A few tidbits:
Easter Islanders were most certainly more agriculturalists than they were horticulturalists. Even then, modern research is destroying the notion that the ecocide of their island was their “fault”.
http://www.marklynas.org/2011/10/the-easter-island-ecocide-never-happened-response-to-jared-diamond/
Norte Chico were more like horticulturalists who used irrigation to create forests and forests gardens, not to water crops on deforested lands (agriculture). They had a population increase and collapse as well. Intensification of anything can lead to small bursts of population and then a decrease. The point is that there is still a thriving ecosystem to live from as the population stabilizes to the new amount of food that is sustainably available.
What anthologists call “Slavery” on the NW Coast is more accurately described as “Captivity”. There were not generations of slaves. Most people we call “slaves” were captured during raids. These captives were not members of a large labor class, they made up a very small percentage of the population. The rank system was not a culture of systemic slavery the way civilization is. Captives didn’t put in anymore labor than anyone else to procure food. I won’t label this behavior as “good” or “bad”. It is what it is, and still, you can’t compare minimal captivity to systemic slavery. Or rather, you can, but one will look 10x more desirable.
Why not either... or both? I mean, obviously few people will jump right into immediate-return foraging in the near future. But rewilding is in large part about a long term future as well. Long term, I see no reason a return (perhaps sometimes a long term process though stages) to immediate-return hunting and gathering would not be an option for some. Plus I think it's somewhat bioregion-dependent, no?
Of course!
And yet, I have this impression that people think of “immediate-return” hunter-gatherers as not having to do much land management to get their food. The planet can support a ton of people if they tend the wild correctly. Rewilding to me, means learning to tend the wild to such an abundance that the crash is softer than it will be otherwise. This is why I don’t encourage people to run away to the wilderness, but to start cultivating the land towards more biomass/biodiversity. If everyone went back to hunting/gathering right now, they would most likely not understand how much is sustainable to take, or even how to take in such a way as to provide more later. Everything wild would be destroyed. I think learning to be an immediate-return hunter-gatherer starts with learning all the horticultural and land management practices there are out there so that you have all the tool necessary. Baby steps man!