Why did all civilizations start near rivers?
Fresh drinking water – was the primary motive.Additionally, the settlement which is close have had easy access to other resources like Fish, Crabs and Oysters. Also, spotting and hunting of other earthly animals who visited river to drink water was certainly a plus.Slight progressive civilization also used the flow of water for agriculture and transportation purpose which carried trade into the picture.One particular civilization, called Mesopotamia, was established exactly between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in what is now the nation of Iraq. The importance was so much that it was required to keep peace among people living so closely together, they needed rules. King Hammurabi was the first known ruler who drew up the first recorded set of laws to maintain peace. The recorded punishments were pretty harsh which gives the clear impression about significance of the river in early days.
What would humans be like without civilization?
What would we be like in our natural state? Would we be like Neanderthals? Snarling beasts foaming at the mouth? Carnivorous, aggressive apes only concerned about hunting and breeding? Would human relationships even affect us? Was love intended for the natural human?
Has anyone considered leaving civilization, to live a life of peace and solitude in the wilderness?
I can totally sympathize with you; I often feel the exact same way. Like you I have read Into The Wild many times and find Mccandless to be an inspiration, his ideals are undoubtedly pure and good, this world would be a much better place if fewer people lived lives that were singularly focused on the accumulation of material wealth and instead focused on the simple beauty of experiences within the natural world. I cannot recommend highly enough that you take some time to travel the country and live away from the confines of 21st century civilization. One of the best experiences of my life was my trip across America last summer. At just 18 I took a few weeks off from work and hitched across the country, I was able to take side trips through Yellowstone and Canyonlands national parks (taking extended backpacking trips through each). I wouldn’t trade my experiences for anything; the simple beauty of the American west is unmatched. I also met some amazing people in the course of my travels. I cannot wait to take a longer trip once I finish University. Take your trip you will not regret it, and one thing is for sure: you will never be the same again. As for supplies your list is a good start. Additional things i would bring: -Duck Tape -A good sleeping bag -Sleeping pad -You might want to look into Hennessy Jungle Hammock. If you are anywhere that rains a lot for an extended period and are not building a permanent shelter you are going to want more than a tarp believe me I have done it both ways. The Hammocks are extremely light and packable and can be set up anywhere. -Depending on your exact plans a small caliber rifle for hunting may be a good idea -I would also bring a fly rod and flies with you rather than just line and hooks. -A good pair of boots and wool socks are essential, the advice on bringing an additional pair of sandles is spot on as well -I would also bring an axe Definitely carefully think through your supply list. Maybe do a trial run for a week or something once you are out in the wilderness you realize real fast what you need and what you don't. It may seem like you are bringing a lot of stuff but compared to the material excess of many people today it's nothing, and everything you are bringing is necessary to your survival/well being.
Why did ancient civilizations develop in river valleys?
River valleys not only have water, they also often have a broad, flat floodplain that is readily adapted to agriculture. Even the earliest, least sophisticated agricultural techniques would have been effective in yielding a significant bounty of crops from the naturally-irrigated and fertile soil of a river valley.All the river valleys were civilizations have originated — Mesopotamia (the valleys of the Tigris and the Euphrates), the Nile, the Indus, the Yellow River, the Rio Balsas — have been geographically located in tropical or sub-tropical latitudes. Thus there was not only plenty of water from these rivers, but also plenty of sunshine. Often the land beyond these river valleys was utterly barren, as in Egypt with the Nile Valley: beyond the immediate flood plain of the Nile, the hills are barren and no agriculture is possible at all.The Nile had the most dependable annual flooding, so that early agriculture was able to produce multiple crops per year without irrigation, as the irrigation took place naturally because of the annual flooding of the Nile. The Indus and the Yellow river also flooded regularly, but were not as predictable as the Nile.The plentiful sun and plentiful river water meant that multiple crops could be raised each year, and the food surplus made possible by river valley agriculture meant that these societies could support growing populations, and that not everyone was forced to farm in order for there to be sufficient food for all. Individuals could specialize in crafts like building, pottery, metallurgy, and eventually even tasks like writing (record keeping), and government, thus allowing civilizations to be born.As farming techniques were gradually improved over thousands of years, and inventions like the plow and irrigation were made, human communities moved beyond these river valleys and established what is known as the “First Temperate Neolithic,” that is say, farming communities made possible by more advanced farming techniques that could be adapted to geographical regions others than fertile river valleys in tropical and sub-tropical regions.
Are there any Native Americans still living the old life?
There are individual Indians who are living the old ways as closely as possible.The Navajo are a good example.There are many of the old ones living in Hogans still and practice sheep raising.Acoma and the other Pueblos are still being occupied and recently I read an article of a 100 year old Cherokee woman in Oklahoma that ;spoke only Cherokee,had no running water,lived off the land and it was so refreshing.My tribal people used to gather often and camp and we lived in tipis or tents and sang and danced,but then we`d always go back to our houses,but there are still some of them that live pretty close to many of the old ways.I imagine that many people native and otherwise have thought about pursuing the old life.It seems so refreshing to think about.I like modern conveniences,but not many of the problems and drawbacks involved with todays society.
If the Earth is 4.5 billion years old and humans have only been around for a few hundred thousand years, how do we know there have not been many more civilizations and species before us?
The Universe is 13.7B years old. The Earth has not existed since the moment the Universe was created and is about 4.5B years old and is made out the debris of two previous generation of stars.Life on Earth started shortly after the temperatures cooled down, about 3.7B years ago. Up until 600M years ago, life was predominantly single-celled organisms. From 600M years until now, the variety of life that we see evolved.Humans started to separate from the rest of the great apes about 7M years ago and we became modern humans 200k years ago.Life has immense complexity and we don't see species arising multiple times. It's just incredibly unlikely. Like a [math]10^{-500}[/math] chance -- like winning the lottery 100 times in a row. This would never happen even if there was an Earth-like planet around every star in the Universe, with the entire population of human-like creatures playing the lottery once every second for the entire age of the Universe (past and present).But there is a very reasonable question about how much we know about the period of time in between when life formed and 600M years ago. Could there have been multiple cycles of complex life that then collapsed back down to single cell life? After all, that's 3B years, 5 times longer than this last period when we went from single celled organisms to us (evolving trees, fish, flowers, multiple epochs of dinosaurs, mammals and yes, humans). From my reading, we have pretty strong evidence against this. The evidence is in chemical traces of life that we use to infer the existence of old life. If there had been vast boom-bust cycles we would see more variety in these chemical markers for life both varying in locations around the globe and also in the depth (which is a proxy for time).When you start thinking about what needs to be done to take a hot rock that's a lot like a global volcano and turn it into the pristine environment that we see, you realize that it takes a lot of time. The atmosphere and oceans were toxic to modern multicellular life and early life had to separate out all the nasty chemicals. This took a lot of time. Even so, it certainly seems like life took its sweet time and then got in a huge hurry over the past 600M years.