From my very limited knowledge of history I would wager a guess that humans went gradually from 'natural forces are more powerful than us, therefore godlike' to 'our human-shaped god has given us the power over nature and we must tame it' to 'ooops neither seems to be correct, what do now?'. Quite a few sustainable approaches had been implemented by traditional societies in the past, and we should learn from what worked back then and combine it with what works now. No need to copy the past 100%, no need to reinvent the wheel every week.