A Night Unremembered
13 years ago
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Where Do We Live?
I was curious... Where do, by latitude, most people live? It appears that most people on the planet live in the northern hemisphere. I would expect that. But, according to anthropologists, we originated in Africa. East Africa. In an area around what is now Kenya. This would be in the northern hemisphere but it implies that the most prolific humans migrated north rather than south, but maybe not. Perhaps there was/is something about the northern hemisphere that increases birthrates. And/or was more conducive to long life.
I turned to the internet looking for maps of population and early human migration according to latitude. I couldn't find anything comprehensible... to me, that is.
It seems to me that humans seek out temperate zones. But these zones have some severe weather extremes (cold to warm) which are not as apparent in the sub-tropical zones... where many of the most ancient cultures originated.
The question is why?
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4 comments:
Very good question Douglas. I think it's due to the land in temperate areas being more fertile. Also, cooler weather slows the spread of contagious disease and makes it easier to work hard toiling the land - hence the improved health, productivity and wealth of the people who inhabit moderate/cold areas.
I'm not saying it's correct...or that it's not...and now that I think about it I feel like you might've blogged about it many years ago...but the book / documentary "Guns, Germs, and Steel" has some interesting theories on the topic.
"Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond explains it all -- how Western societies developed the agriculture, technology and immunities that allowed them to dominate much of the world for so long. I found it a very interesting, and convincing, book.
Good suggestion, guys. But why did hominids, in their early years, migrate north rather than south? There were (are) temperate zones to the south also. What prompted early man to head north instead? There's a lot of very hot (and barren, perhaps, at the time) to the north before you get into those temperate zones in the northern hemisphere. Yes, we tend to thrive in temperate zones, as Joe pointed out. But why northern hemisphere rather than southern?
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