Garrett Dalton-Tender Carnivore free write

The Tender Carnivore tells a great narrative about the relationship between man and nature. The author argues that man today is less human than the man of the past because he has turned away from hunting and gathering towards agriculture. According to the author, there are so many advantages to be had in hunter-gatherer societies that the need for agriculture is negated. Man can survive by only using what it needs and at the same time preserve the environment by not overdeveloping the land. The author makes a compelling argument for a reverse in human tendencies away from farming and civilization toward a hunter-gatherer society. However, one of the ways the author supports his argument is by discounting history as a purveyor of propaganda against hunter-gathering societies. Anyone attempting to use historical trends to show the superiority of agricultural societies are automatically dismissed by the author as playing into the conspiracy against hunter-gatherers. The author even discounts present hunting groups such as the Bushmen or Eskimos as recent examples that do not represent hunting societies of the past and as such cannot be compared against agricultural societies. It would seem that the author's arguments would be more plausible if he could rely on the evidence and not delve into speculation and conspiracy theories.