I was watching an interesting show on PBS that offered an insightful theory. As everyone knows, modern man(kind) began it's first 50,000 years or so as hunter/gatherer societies; the men hunted and the women gathered. This, by necessity, had to be a mobile, nomadic existence. When the game was hunted out and the berries, oats, etc. were overpicked--time to move on, folks.
Modern civilizations did not begin their rise until our nomadic ancestors became farmers. When tribes settled in one place, villages expanded into ancient cities like Alexandria and Babylon around 5,000 years ago. The question posed by this PBS show was why these hunter/ gatherers settled down and became farmers.
Their theory was a woman created modern civilization. This woman, lets call her Mrs. Nanuke, noticed that around the scrap heap, where they scrapped the dishes, corn or oats or wheat was growing. She put two and two together and figured out that this localized bounty was growing from the bits of food being tossed on the trash heap. To follow up on her hunch, she started sticking kernels of corn in the ground instead of eating all of them. When a whole stalk began to rise, she knew she was on to something. So when Nanuke announced it was time to leave, she said "hold on there, mister. I got a crop coming in and we are not going anywhere". Reluctantly, Nanuke traded his bow for a hoe and civilization as we know it was born.
If you are thinking maybe it was a man who discovered the corn growing in the scrap heap, think again. Even 5,000 years ago, can you imagine a man taking out the garbage?
