<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Decades ago I spent a wonderful afternoon with an English thatcher who described farms in eastern Europe where they grow the traditional forms of wheat that produce the best thatching straw. The grain, he said, is a by-product. <div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Bob<br class=""><div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Dec 18, 2021, at 5:17 PM, Bruce EBNet <<a href="mailto:bruce@ecobuildnetwork.org" class="">bruce@ecobuildnetwork.org</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" class=""><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div>Baleheads -<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I’ve been reading and enjoying <i class="">The Dawn of Everything</i> (highly recommended!) which upends the mythic narratives we all grew up with about early humanity and the dawn of agriculture and civilization.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">The passage quoted below jumped out at me bigly, hope you enjoy, too.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">warm solstice greetings in grave times,</div><div class=""><br class=""><div class="">
<div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;" class="">Bruce King<br class="">(415) 987-7271</div><div style="text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;" class=""><i style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class="">Reducing emissions is essential<br class="">Reversing emissions is even better:</i><br class=""><a href="https://www.ecobuildnetwork.org/projects/new-carbon-architecture" class="">The New Carbon Architecture</a></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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<br class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div dir="ltr" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif;" class=""><h3 style="margin-top: -7px; font-weight: normal; font-size: 17px; color: rgb(26, 26, 26); line-height: 20px; text-align: center;" class="">NOTES FROM</h3><h1 class="booktitle" width="80%" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Palatino, Times, serif; font-size: 35px; color: rgb(26, 26, 26); line-height: 38px; text-align: center; width: 640.796875px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: -5px;">The Dawn of Everything</h1><h2 style="margin-top: -20px; font-weight: normal; font-size: 23px; color: rgb(26, 26, 26); line-height: 26px; word-break: break-word; text-align: center; margin-bottom: 46px;" class="">David Graeber & David Wengrow</h2><div class="separator" style="background-color: rgb(215, 215, 215); margin: auto; width: 680.84375px; height: 1px;"></div><div class="annotation" style="width: 680.84375px; margin: auto;"><div class="annotationheader" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Palatino, Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; padding-top: 36px; margin-bottom: 6px; display: inline-block; width: 680.84375px;"><div class="annotationchapter" style="color: rgb(52, 52, 52); float: left; margin-bottom: 5px;">The revolution that never happened: how Neolithic peoples avoided agriculture</div></div><div class="annotationcontent" style="text-align: justify; margin-top: 7px;"><div class="annotationselectionMarker yellow" style="background-color: rgb(255, 226, 125); height: 133px; width: 3px; display: table-cell;"></div><div class="annotationselectioninnermargin" style="width: 10px; display: table-cell;"> </div><p class="annotationrepresentativetext" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Palatino, Georgia, serif; color: rgb(35, 35, 35); font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px; margin-top: 0px; display: table-cell;"><i class="">Today we consider straw a by-product of cereal-farming, the primary purpose being to produce food. But archaeological evidence suggests things started the other way round. Human populations in the Middle East began settling in permanent villages long before cereals became a major component of their diets. In doing so, they found new uses for the stalks of wild grasses; these included fuel for lighting fires, and the temper that transformed mud and clay from so much friable matter into a vital tectonic resource, used to build houses, ovens, storage bins and other fixed structures. Straw could also be used to make baskets, clothing, matting and thatch.</i></p><div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px; color: rgb(35, 35, 35); margin-top: 24px; margin-bottom: 28px;" class=""><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: rgb(215, 215, 215); margin: auto; width: 680.84375px; height: 1px;"></div><p class="excerptfrom" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Palatino, Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px; color: rgb(148, 148, 148); text-align: center; margin-top: 30px; margin-bottom: 17px;">Excerpt From</p><div style="width: 640.796875px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" class=""></div><p class="citation" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Palatino, Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px; font-weight: bold; text-align: center; width: 640.796875px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: -10px;">David Graeber & David Wengrow. “The Dawn of Everything.” Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Apple Books. <br class="">This material may be protected by copyright.</p><p class="storelink" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Palatino, Georgia, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; width: 640.796875px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: -12px;"><a href="https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-dawn-of-everything/id1548292642" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);" class="">Available in Apple Books</a></p></div><br style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif;" class=""><br style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif;" class=""><div dir="ltr" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif;" class="">Sent from my pad thing</div></div></div></div>-- <br class="">GSBN mailing list<br class=""><a href="mailto:GSBN@lists.sustainablesources.com" class="">GSBN@lists.sustainablesources.com</a><br class="">http://lists.sustainablesources.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gsbn<br class=""></div></blockquote></div><br class=""></div></body></html>