Religion And Ritual 's Effect On Neolithic Culture

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.

Around 8500 BCE, farming was discovered and the Neolithic Revolution began. This was the wide-scale transition of many human cultures from a lifestyle of hunting and gathering to one of agriculture and settlement. The Neolithic Revolution changes the way people lived and people's roles in society. Additionally, it caused science and technology to advance at an unprecedented rate. Though the Neolithic Revolution changes much of the human race, it never interfered with religion and the need to center society around food. The Neolithic revolution was a major turning point in history that changed the human society forever.

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.

The Neolithic Revolution began in Southwest Asia and other areas during 10,000 B.C.E to 3, 000 B.C.E (Council for Economic Education, 2012). The Neolithic Revolution also known as the Agricultural Revolution was a new way of life. Our society is constantly changing and moving forward. As a part of human culture, humans strive to learn, discover, create and evolve (Barber, n.d.). As a society, we have made many technological and social advancements, but have we ever taken the time to appreciate the past? The Neolithic Revolution is where it all began. Prior to the Neolithic Revolution, the early humans lived in the Paleolithic Age. This presentation will display life before the Neolithic Revolution and the shift that lead to some of the first social and technological advancements in history.

Before the Neolithic Revolution, which began around 8000 B.C.E., the first human species, Homo sapiens, appeared in Africa 2.5 million years ago. As they evolved, the humans developed new uses of tools to equip themselves properly to hunt and gather, which more so began around 750,000 B.C.E. While hunting and gathering was a successful way to survive as a society, it was very dependent on their surrounding environment, causing the people to have to constantly migrate as the game population fluctuated. Through tens of thousands of years , the people spread widely across the globe stretching from Africa, Mesopotamia (now known as the Middle East), Asia, Eastern Europe, and parts of Latin America. The ending point of this time period began as

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.

1.Three major cultural changes or contributions to the humanities that occurred between the Paleolithic period and the and the Neolithic period are the different techniques developed to hunt, the importance of the human figures, and the architecture. Different techniques to hunt were shown by looking at wall paintings, in the Paleolithic era paintings were found in deep caves and showed a realism of the animals they depended on for food, where as the Neolithic era paintings were located on smooth limestone, beneath cliff hangs, and in rock shelters these paintings showed the animals that they depended on for food also but these paintings showed the animals being hunted by human figures with bows and arrows. This shows that somewhere between the two eras humans developed a more efficient way to hunt and human figures became more important. Human figures were rarely known before the Neolithic era, wall paintings did not show them and sculptures of them were very rare except few female figures found from the Paleolithic age. In the Neolithic age, paintings not only showed the importance of human figures hunting but it showed them dancing, and fighting as a community. Architecture is not known from before the Neolithic period, very little survives because it was made out of material that disappeared long ago. The most famous piece of architecture from that era is the Stonehenge, not only was the Stonehenge believed to serve as a religious purpose, it also was known as a clock

The Neolithic era has greatly influenced modern day society with many practices that seemed fitting for creating a great society like permanent civilizations, social classes and the development of specialized jobs for different people such as Artisans,Merchants, and Warriors. Also, the development of profitable goods that can be traded or sold and the development of irrigation. These practices that were used in the Neolithic era are still used today and those ideas influenced a lot of modern day inventions or ideas.

The Neolithic revolution is a revolution because it profoundly affected the way human beings lived. During the Neolithic revolution people settled down, division of labor began, social inequality began, gender inequality began, the importance of surplus rose, and religious changes began. These were all the changes that happened during the Neolithic revolution. To this day some of these changes are still present.

In this article, anthropologist Richard Sosis hypothesis on Religious Signaling which religious custom advances groups cohesion by obliging individuals to participate in conduct that is too unreasonable to fake. In this manner, he contends that religious ceremonies are versatile in an evolutionary sense. Sosis endeavors to clarify religious ceremonies and taboos have concentrated on the otherworldly advantages of these practices, however, Richard claims there's an essential reason.

Hunter-gatherers, pastoralists and agricultural societies in the Neolithic/Paleolithic eras have definitely changed overtime and adapted and affected their environment. During the Bantu migrations, they encountered new, established societies that some were agricultural and others were hunter-gatherers. “ Farmers largely replaced foragers as the dominant people on the planet.”(283) This quote means that the hunter-gatherer practice decreased as the second-wave civilizations developed. In the Paleolithic era, hunting and gathering was the main way to get and maintain food. However, as societies grew overtime, the people adapted a new way of getting food which resulted in the hunting and gathering to decrease. Pastoralists on the other hand, they invaded China as well as other Nomads and ruled a few states in the Han Dynasty. “ These new conditions resulted in some loosening of the strict patriarchy of Han dynasty China… the cultural influence of nomadic peoples, whose women were far less restricted than those of China, was noticed… by more Confucian-minded male observers.”(236) The pastoral peoples that invaded China noticed the way women were treated, that is when they first adapted to the civilizations. Then, this affected their environment because they were very used to women who had less restrictions and when they came to China, the women were inferior and that is why it resulted in the patriarchy to loosen up a bit. With agriculture, In the Bantu speaking areas agriculture was preferred more than hunting and gathering. “ Their agriculture also was enriched by acquiring a variety of food crops from Southeast Asia… Bantu farmers then spread this agricultural package… throughout the cast area of eastern and southern Africa.”(284) The agriculture in Bantu locations was very popular as it was the basis of economy. The Bantu speaking people adapted to this rapidly because it was favored more than hunting and gathering. It affected their environment because their agriculture improved which resulted in different varieties of food. Overall, Hunter-gatherers, pastoralists and agricultural societies affected and adapted their environments over time.

The Paleolithic people shaped social development with hunters and gatherers always on the move. This socialization led to a break-through in farming where people no longer needed to wander around in search of animals, fish, or plants. Stone Age man though gave up his earlier ways of life gradually. The question still remains as to why the radical shift from foraging to farming. However, this eventual shift unfolded a time of transition to the establishment of permanent settlements, the formation of social classes, increasing populations, and the eventual rise of civilizations in Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, and India. Findings such as the Iceman and the unearthing of the villages of Çatalhöyük and Jericho have allowed archaeologists to learn a multitude about life during this

As a result of the Neolithic Revolution the ability to feed and support larger groups was possible and human population increased greatly as a result. The economy altered from hunter-gathering to being largely agricultural based. They also had more time that could be devoted to creating systematic societies that were better governed and experienced. These governments and laws would affect economies in the future by giving them examples and experiences on which they could base their systems on.

In order to keep their cultural and religious heritages existent new adaptations of religions begin to form after the invasion of the Europeans. The