Agriculture And The Neolithic Revolution

The emergence of agriculture was a major stepping stone in human history. During this birth of agriculture, also known as the Neolithic revolution, humans began inhabiting permanent settlements, grow their own crops, and domesticate both plants and animals for food (Weisdorf, 2005). Considering humans have been hunter-gatherers for the majority of their approximately 7 million years of existence, the emergence of agriculture in the Old World only occurring 10,000-5,000 years ago, marks a significant transformation in food sustenance techniques (Weisdorf, 2005). However, this turning point in history is associated with both positive and negative implications. There is much controversy over whether or not the introduction of

The Neolithic Revolution was a very significant turning point in human history. It was the start of agriculture and the beginning of a settled life for us humans around 10,000 BC. Although several people strongly believe that this was a positive turning point in our history, they all continue to ignore the negative effects it brought along with it. Farming brought on a poor diet, disease, health defects, and inequality between people. That is why the Neolithic Revolution should be considered a negative turning point in human history.

The development of writing came from the need of central governments to organize and record public works projects. It was mainly the need to record taxes that funded these projects that promoted writing.

All throughout history, humans have come up with innovations that have brought both positive and negative changes to the way people live. This all started around 10,000 BCE, when people developed agriculture. The first nomads started off by moving from place to place, hunting and gathering food… but as people developed agriculture, they saved a lot more time. After agriculture developed, the humans learned many things such as farming and taming wild animals for their own use. This time in history was called the Neolithic Revolution… which lasted about 6,000 years, until 4,000 BCE. The big change in the way people got their food and how they lived, resulted to positive and negative changes of human innovations of the Neolithic Revolution. So,

The Neolithic revolution was a period of time that occurred during 10,000 - 9,000 B.C.E. Humans made the transition from hunting and gathering and being nomadic to being sedentary. During the neolithic revolution humans also developed social classes where the people who watched others work were at the top and the people who worked at the bottom. People have different opinions on the shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture during the neolithic revolution. Thinking about all of the things humans received from the neolithic revolution, it was not worth it. Human society would have been better off without the disease, the social classes, and starvation. Therefore, while the neolithic revolution brought many beneficial things to human society such as agriculture, and permanent housing, it brought more harm than good like modern day diseases and social classes.

The start of agriculture during the Neolithic Revolution led directly to the beginning of civilization. The Neolithic Revolution, which happened 10,000 years ago, was the shift from hunter-gathers to a food-producing culture meaning humans started to farm and domesticate animals. This was the catalyst to help create civilizations. We know now how to distinguish groups of humans from actual civilization if those groups have certain characteristics. Those characteristics are complex institutions, record keeping, advanced cities, specialized workers, and advanced technology. A result of the Neolithic Revolution is that more people were able to thrive since there was a surplus of food. These early civilizations were able to take advantage of the rivers and create irrigation systems to water their crops.

Political, economic, and social conditions have often led to turning points that have changed the course of history for nations and people. The Paleolithic Era and Neolithic Revolution was a turning point that changed the orbit of history for mankind. In Documents 1, 2, and 4, they explain life before the Neolithic Revolution and what changed during the period and provide an analysis of results of the revolution. They introduce food supply and settlement, and civilization and trade.

In the 1930's, V. Gordon Childe proposed that the shift to food production was one of the two major events in human history that improved the condition of human societies. Childe described the origins of agriculture as a 哲eolithic Revolution.But the shift from hunting and gathering to food production was not as advantageous to humanity as Childe believed. Although there were benefits, there were also serious drawbacks, and humans paid a price for the advantages of agriculture.

The Neolithic Revolution started in Mesopotamia, which is located in the river valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates in 12,000 to 8,000 B.C.E. due to the creation of agriculture leading certain societies to urban settlements and civilizations.

The Neolithic Revolution was a major change in the way people lived in 10,000 BCE. The transformation from hunting and gathering to agriculture led to stable settlement, the establishment of social classes, and inevitable boost of civilization. The Neolithic Revolution began with farming. The people domesticated animals and plants.

All the mass agricultural “advancements” were only solutions to the problems agriculture rose in the first place, such as: equality and social classes, human health, and disease. Human health is one of the reasons why agriculture hurt early humans.

The Neolithic Revolution is an important part of history; it changed the Nomad’s lifestyles for good. For example, instead of Nomadic hunters and gatherers, the Nomads instead grew and harvested their own crops because of agriculture and they also domesticated wild animals. The revolution also led to the development of civilizations. A civilization is a complex culture with five traits: advanced cities, advanced technology, record keeping, specialized workers and complex institutions. The four major civilizations are a region of Mesopotamia named Sumer, Egypt, Indus Valley and China. Archaeologists and historians have identified the Traits of Civilization in the Ancient River Valleys of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus and China.

The Neolithic 'Agricultural' Revolution greatly impacted our way of life today as well as when it was occurring. I believe that without it, we would not have achieved such a superabundance of available food, and we would not have made all the significant technological advantages that we see today. It changed us from primitive, barbaric masochists to ingenious, well-off farmers who were on their way to starting anew. Hunting and gathering used to be what all humans lived off of. Therefore, if their source of food and saturation migrated, they would migrate as well.

Agriculture spread in the Neolithic Era much like people spread in the Paleolithic Era. Agriculture spread a while after the people had all spread out. The main difference is that agriculture started and spread out of the Middle East instead of starting and spreading out of Africa like the people had done. By about 10,000 B.C. all the people had just about settled the world. Later from 8,000-5,000 B.C. is when agriculture started being used in the Middle East but not as a main source of food. The hunting of game animals was still the dominant source of food at the time. It was not until about 3,500 B.C. that agriculture could support most of the population in the Middle East.

Archaeologists often associate regions such as the Near East and Egypt, the Neolithic period and the formation of states often pose a pivotal point for many civilizations. At a high-level, the Neolithic period represents an era where humans began utilizing relatively contemporary hand tools. Examples include, but are not limited to, weaponry and chisels. The Neolithic era started approximately in 10,000 BC, and ended as late as 2500 BC (Department of Asian Art 2000). The concept of a state and its formation is in reference to the development of a central government, which then provides a region an unprecedented sense of autonomy and existence. Both of the aforementioned concepts can be seen as interconnected. Some of the earliest signs of state formation can be seen as early as 3000 BC. The approximate dates that have been mentioned are general, and are applicable at a global level. However, different regions reached different eras in their own ways. To analyse the process of going from stone tools to states, a look can be taken at northern China and Southeast Asia (Department of Asian Art 2000). The Neolithic settlements of concern are Nanzhuangtou in Northern China and the Hoabinhian in modern day Vietnam (Mourer 1977). The aforementioned Neolithic settlements were eventually succeeded by the formation of states, which can be loosely seen as an evolution of regional populations and development.