At least that's the case for human civilizations across 30,000 years of history, according to a new analysis published May 1 in the journal Nature .
The study found that, across the globe, ancient human societies that experienced more setbacks were also quicker to bounce back from future downturns.
This seesaw between vulnerability and resilience was particularly strong among early farmers and herders, Riris and his colleagues found.
Agricultural communities throughout history experienced more downturns overall than other societies, such as hunter-gatherer groups, but they also recovered from these downturns more quickly than other groups.
"It's an important paper," said Dagomar Degroot , an associate professor at Georgetown University who studies how climate change influenced human history and who was not involved in the research.
All of the societies in the study were preindustrial and might have little in common with today's global order.
"It provides that overarching framework that will allow resilience to be tackled systematically," he said. »
