Betty Lou The First Berry Cultivator—Part 2

Life was comfortable, simple, and safe for Betty Lou's People. They had a rich social life—spending their days in close contact and working cooperatively together. No one was considered the leader. It was a very democratic group. They fairly shared food and other resources. Everyone had a role to play, and the life of the small band flowed quite peacefully from day to day.

The People's hunters were all men—the younger, stronger, and faster males. A party of three to five of them would embark on a hunt that could last for several days and cover a lot of territory. They would injure an animal (their weapons were not at all powerful) and then have to track it for days, until it finally fell and died. If they were successful, they'd return to camp with a bunch of meat which got equally divided among members of the clan.

The band's gatherers were mostly women, accompanied and assisted by a few older children. Betty Lou was a key member of the gathering group. She was a little healthier, stronger, and more curious than most of her cohorts. She and her team might be gone a couple days, seeking high calorie foods such as roots, nuts, tubers, and berries. Their contribution to the clan's diet was in some ways more crucial than the men's—who sometimes returned home empty handed. Betty Lou and her teammates often carried heavy loads on their return—as much as 70 pounds or more.

On their way out and upon returning from their foraging activities, the women would carry food that could be stored (such as roots and nuts) but eat nutritious food along the way that would otherwise quickly spoil. One day, on the way back to camp, Betty Lou spotted some juicy berries behind a little hillock. Knowing that they'd not keep, she quickly ate them for a boost of energy and continued on home. Upon arriving she relieved herself behind some bushes and then joined in the sharing process.

A couple of months later Betty Lou was headed for her favorite spot to defecate, when she spotted some new shoots growing from her previous deposits. Little did she know at the time that, after returning from her last foraging trip and eating berries along the way, she had pooped out the seeds which had now sprouted.

Being an inquisitive and observant type, Betty Lou looked more closely at the tender leaves and noted that they looked very similar to those of the berry bush from which she'd enjoyed a tasty snack. “Hmmm,” she thought, “I wonder what's happening here. Seems to be something important.” Being also a patient Person, she decided to keep a close eye on this little plant. Sure enough, in another few weeks berries began to form.

Betty Lou wasn't at all sure how this happened, but her curiosity was definitely piqued. She ran a few more simple “crappy” experiments over the next several months and began to realize she was onto something. Slowly she developed the understanding that berries could be cultivated and even came to understand that it was the hard little indigestible pits that caused the berries to grow.

As she grew older—she reached the ripe old age of 53—Betty Lou honed her skills at cultivating berries and a few other plants that the clan ate. She passed her knowledge on to other women and her clan prospered. Eventually the news spread to other clans: all their food did not have to be gathered from the wild and they did not have to rely on the fickle fortunes of nature to provide them food. Some of it could be grown by poking a hole in the ground and dropping in a seed. Human beings were on their way to an agricultural society. And the Africans and early Sumerians were grateful enough that they faithfully kept Betty Lou's story alive for a few millennia, until it could be written down.

[Note: Although I took some liberties with the “facts” on the Sumerian archeological finding, the account of how our hunter-gatherer forebears transitioned to cultivators is probably pretty accurate.]