From: ROCxolan@t-online.de   
      
   David E. Milligan wrote:   
   >         Stuff I didn't know much about. Interesting.   
   >         But that only reinforces my point -- Arminestra was much older   
   > than Shakti, which would mean that Gabrielle lived even longer than   
   > Xena than I first thought.   
      
   Sure. I was just trying to correct certain generalisations about   
   people's lives in past times. They may have lived simple, but not   
   necessarily extremely hard or miserable lives.   
      
   In fact, reading about history and pre-history makes you wonder about   
   the concept of progress in history. It seems to me that while progress   
   in certain senses can be made, of course, but many developments simply   
   go to quickly and when cultures/civilisations exercise too little care   
   for the future they're bound to get into trouble. Achieving balance   
   within a society and adapting it to the environment can last a very long   
   time, and this aspect is often vastly underrated. But without balance,   
   progress - whether technological or social - isn't worth much. There's a   
   recent book by Jared Diamond, "Collapse: How civilisations choose to   
   fail or succeed", that covers a lot of this territory.   
      
   The Agricultural Revolution is a prime example. A sedentary lifestyle   
   was something alien to humans before, and initially, it was more of a   
   step back than progress. Archaeologists have found that the health of   
   the first farmers was worse than that of the hunter-gatherers that   
   preceded them, and their diet much poorer in terms of variety and   
   nutritional value. Much later, they adopted animal husbandry, and this   
   problem began to subside. With the development of pastoral nomadism,   
   vast areas unsuitable for farming could be made productive and allowed   
   complex cultures to thrive in, especially when animals such as horses   
   and camels began to be used for transport.   
      
   With modern attempts to colonise many such areas employing intensive   
   agriculture, they become increasingly affected or threatened by   
   desertification, especially when the irrigation techniques are   
   inadequate. Desertification is an important reason why areas that now   
   appear bleak once hosted thriving civilisations, and it would be a grave   
   mistake to assume that their lives were miserable because the landscape   
   is so barren nowadays. Six thousand years ago, the Sahara had a   
   savannah-like vegetation and abounded of lakes and rivers!   
      
   Of course I do not want to go back and give up all comfort that modern   
   society brings with itself and I cannot close my eyes to the fact that   
   there were some downright nasty aspects to historical societies. But   
   while some things were bad, other things were better, many of them quite   
   important. Not to forget that some things that are good about the   
   present are too often pure theory, such as human rights. In short, I do   
   not want to romanticise the past. But it's high time to learn from   
   history (including periods and places that are little known or even   
   unknown to the general public, or not as well as they thought, or that   
   are starting to be re-evalued) and from societies more successful in   
   surviving over millennia, and we must learn quickly.   
      
   History is more than just an interesting pastime. History matters.   
   History is important, even vital to our lives - it's an essential   
   component to our lives. That's why I'm elaborating on this point so much.   
      
   >         I don't have the birth records, but I always felt like Xena   
   > was about 30 when she and Gabrielle met, and Gabrielle was 17 - 19.   
      
   Yeah, same here. I thought that when they met, Xena was pretty much as   
   old as Lucy was at the time (27), or even slightly older, and Gabrielle   
   perhaps as young as 16.   
      
   > So if they were together in their previous lives, then "Xena" died 10   
   > - 12 years before "Gabrielle".   
   >         I wonder if  Melinda outlived Janice, for a change.   
      
   Since Janice lived more dangerously, it wouldn't exactly be a   
   far-fetched possibility.   
      
   > Florian Blaschke"  wrote:   
   >> If you look at the population pyramid of a poor country, you'll see   
   >> that there are people above the age of 80.   
      
   after all.   
      
   --   
      
   Florian   
   GGGHD, MWFA, HCNB   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)