The Agricultural Revolution: Augmentation and Dissemination Essay examples

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 replacement of the idle fallow with crops constituted the Agricultural Revolution. It was important because the new types of crops made allowed farmers to feed their animals more, which led to a greater amount of meat and improved diets. It had the greatest effect in England and the Low Countries.

The economic, social, and religious roles of women changed between the Paleolithic and Neolithic time periods. During the Paleolithic Age, women and men had equal position in society. They both helped in the raising of children and the act of obtaining food for their families. The role of women would soon change for the worse in the Neolithic time period. They were left with little social, economic, and religious status, and the large burden of raising children almost singlehandedly.

From the early prehistoric society until now, we often heard the word “adaptation”, which means the process of changing something or changing our behavior to deal with new situations. The ways people adjust their natural environment varies according to time, place, and tribe. Foraging is common way of adaptation that people uses for most of human history; however because of the population pressure, some people adopt agriculture to fulfill their need. This essay, will discuss the positive and negative aspects of life in hunting and gathering societies compared to the agricultural societies based on Martin Harris’ article “Murders in Eden” and Jared Diamond’s article “The Worst Mistake in the History of Human Race.”

The Neolithic Revolution was the major change in human life caused by the beginnings of farming. This revolution changed people’s lives in several ways. It changed the way people lived because before the Neolithic Revolution they relied on hunting and gathering food. It also changed the way they settled, because of this revolution they were able to live in villages for a long time, unlike before; they had to relocate often because their food source would become scarce.  The way civilizations lived changed because of the Neolithic Revolution. A civilization is a form of culture that consists of cities, advanced technology, specialized workers, complex institutions, and record keeping. The early river valley civilizations; which developed in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus, and China, had more similarities than differences. The river valley civilizations were similar when it came to their writing systems, inventions, and geography. However, they were also different when it came to writing systems and inventions.

In the period 6,000 B.C.E-1000B.C.E, economically agriculture by the Nile was different from agriculture by the Tigris and Euphrates, and culturally the Nile impacted religion differently than in Mesopotamia which religion was impacted by the Tigris and Euphrates, while interactions between humans and the environment where the same. Economically agriculture by the Nile was different from agriculture by the Tigris and Euphrates because agriculture by the Nile depended on helpful floods while agriculture by the Tigris and Euphrates depended on luck with the vicious rivers. Culturally the Nile impacted religion differently than in Mesopotamia while their religion was impacted by the Tigris and Euphrates.

willing to have low marginal cost or make absolutely nothing. Another reason was storage, the owners of these companies dominated the industry allowing them to charge whatever prices they want. For many it was too high and they were not able to afford it given they were already struggling to keep their property, “Changes in the Midwest farming between the earl 1800s and the present day are numerous, for example 90% of Americans lived and worked on the farms in the 1800s, then by the early 1900s that number had dropped to forty percent. Today, only two percent of Americans live and work on farms” (Arago, Web). The effect was that all farmers that could not keep up with the cost had to move away into urbanization. Due to the harsh conditions

Linda Ownes, in the article “Distorting the Past. Gender and the Division of Labor in the European Upper Paleolithic”, which was reviewed by Departmental of Anthropology, Center for the Advanced Study of Hominid Paleobiology of George Washington University, once stated that “the hunting of big game in prehistory has always been thought of as an activity that would be carried out by strong and able men, who would have the role of meatwinners, while women were busy taking care of young children and picking up some berries… Hence the importance of ‘Man the Hunter,’ and the less regarded and dependent role of ‘Woman the Gatherer.’” (Owens, 1). As the article progresses Owens proved the fact that early historians were largely men and many focused only on the male’s importance and point of view rather than on how Paleolithic and Neolithic men and women worked as a community to survive rather than a patriarchal society. “Distorting the Past early on lays out the extent to which ethnographic reports are biased and offer inaccurate data. This is, in fact, one of the factors

So, farming and agricultural systems have contributed greatly to the development of some of the world’s greatest powers, Mesopotamia, the USA, and China, by providing food to sustain populations in these countries.     To begin, the fortunate location of Mesopotamia made the growth of crops much more effective, due to the environmental conditions and fertile soil. Mesopotamia was located in a region known as the Fertile Crescent, due to the fertility of its farm lands. Since this civilization was located in an area that had always been notorious for high fertility rates, Mesopotamia had an advantage when it came to growing food crops. The proximity of rivers to Mesopotamia was also a factor in crop growth, as irrigation systems were created using the river to aid in the production of food.

