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It is commonly believed that ancient foraging societies were deeply respectful and protective of the environment. Do you think this is true? Is...

I do not believe that all ancient foraging societies were as deeply respectful of the environment as we think. There were ways in which they were respectful of the environment, but they were not as careful of it as we tend to think.


It is true that some foraging societies did things that protected the environment.  The ancient Hawaiians would use a system called kapu, in which they would place various fish or plants...

I do not believe that all ancient foraging societies were as deeply respectful of the environment as we think. There were ways in which they were respectful of the environment, but they were not as careful of it as we tend to think.


It is true that some foraging societies did things that protected the environment.  The ancient Hawaiians would use a system called kapu, in which they would place various fish or plants under religious protection.  They would, for example, ban fishing for a specific kind of fish during a specific season of the year. In doing this, they were trying to ensure that they did not damage their environment too badly. This shows respect for the environment. Other ancient societies did similar things.


However, it is impossible to say that all ancient foraging societies respected the environment in all ways. The main evidence of this is the fact that certain societies hunted certain species into extinction (although there is some controversy over whether this really happened). The earliest Native Americans came in to a land with species that had never been hunted by people. Before long, many species (particularly megafauna) were extinct. The same sorts of thing happened in places like Australia and New Zealand.  Clearly, the ancient foraging societies in those places did not respect the environment so much that they refused to hunt species so intensively.


We tend to idealize ancient societies because we are worried about our own environmental impact.  We like to think they never damaged the environment so that we can say we should follow their example.  In my view, however, this is not true of all hunter-gatherer societies in ancient times.

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