The Five Proximate Factors Of An Agricultural Society

The main idea of Howell’s arguments about the Neolithic Revolution is that the adoption of agriculture is beneficial because hunting life makes nature in control of humans. Nature controls the limit on animals and plants. When it reaches its limit in a given place, humans are forced to move to survive. Nature requires humans to spread themselves out across the land and limit the number of people they band themselves with to not use all the natural resources in short amount of time. Moreover, the limited resources cause groups to kill off the young, sick, and elderly to lower the amount of humans exploiting the land. As a result of isolation amongst each other, humans rarely become civilized or social and the sexual division of labour does not change. As a result of agriculture, food is domesticated and grown rather than gathered. Also, humans are able to create civilizations with hundreds of people.

Hunter- gatherers was able to consume many variety of foods, such as animals meat, berries, nuts, roots etc which are high in proteins and fiber. Farmers can only consume the crops they grew, which is limited. Additionally, the main commonly crops are rice, corn, and wheat, which is high in carbs and lacked fiber, vitamins, and proteins. As a result, farmers’ diet consists of carbs and fats, but no vitamins or proteins. The second risk is limited crop production. Farmers are easily opened to risk of starvation if their crops fail to grow. The final risk to agriculture is epidemic diseases. Agricultural encouraged farmers to get together in crowded societies in order to trade their crops, which can easily lead to spread of contagious diseases and

The transition from the traditional hunter gatherer societies, in to an agriculture based living system, has allowed humans to increase their population size, putting strains on the Earth’s environment. Agriculture has also brought along with it a decrease in women’s roles in the community, while also bringing about a class system where the wealthy rule, and were the weak and poor obey. As humans began to domesticate more plants and animals, they settled in permanent areas. The Change from hunter gatherer benefited few, but had dire consequences for the earth and groups with in it. One such consequence was the population increase, which has lead to major issues throughout history, and one that has ties to current global issues.

Based on the output of production, agriculture is perceived as an advance because farmers can produce more food within a smaller area than they could possibly obtain as hunter-gatherers. Harris says that this situation happened since farmers control “the rate of plant reproduction” (Harris 219), which means that immediate adverse consequences could be prevented with the intensification of production. On the other hand, hunter-gatherers, which depend on the availability of natural plants and animals; consequently, can raise their output very little. However, although farmers can produce more food than hunter-gatherers do, the numbers of crops are limited; therefore, when the crops failed, there is risk of starvation.

The ability to produce more crops required a method to transport them to more people. This method was for people to clump closer together, which facilitated the spread of disease amongst communities. People migrated nearer to each other because they could receive a frequent supply of food. “The mere fact that agriculture encouraged people to clump together in crowded societies, many of which then carried on trade with other crowded societies, led to the spread of parasites and infectious disease” (65). Diamond argues that because agriculture brought people together in close proximity disease and parasites were able to spread more rapidly and frequently. Hunters and gatherers tended to spread out and keep to themselves. This ultimately eliminated the possibility of an epidemic sweeping through societies. For instance, “epidemics couldn’t take hold when populations were scattered in small bands that constantly shifted camp” (65). Among hunter-gatherer

A: The chart in this chapter is explaining the factors that allow some people to overcome others. For example, the factor of having domesticated animals and plants allowed epidemics and diseases. However, at the same time domestic animals and plants provided sustainable food. I agree with the author’s conclusion and the chart because it is true that something good and beneficial may also cause harm. On the note of having domesticated animals and plants, to many it gave them an advantage. It allowed, like I said before, sustainable food. That food source enabled many to be fed and it led to tows being built. With that food supply, it also led to army being built to protect that food supply and

The fifty years leading up to 1877 exemplified little successes for workers’ movements due to the drastic nature of change during this time period. The transition from an agrarian society to an industrial empire had challenged old American values such as outwork and interdependence found within rural communities. Specifically, division of labor and technological advancements during this time period had shifted society from being self-reliant (agrarian) to dependent on large businesses (industry). In Who Built America by Christopher Clark, Nancy Hewitt, Joshua Brown, and David Jaffee, they highlighted how this shift to large-scale manufacturing had led to the little impact of workers’ movements within the fifty years prior to 1877. Divided within their trades and collectively weak, many movements simply couldn’t compete with the power of large corporations who held a lot of power in this time period. However, by the last quarter of the 19th century, workers’ began adapting to this new labor structure and were able to have success against industrial capitalists. The very same technologies that benefitted large companies by expanding townships into inter-regional markets had given the opportunity for labor organizers to establish a national platform to confront labor and economic inequality.

However, disease on the epidemic scale did not appear till certain conditions existed, conditions created namely by the Agricultural Revolution. As communities became more sedentary and developed a more stable means of food production through the domestication of animals and irrigation processes, populations were able to increase at exponential rates, one of the fundamental prerequisites for an epidemic outbreak. An increased population translated into closer living conditions, less sanitary means of waste disposal due to sheer volume, and typically, poorer nutrition, making people more susceptible to a breakdown of the immune system. A higher population, in comparison to that of their hunting and gathering predecessors, meant a greater chance for contracting an illness. Equally important, the Agricultural Revolution demanded the domestication of animals. In living in close proximity to cattle, hogs, and other useful livestock, a phenomenon known as species cross-over took place. This species cross-over refers to the mutation of diseases typically found in livestock to a new form that seeks out a human host. The most classic and devastating example is small pox, a highly fatal disease that causes sores to form on the body and known in cattle as cowpox (Ponting, 225-226). This, coupled with irrigation, providing a host for water-born diseases like malaria and schistosomiasis, sheds a bit of light on the magnitude of the influence of the Agricultural

Agriculture and Geography affect a lot of people because some of them were in this one land with barely any animals to domesticate, barely any variety of food to grow,

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.

After the adoption of agriculture as an activity by the human population, there was a concurrent increase in the population. Moreover, the adoption of agriculture as an activity led to the domestication of animals and plants, which contributed to the spread of diseases. Additionally, these problems were compounded by the uneven development and prosperity amongst the human beings during this era. With this growth of population, a class system was created, whereby the hunting and gathering communities had no oppression amongst themselves. On the contrary, the farming communities were considered the elites and grew food, which made them healthier than other members of the

Before the Neolithic Revolution, civilization had not existed because humans traveled in nomadic groups. However, the environment began to change and disrupted the nomadic lifestyle human’s had led. People constantly migrated to follow their prey and relied on their hunting and gathering skills to provide nourishment to survive, until they discovered farming, which later resulted in the development of group living. The development of agriculture and group living provided food surpluses, causing the development of trade and population growth. Soon after, the population growth and established trading system led to the division of labor, eventually creating a government system. The discovery of farming changed the way the nomadic people had lived; they had to settle down in communities for their crops to be able to flourish and this created civilized societies, because of this agriculture created a new system that would soon be used across the world, a Neolithic economy.

Farming, I learned, has an enormous impact on the growth of civilization. So much so, that Diamond spends seven chapters on the control food had over how successful a certain region became. Animals are integral to the success of human beings and that is why the shift from hunting-gathering to farming and domestication

The combination of wisdom and imagination that allowed to create, at least on paper, such inventions as the bicycle, the helicopter and an airplane, based on the physiology and flying capability.

Wool was not as comfortable as linen, which is made from flax. Also, flax could be grown in England, which kept the first step entirely contained within the country. The next step was to dye the flax, which could be done in the same location as the flax was grown. Then it had to be spun into thread and then woven into cloth which could be used for clothing.