The Human Mark On The Environment

Domestication lead to a flurry of blessings for humanity. Such as the discovery of using furs and hides for cloths, manure for fertilizer, milk as a food source, and larger animals to pull carts and plows.5 There are many negative aspects of the development of agriculture in the Neolithic Period that impacted society greatly. One of these is that the gender roles and status in many farming villages changed negatively for women compared with the end of the Paleolithic Period. The role of the women in foraging bands at the end of the Paleolithic Period was the gathering of plants which the group heavily relied on and managing the group while the men where off hunting.6 After settling down into farming villages the roles of women were no longer helping to producing food and often stayed in the village maintaining the household and raising children.7 This major change from loose equality to the subordination of women is a negative aspect that is found throughout the ancient world. The domestication of wild game had a slew of benefits but not without its share of adverse aspects. Some of these aspects are most unpropitious such as new illnesses farmers encountered from such close contact with animals and their waste.8 The neolithic farmers were also smaller and less healthy than nomadic foragers

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.”

Prior to the “Agriculture Resolution”, humans who migrated out of Africa lived by traveling in groups from one location to the next which is the technique used to exploit seasonal food supplies. Tools like bows and arrows, fishhooks and needles were used in order to live. But with the agricultural resolution, there was a large change brought about with people beginning to settle in areas which eventually built villages and the introduction of new technologies, including pottery, wheeled vehicles and writing. With the switch of from the hunter-gatherer lifestyle

During the Paleolithic times, hunting and gathering remained the sole base of finding a food. Small alterations occurred that help start the change to a different way of life. During the end of the Paleolithic period, about 15,00 years ago, there was a climate change that allowed warmer locations to be formed which later help facilitate fertile lands. The climate became warmer and the glaciers retreated which allowed for wetter land to support the sedentary and those semi sedentary forger

Gradually, farming replaced hunting and gathering as the primary way of sustaining life. The new environment supports a large productive population with increased food production

Sedentary peoples, needing no migrations to survive, could “bear and raise as many children as they could feed” (Diamond 89). It was the Neolithic Revolution, therefore, and its influx of sedentary living that began humanity’s population and technological growth and therefore the birth of civilizations, and the subsequent divisions between the civilized and the primitive, the powerful and the powerless. Several questions remain, however. How did sedentary living become possible? And how did the technology that it allowed to exist come to be?

The surplus of food from farming during the Neolithic Revolution had an enormous impact on the lives of humanity and made the very existence of civilization possible; the greatest changes caused by this surplus of food were permanent settlements, specialized skills, and the development of complex social hierarchies. In the Paleolithic Period, before farming was developed, humans had to rely on savaging the land for their food, foraging for plants, nuts, berries, meat, and fish. “Over the last 10,000 years, the predominant result has been a shift from hunting-gathering to food production” (Diamond 109). After the ice age ended 10,000 years ago, land hidden beneath the glaciers was revealed and more water became accessible due to the melting

The appearance of urban living was one of the most influential developments in the Neolithic Revolution. Appearing as a result of another important advancement, agriculture, it resulted in a vast, albeit gradual, shift from nomadism and hunting-and-gathering to a sedentary lifestyle. Most importantly, this evolution would result in changes to social hierarchies, occupations in society, and the environment.

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

The ongoing argument concerning the rise of civilization is centered almost wholly around the domestication of plants and animals. The prevailing view of V. Gordon Childe’s principle “that social structure and organization were bent to the demands of technology.” (Childe 1954:23-4), is now directly challenged by what archaeologist Klaus Schmidt is determining from the excavation of Gobekli Tepe; “that far from causing sedentism, agriculture actually responded to it.” (James

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 hunters and gatherers chose to have a facile lifestyle by engaging themselves in sedentary agriculture. According to their point of view, farming and rearing animals at the same place would save up their time and make their life much easier. Prior to a sedentary lifestyle, humans had to travel a long way to find their sustenance. The fortune did not always favor the brave. It is perilous to go out in wild and hunt. A hunter can be a victim there and not always one could find a proper nosh. Since no food is grown and little is stored, there is (in this view) no respite from the struggle that starts anew each day to find wild foods and avoid starving. (Jared Diamonds) The struggle was terminated when the hunters and gatherers

The revolutionizing transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture was a central shift in the way homo sapiens lived that occurred twelve thousand years ago. Consequently, several factors contributed to this astonishing modification of life including increasing population size, favorable environments such as the Nile River in Egypt and the Fertile Crescent in the Mediterranean. Furthermore, the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture allowed for mass production of food in order for the sustainability of the increasing population size, but with agriculture also came specialization and the division of labor ultimately leading to moral inequality.

to be grown trees have to be cut down and I have explained the effects

Nearly everything that a human does is in response to the environment. Our lives are defined by what is around us and what we find in front of us, whether this means accepting, dealing with or changing it. This has been the pattern since primates first stood up and became Homo erectus, and has continued until we considered ourselves doubly wise. The shape of the land affected where humans moved. Weather was something with which to contend. Fire affected humans until they conquered it – and herein lies the core of the relationship. The earth affects humans, and humans affect it back, viewing characteristics and patterns as problems and challenges, and finding a solution.