Comments by "bakters" (@bakters) on "The First Horse Riders | Horse Domestication on the Eurasian Steppe" video.

  1. "Chariots first" idea assumes that the wheel preceded horse riding. I'm not sure about that. Having a herd of pack animals, who can pull primitive sleds seems like a major improvement to mobility. Suddenly you don't need to carry all your belongings on your own back. 1. Taming and herding first. 2. Domestication. 3. Utilization as pack and draft animals. 4. The wheel, once it's absolutely obvious, because you do have a bunch of draft animals already. Where horse-riding comes into this picture? I don't know, really.
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  2.  @thebrocialist8300  Both early agrarians and early pastoralists went through a period of misery during their transition to a new lifestyle. The agrarians had very poor diet. Mostly grains, very little meat (no domesticated animals), most of vegetables were not domesticated, etc. They suffered accordingly. Similarly, pastoralists went through similar hardship when they started to rely on milk in large quantities. Lactose intolerance is still the norm among humans, so it definitely was for them too. Those who couldn't digest milk well, simply suffered. Apparently, it can be seen in their remains. Which lifestyle has more favorable selection toward innovation? It's probably settled lifestyle, simply because it allows for amassing wealth. Excess food production creates niches, which allow for new inventions that fit those new environments, but I'm not sure that the selection pressures are easy to distinguish. Plenty of important innovations came from the steppes. Definitely domestication of many animals, quite possibly the wheel, lots of cultural traditions (Zoroastrianism, Vedic religions), composite bow, probably more. Settled lifestyle allows for specialization, nomadic lifestyle encourages trade and exchange of ideas. Which one was more selective toward innovation? I simply can't tell. Eventually the issue totally disappeared, as pastoralism became a part of settled agriculture. Ever since it happened, it's a moot point.
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