Problem is we are not herbivores. And especially back then when we didn’t have global access to food when ever we wanted being a vegan would be almost impossible in certain locations.
There is basically no pre-modern society or culture that could pull off being vegan.
But there are plenty of vegetarian cultures that have lasted a while on eggs and dairy. Buddhism and Jainism have a history of vegetarianism tracing back literally millennia. Some European religions and groups refrained from eating meat from terrestrial animals, but many of these groups still ate fish.
Veganism in the pre-modern world wasn’t feasible. It’s feasible today mainly through our modern agricultural supply chains and modern understanding of nutrition: flaxseeds and chia seeds (or processed algae oil) for omega-3, cultivation of certain yeasts for B12, etc.
New world agricultural societies were pretty vegan. Mesoamerican societies only really had turkeys, and the peasants wouldn’t have access to turkey meat regularly. You can survive off Tres hermanas (beans corn and squash) pretty well. Andean cultures were similar, they had llamas and guinea pigs but they were a very small part of a diet of mostly potatoes, quinoa, beans and tomato.
That’s fair. I’ll admit my knowledge of ancient civilizations and agriculture are very much old-world focused, and even in the new world I’m more familiar with the cultures in the modern day geographical bounds of the United States, with perhaps more hunting, trapping, and fishing than the large Mesoamerican civilizations and their highly populated cities.
we didn’t have global access to food when ever we want
This cuts more towards herbivory then carnivory, especially in agricultural societies plant based foods were more available then animal based foods. If you were a pre-modern peasant you were eating meat very rarely, the poorer you were the more rare it was.
It’s only with modern agriculture that meat is a core part of the average person’s diet.
Problem is we are not herbivores. And especially back then when we didn’t have global access to food when ever we wanted being a vegan would be almost impossible in certain locations.
There is basically no pre-modern society or culture that could pull off being vegan.
But there are plenty of vegetarian cultures that have lasted a while on eggs and dairy. Buddhism and Jainism have a history of vegetarianism tracing back literally millennia. Some European religions and groups refrained from eating meat from terrestrial animals, but many of these groups still ate fish.
Veganism in the pre-modern world wasn’t feasible. It’s feasible today mainly through our modern agricultural supply chains and modern understanding of nutrition: flaxseeds and chia seeds (or processed algae oil) for omega-3, cultivation of certain yeasts for B12, etc.
New world agricultural societies were pretty vegan. Mesoamerican societies only really had turkeys, and the peasants wouldn’t have access to turkey meat regularly. You can survive off Tres hermanas (beans corn and squash) pretty well. Andean cultures were similar, they had llamas and guinea pigs but they were a very small part of a diet of mostly potatoes, quinoa, beans and tomato.
That’s fair. I’ll admit my knowledge of ancient civilizations and agriculture are very much old-world focused, and even in the new world I’m more familiar with the cultures in the modern day geographical bounds of the United States, with perhaps more hunting, trapping, and fishing than the large Mesoamerican civilizations and their highly populated cities.
So you are saying these ancient cultures didn’t use animal products? Yeah, I’m gonna call BS.
This cuts more towards herbivory then carnivory, especially in agricultural societies plant based foods were more available then animal based foods. If you were a pre-modern peasant you were eating meat very rarely, the poorer you were the more rare it was.
It’s only with modern agriculture that meat is a core part of the average person’s diet.
Then, (within this framework) it is god’s way of saying humans shouldn’t live in the place you are referencing?