Health and the Rise of Civilization

* Book: Health and the Rise of Civilization. by Mark Nathan Cohen. Yale University Press, 1991

URL = https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300050233/health-and-the-rise-of-civilization/

Contextual Quote

""Any lingering ideas of social complexity equating with progress fell apart when we realized in the late 1970s that moving from hunting and gather agriculture almost always resulted in going down the ladder in terms of quality of life! Mark Nathan Cohen found that most societies that adopted agriculture for the first time, did so out of desperation, and that health measures decreased drastically after the transition! And Marvin Harris one of the big Materialist anthropologists of the 70, 80s and 90s found that every major increase in technological and social complexity was actually adopted out of desperation, and that people’s lives at first got worse each time, and that it was only worth it because the alternatives were even worse."

- Daniel Bitton [1]

Description

"Civilized nations popularly assume that “primitive” societies are poor, ill, and malnourished and that progress through civilization automatically implies improved health. In this provocative book, Mark Nathan Cohen challenges this belief. Using findings from epidemiology, anthropology, and archaeology, Cohen provides fascinating evidence about the actual effects of civilization on health, suggesting that some aspects of “progress” create as many health problems as they prevent or cure."