Settled Agriculture In Early Africa Essay

“In some cases the hunter gatherers adopted the neighboring system of food production…” (Page 108)

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

People of the early African kingdoms were able to create successful trade routes with Europe and Asia, become very wealthy from conquering and gaining land, and were able to have a strong central government. All of this was done before the Europeans had reached Africa. Trade flourished on the East African coast, especially when trading was established with India and Arabia. African kingdoms were prosperous, because of their success with not only trading but also with their ability to conquer land. A governmental structure is key to allowing any kingdom to thrive, and the African people were able to achieve this.

Farming initially developed in the Middle East, the Fertile Crescent. Grains such as barley and wild wheat were abundant. Also, not heavily forested, and animals were in short supply, presenting a challenge to hunters. 10,000 BCE to 8,000 BCE. Notice: it took thousands of years for this “revolution” so not fast but profound for history. Agriculture was hard for many hunting and gathering peoples to adopt – lots of work. Those in agricultural communities developed diseases, which they became immune. The agricultural people would unintentionally infect the hunters.

The early civilizations of Africa were different in many of their cultural traits. One common trait they did have in common was the importance of trade in their society. Although trade was good for the African civilizations, there was consequences that followed trading. I will be using documents B, F, and D to support how early African civilizations had consequences from trading. In document B it states that, “The door of the pavilion is guarded by dogs on an excellent breed… who wear collars of gold and silver,” this quote helps support the idea that Ghana had lots of gold and wealth.

In the Middle East they ate wild grains with the helps of sickles. In the Amazon they had learned to cut back on some to plants to encourage growth of favored ones. Horticulture varied from each region .

Compare and contrast life in foraging societies with life in agricultural societies after the Agricultural Revolution

When people first shifted to agriculture, they abandoned their nomadic past in favor of a stationary lifestyle. As a result, new ideas and culture initially began to be transferred less and less. However, with the advent of agriculture also came the emergence of pastoralists. Such people became the critical vectors of cultural and technological exchange, representing one of the first globalizations of the world. Whereas civilizations had no means to establish trade routes, pastoralists naturally came across civilizations as they travelled with their grazing animals. With such

One way pastoral nomads lived a different lifestyle than transhumant herders was through agriculture. First, agriculture was a big part of the nomad’s lifestyle. The earliest sign of agriculture is in Southwest Asia and was their main form of survival which included planting crops and domesticating animals. Agriculture gave people a regular food supply, and eventually was able to produce surpluses of food (pg.7). Thus, surpluses of food allowed for large populations and for labor specialization. Large populations and labor specialization led to social classes which ranked from highest to lowest was: elites (kings, religious leaders), commoners (craftsmen/farmers), and slaves. As wealth and social standings grew, so did the gender gaps. Women were thought of as being the first to begin the systematic care of plants, while men began to capture animals and domesticating them (pg.7). Transhumant herders lived a much different lifestyle than those of the nomads.

Anna Belfer Cohen and A. Nigel Gorring-Morris. 釘ecoming Farmers: the Inside Story.Current Anthropology, Vol 52, No. S4 (October, 2011): n pag. The Origin of Agriculture: New Data, New Ideas. Web. 20 Nov. 2013.

One of the greatest revolutions in the history of homo sapiens was the adoption of agriculture, which changed the face of communities at every level of class. Though this change was built upon new ideas and allowed us to provide more food for more people, was it in fact a positive change at the time? Today in 2017, we can all look around and see where the agricultural revolution has gotten us in the long run, but authors such as Yuval Noah Harari (2011) claim that during the infancy of the agricultural revolution, life for the average citizen was often a worse one than that of the common forager. A change in food production created many other changes, such as permanent human settlement, biologically unconventional labor, and a larger population density. This paper explores the pros and cons of the agricultural society and the hunter-gatherer society

To increase production, a family had to invest in more labourers and thus increase their share of land. The simplest and quickest way to do this was to invest in slaves. To help service this demand, many early African societies conducted slave raids on distant villages, this was with the idea of having Africans work for Africans but ones of a different ethnic background, and after slavery was abolished by Europe domestic slavery grew, many slaves were made to work on clove plantations in Zanzibar for example.

Jared Diamond is a professor of Geography at UCLA and a world traveler. He believes that in the past 13,000 years of human history, agriculture has lead humans to conquer, develop and prosper and therefore cause the rise of civilizations. In 1972 he was in New Guinea when he met a local named Yali who asked him a simple question that took years for Diamond to answer. Yali said “Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo [goods] and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own”. [Work cited 7] Diamond was profoundly puzzled and couldn’t answer right away. In fact it took him many years to come up with what he thinks is the right answer. ‘Yali’s question’ plays a central role in Professor Diamond’s enquiry into ‘a short history of everybody for the last 13,000 years’, leading him into a wide-ranging discussion of the history of human evolution and diversity through a study of migration, socio-economic and cultural adaptation to environmental conditions, and technological diffusion. (Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel, p. 22-23)

The Bantu migrations had a vast influence on the development of Africa. The Bantu peoples passed on many concepts to the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa. Originating from Nigeria in the Niger River Valley, the Bantu migrated south and then spread to both the east and west. The Bantu laid the foundation for Sub-Saharan African societies. They spread agriculture, animal domestication, iron metallurgy, and cultural development throughout southern Africa. Various forms of government have developed as a result of the Bantu migrations. They also contributed to the start of many societies, including the Swahili city states. The adaptations the Bantu people learned, especially the making of iron, helped them to expand and spread their discoveries. As

Among the Mbuti, gathering as a mode of subsistence occupies a place of relatively little importance. But net hunting, in groups, takes up the greater portion of daily activity time. The Mbuti do not engage in much gathering of wild plants probably as a result of 400-500 years of contact with the agricultural Bantu. The Mbuti of today have little need to gather wild plants because they exchange game caught during their hunts for metal implements and agricultural produce [banana, cassava, sweet potato, rice, etc.]…The Mbuti divide into two groups; one is a group which uses bows, arrows, and spears as its basic method of hunting, and the second which uses nets. (Tanaka, 1978)