute.
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    That's the way I, I see my little plants.
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    We built up a dependency on them and
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    they built up a dependency on us and here we are.
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    How? Yeah okay. I'll try.
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    (laughing)
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    So you really understand it when you actually
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    see what happens to grass.
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    I've got domesticated and I've got wild.
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    Yeah. And this guy you don't really even have to pull at it.
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    It'll just fall and sort of break away.
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    Yeah.
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    And that's what shattering means
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    this is their wild seed dispersal mechanism.
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    They'll break away from the ear.
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    They'll fall in the ground and they'll dig themselves in.
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    But some small portion of the wild shattering ones
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    will actually have non shattering ears.
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    (soft music)
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    - The archaeobotanist's talk about that as a random event.
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    But then the question is, why did it become selected for
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    and that that's to do with humans.
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    If you're gathering plants from a field
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    the seed is what you want.
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    So you keep selecting ones that are
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    that are easy to collect.
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    You are less likely to collect the ones that are shattered.
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    They're all scattered over the place.
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    - [Dr. Ceren] Through time the non shattering ears
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    became more prevalent and that's what became domesticated.
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    - But as a sort of unintended offshoot of that
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    the plants couldn't reproduce themselves anymore.
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    The seeds got stuck onto the stalk of the plant.
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    - We actually have to physically go and pull the ears apart.
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    If you had a fully ripe ear and you didn't pick it
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    or you didn't harvest it, it might actually rot on the ear.
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    - So the plant is entirely now dependent on humans.
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    And so if humans want to continue, depending on that plant
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    they get drawn into planting it and looking after it.
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    The first entanglement,
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    sewing and plowing
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    and harvesting and, and winnowing and, you know
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    grinding it, it is, it's all just small work.
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    And one way of dealing with the problem
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    of needing more work is, is that you just increase
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    your population size.
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    All around the world, whether it's maze or yams.
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    Maybe you get agriculture
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    you get increases of people.
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    One way of looking at it is that what really is going
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    on here is that the domestic plants are doing really well
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    out of this.
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    And what they've done is they've domesticated us.
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    You know, they they've forced us to, to look after them.
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    Entanglement.
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    That dual process that started in the Neolithic.
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    We got dragged into doing things
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    and we had to work harder to do those things.
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    And in order to work harder, we invented new technologies.
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    And those technologies involved us working yet harder.
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    Or doing more complex things.
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    And therefore we had to create more technologies.
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    (somber music)
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    So there's a spiral between the humans and technologies.
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    Agriculture, it definitely comes with its negatives.
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    Urbanism.
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    Pollution
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    - Environmental degradation.
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    You know, as soon as we got agriculture you see
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    that a decline in health on the skeletons.
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    Partly to do with the, the less diverse diet,
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    but it's also to do with diseases jumping across
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    from animals.
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    These incredible negatives, but they just carry
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    on doing the same thing.
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    On and on, in an endless spiral.
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    (shovel scraping)
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    - It's between 7,000, 6,000 BC.
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    This specific person
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    I would not know what to pinpoint an exact date, but
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    long long time.
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    Humans started to modify their environment.
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    The domestication of both plants and animals.
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    Yeah. Big changes that
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    of course affects culturally biologically, all of us.
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    (soft music)
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    You think about your position
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    with respect of all the millennia that preceded us
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    and you wonder about possible changes on the future.
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    You cannot stop this ability of our species to change.
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    It's pretty much like trying to stop a river.
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    (soft music)
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    - You know, I think, I think we have to accept that
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    that's one of the distinctive things about us
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    is that we are sort of manically concerned
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    with temporality and change.
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    And so, you know
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    we do things and then the consequences emerge later.
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    (somber music)
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    So from a young person, is it?
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    - Well, it's looks like a male, maybe about
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    maybe 30.
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    - The question is whether we can go
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    on finding a technological solution.
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    That's the great worry is that sustainable long term.
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    (tractor rattling)
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    The lesson from Çatalhöyük
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    is that humans are are very good inventing things, but they're very
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    very bad at working out what the implications are.
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    You know we don't have a long term vision,
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    particularly nowadays.
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    We don't have a sense of the long term impacts
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    of what we do.
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    And I think that's something that archeologists
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    can really point to.
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    Really long term.
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    (laughing)
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    (indistinct talking)
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    (hammering)
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    Do we sort of pull back from this
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    and say, you know, technological change is not
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    gonna be the answer we have to change ourselves.
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    We've got to change our way of being
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    to reorient ourselves and and what our wants and demands are
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    and trying to reevaluate what it is to be,
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    to lead a fulfilled and happy life.
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    And, and maybe one that has instant change and
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    and activity is, is not ... isn't as good
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    as one that has more stability and, and, and continuity.
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    (somber music)
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    (birds chirping)
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    (cow bell ringing)
Tags
  • Çatalhöyük
  • agriculture
  • domestication
  • innovation
  • environment
  • technology
  • sustainability
  • health
  • urbanism
  • cultural change