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[–]_another_voice 21 insightful - 1 fun21 insightful - 0 fun22 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

They ignore the domestication of animals which happened globally more than 10,000 years ago. It's absurd.

[–]MarkTwainiac 19 insightful - 1 fun19 insightful - 0 fun20 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yes, they do. But they also ignore that prior to the the dawn of agriculture, and the domestication of animals that followed, people of both sexes in gatherer/trapper/fisher/hunter societies had to be incredibly clued in to, and well versed about, the intricacies of plants, insects, birds, fish, amphibians & all the myriad various land-dwelling animals in order to eat & survive.

Though the stereotyped "hunter/gatherer societies" that used to be taught about in schools gave the impression that game meat from fairly large animals was the main source of protein prior to animal domestication, in fact most protein came from catching and eating insects, small animals & fish - and from stealing eggs from birds - as well as from nuts. This required people to be extremely observant & cognizant of all the behaviors of various species - including their mating, procreating and nesting habits, as well as how various species cared for their young.

My hunch is, long before the era of European colonization, most people all around the earth knew a whole lot more about biology and how species reproduced than the typical Spanish Conquistadors, French colonists, Dutch merchant seamen, Puritans etc from Europe who started colonizing the Americas and parts of Asia and Africa from the late 15th century on.

Also, contrary to the view of those who say the whole world was in the dark about biology & most everything else until whitey from Europe showed up, the fact is there are huge swathes of planet earth that Europeans never colonized - or colonized relatively recently in history (French in "Indochina" for example). Indeed, in many places - such as China and Japan - outsiders were prevented from visiting in large numbers - or at all - for considerable periods of those nations' history. Yet over the course of thousands of years when they weren't be being bullied & bossed around by white Europeans, the Chinese and Japanese somehow managed to procreate and feed themselves. What's more, the Chinese always knew which kind of human to kill at birth, or to subject to foot-binding & concubinage, or to make into beasts of burden in the fields. Similarly, the Japanese knew which kind of human could be warriors, and which ones geishas and domestic servants.