On: Meat based diets made us smarter

[m_eiman]

I'd guess that the higher population density in a farming civilization is more to blame for diseases than the food they're eating.

[chunkbot → m_eiman]

I believe the close proximity of animals and people (for the first time in history) is what was responsible for the new diseases.

Of course, the higher human population density means increased likelihood of contagion.

[kragen → chunkbot]

For most domestic animals, that is a possibility, but not for dogs.

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Origin_of_the...

"Archaeology has placed the earliest known domestication at potentially 30,000 BC, and with certainty at 7,000 BC....Perhaps the earliest clear evidence for this domestication is the first dog found buried together with human [sic] from 12,000 years ago in Israel."

And dogs came with many groups of hunter-gatherers in their intercontinental migrations.

[scott_s → m_eiman]

There's also the transfer of diseases from some of the animals we depend on.