The Pros And Cons Of The Neolithic Revolution

Jared Diamond, in his article, “The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human race”, explains that the worst mistake that humans made was the decision to change from a hunter gatherer society into an agriculture society. Jared Diamond gives evidence of how switching from an agricultural society was a bad mistake. Many believe that adopting an agricultural society and leaving the hunter gatherer society was the way to a more qualitative and sustainable lifestyle. As Diamond says, it is true that because this society was adopted and evolved because we have longer lifespans and live better now than how people lived back in the old days. But Diamond`s claim that the hunter gatherer society gave humans more benefits individually than what the agricultural society had to offer is agreeable.

Farming has been a source of work ever since man has been introduced to the earth, but the past 100 years have been promising in continuing to provide for the needs of the growing population. The people have become more educated, and technology has become much more advanced. The two have come together to boon the land and animals so that they produce to their fullest potential. The people of the world have been influenced to the extent that they work smarter not harder to provide for the growing population. Farming, a crucial necessity to the survival of mankind, has evolved in the area of education of the people which has assisted in the advances of technology, land, and animal production which will lead to the provision of food for the growing

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.

Jill Lepore addressed the historical question “Who Do We Think We Are?” . She talked about who the we in the we the people are and who even are the people. She expressed that she thought that was a political fiction, an act of make believe. The question of who even are the people has been a subject of controversy and debate. She talked about how the Virginia Declaration was rephrased to indicate who the free men were.

Humans’ lives would be drastically different if it wasn’t for the Neolithic Revolution. All the lifestyle changes in this time period made a drastic change in how individuals lived. However, Paleolithic people were nomads in search of food. Also, no one had specific jobs because everyone’s jobs were focused on hunting and gathering food. During this time period, everything was made of stone because it was an easy to find and bountiful resource.

The first reason of why agriculture is a better way of life, is because according to document 1 farmers were less violent. Hunters and gatherers on the other hand were in constant state of tribal warfare. This resulted in 25-30% of adult males dying from homicide. Warfare was necessary to keep population density low. This was due to the fact that a certain place only had so much food to support one person. Farmers on the other hand could use a small piece of land and plant crops that could support many people. They do not have to fight over food therefore less war and violence.

In the 1930's, V. Gordon Childe proposed that the shift to food production was one of the two major events in human history that improved the condition of human societies. Childe described the origins of agriculture as a 哲eolithic Revolution.But the shift from hunting and gathering to food production was not as advantageous to humanity as Childe believed. Although there were benefits, there were also serious drawbacks, and humans paid a price for the advantages of agriculture.

Diamond explains that our worst mistake was the transition from hunter-gathers to farmers. Diamond believes that humans were better off chasing our food rather than planting it due to the consequences that followed after such a dramatic change of life. His reasoning expands further out than one might think of about this subject. He talks about the social changes that were created when agriculture began. Diamond spews empowering points that leave a reader pondering if he is correct. People are only sure of how the world is now but the possibilities are endless on what our world could have been if agriculture had not begun.

Before the Neolithic Revolution, there was nomadic lifestyle of hunting and gathering food for survival. People stayed in one place as long as the sources they needed to survive was present. If sources weren’t available, people would move to another place for survival. Therefore, there was no permanent or final settlement.Due to the discovery of farming, the Neolithic Revolution began. Once the techniques of

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.

According to the context of Document 3, “One innovation or change that occurred because of the Neolithic Revolution was that people settled in villages.” This shows that because of the change of the Neolithic Revolution, people began to live in well-maintained places where people would settle (ex: villages). Another detail from the third document is that “In ancient Banpo, forty- five houses covered with thatch provided homes for perhaps 500 people.” This means that because of the change in Neolithic times, there were a lot of people who were provided with homes to live in. This also shows that there were homes provided for large amounts of people, and they made many items such as pots, vases, and dishes to help them for the house. Moreover, in Document 6, the innovations of the Neolithic Revolution were good for society because they taught many people, especially children, on how to be prepared for anything, and teaching them the basics such as growing and planting crops, and feeding others. According to the sixth document, “Children probably lost their carefree life as agriculture developed.” This shows that children did and learned new things instead of wasting their time doing other, unimportant things. As later stated in Document 6, “Instead of being just responsible for finding food themselves, they had to work on the land and learn to grow food and feed others.”

The Neolithic revolution and the origins of agriculture caused a move from hunting/gathering to a farming economy. Discuss the social disadvantages of this transition. In what ways did it promote social inequality?

Prior to living in homes build to with stand the test of time, growing food their food source, and raising animals, humans were nomads who followed their food source around and were hunters and gathers. Although it took many years, from 8000B.C. to 3000B.C. for humans to go from hunters and gathers to a more common day life as we now know it, the result is referred to as the Neolithic Revolution the begins of human civilization. As the people of this time began to settle down and they began to both farm the land and domesticate animals for the better of the community. Along with the development of these communities as for the first time began to create social class among the many different roles they played in their community. Because

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

Observing the past through our modern lens makes it near impossible to objectively judge the decisions of our ancient ancestors. Hindsight bias plays a large role in clouding our ability to see what may have been. Was adopting agriculture a successful decision? Would humans have been better off remaining hunter-gatherers? Both arguments have valid points. However, the more time I spend pondering these questions, the greater I start to lean towards the former.