During the Paleolithic Era, many humans around the world lived as part of hunter-gatherer societies. An important aspect of these foraging societies was obtaining food. As the dawn of agriculture came about in the globe, many of the earlier aspects of these societies had changed. In “An Edible History of Humanity” the invention of agriculture led many societies to develop new settlement patterns, religious beliefs, and ideas of social stratification all based on food production during the Neolithic Revolution. As more hunter-gatherer societies started using agriculture, many of their settlement patterns had changed.

The crops and animals that were developed or domesticated during the Neolithic Revolution include wheat, barley, sheep, goats, pigs, cattle, sorghum, yams, okra, black-eyed peas, rice, millet, soybeans, chicken, water buffaloes, taro, yams, coconut, breadfruit, bananas, citrus fruit, maize, beans, peppers, squashes, tomatoes, manioc, sweet potatoes, llamas, alpacas, mammoths, mastodons, and horses.Farmers spent most of their time dedicated to cultivating the plants. This was an adjustment because hunter-gathering roughly only took four hours out of their day. Men began to domesticate animals instead of hunting, while women cultivated plants. They also began to to track the patterns of the weather and when the different seasons to place which

Due to the introduction of agriculture, the Neolithic revolution hastily became the pinnacle of human development; It was the commencement of civilizations who produced culture, irrigation systems, and Religion. Since sustenance began to grow and create surplus, numerous individuals were granted the ability to abandon nomadic customs which were heavily regarded as the primary method of supplies in the Paleolithic period. Without the Neolithic revolution, human existence wouldn’t be equipped enough to later industrialize in future generations, nor would there be written language.

This period is known as the Neolithic revolution, which was the discovery of skills to produce and store foods and was the greatest revolution in mankind’s history. Skills like hunting and gathering were apart of the first system where the collection of items would translate to the production is the first time human labor was split into specific functions or jobs to improve and maintain a settlements. This was also a principle of ownership and creating land barricades and the storage of food. (Furon, R. Manuel de Prehistorie Generale. Paris: Payor; 1958.) The origin of the farming practices was located on the wide belt of Southestern Asia. (Fertile Crescent region) ] Furon, R. Manuel de Prehistorie Generale. Paris: Payor; 1958. The domestication of ancient grasses and plants began in the Neolithic Settlements from ancestors like Triticum monococcum bocoticcum and T. monococcum uratru in Turkey, Iran and Iraq which was located in the northeastern region along with Triticum turgidum dicoccoides in Israel/Palestine, Syria and Lebanon located in the southwestern region. Grasses and plants extended from the Mediterranean Coast to the great Tigris Euphrates plan all the way continuing east ([2] Lewin R. A revolution of ideas in agriculture origins. Science 1988;240:984–6.) ([3] Feldman, M. The wild gene resources of wheat. Sci Am 1981;January:98–109).

To begin with, Mesopotamia, Hebrews, and Egypt period is recorded to have existed between 3000-500 BCE. A number of achievements are associated with this period. One of the most notable developments that transformed the economy of the world in this period is the development of agriculture. According to McMichael, Western Civilization and the present society owes a lot of appreciation to development of agriculture in the valley between the two rivers called Tigris and Euphrates (12). This development changed the world by ensuring a steady supply of food and promotion of a green environment that people enjoy

The pronounced change from hunting and gathering to agriculture and domestication can be simplistically designated the Agricultural or Neolithic Revolution (Pringle:1998). The catalytic developments of the Neolithic Revolution mark a major turning point in the history of humankind. The resulting animal and plant domestication established the foundation on which modern civilization was built.