http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/keyword/hunter_gatherer Inquiries Journal provides undergraduate and graduate students around the world a platform for the wide dissemination of academic work over a range of core disciplines. en-us Wed, 10 Jun 2026 01:56:10 -0400 Wed, 10 Jun 2026 01:56:10 -0400 http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/538/was-adopting-agriculture-our-biggest-mistake-challenging-the-progressivist-view-of-human-history By Kirsti J. Robertson - “The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race” is the embodiment of anti-progressivist theory. Jared Diamond challenges the claim “that human history over the past million years has been a long tale of progress,” with a rebuttal suggesting that our "worst mistake" was transitioning from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to one dominated by agriculture. Indeed, data collected from surviving hunter-gatherer populations shows “the average time devoted each week to obtaining food is only 12 to 19 hours for one group of Bushmen [and] 14 hours or less for the Hadza nomads... Wed, 08 Jun 2011 10:00 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/538/was-adopting-agriculture-our-biggest-mistake-challenging-the-progressivist-view-of-human-history