The Sociological Evolution Of Humankind

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

Most people would argue that the transition from hunting and gathering of food to agricultural food production was the best innovation in human history. We are taught to believe that this innovation gave rise to civilization, allowed for more leisure time in which people could then focus on arts and allowed for a higher yielding, more consistent and reliable food source. Despite some of the innovations that sprang from agriculture, upon a closer look, we can see that with the advent of agriculture came class division, gender inequality, less leisure time, overpopulation, diseases, deficient diets and starvation. The transition from hunting and gathering to agricultural food production may have been the worst mistake in human history.

There is a time in the development of the modern human where the cultural and societal turning points began to take place in the historical records. The now recognized shift from the late Upper Paleolithic era and Mesolithic era, to what we call the Neolithic era in history has more than just one factor that began to turn the wheels of social evolution. Many factors played into the transition to the next age, and there were many years in between the stages. Although there was not one specific change that caused this era shift, there was certainly a development that began to move the changes along quicker. What is referred to as the agricultural revolution began to take form around 12,000 years ago, and developed slowly over time.

Describe the major developments of early human and social evolution. Throughout, discuss tool manufacturing, language development, agriculture, social behavior, and population growth.

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 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 “Factors Underlying the Broadcast Pattern of History” chart shows the spreading and domesticating of plants and animals and the pros and cons of it on civilization. I agree with the author that when you have domesticated animals in the civilization food storage and surpluses; large dense, sedentary, stratified societies with political

Journal #1. Page 32-“The era of human history when agriculture was the most important of all productive technologies and the foundation for most human societies.”

It is possible that a social hierarchy was created when such densely packed communities were created, as now human interaction became all the more important, as the relationships between neighbors, and social groups would most likely create tension in the situation. It was also during the time of the Early neolithic in which the first clues of plant domestication began to appear. Though it was the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period in which domesticated crops including wheat, barley, lentil, peas, and legumes were found. These domesticated grains showed an increase in size and durability . Animal domestication was quick to follow, as Sheep were found to be domesticated in Turkey, Iraw, and Iran, while the reduction in size of the animals, and the discovery of the animals outside their habitat became common finds. Finally, it was during the Late Neolithic period in which a reduction in the number of large villages across the Middle East began. We can see the shift toward a way of life focused on the grazing of domesticated animals, as villages began to shrink, and the population became once again scattered across the land. It was also during this period in which a decline in the role of hunting for subsistence became apparant, as well as Late Neolithic societies reliance on plants that were domesticated during the Early Neolithic periods. We can see from this that the origin of agriculture in Europe came from the usage of Middle Eastern

The societal levels of organization clearly identify the transitioning of institutions from: bands, small nomadic herds of people, to tribes, a stable village of hundreds, to chiefdoms, when centralized governments prevail, and states, large productive societies. Stages will find that as they move up the ladder, progress is indirectly related to food production. Food production goes hand-in-hand with our ever increasing population and is responsible for turning bands into states. The domestication of plants and animals lead to complex societies where sedentary living and dense populations encouraged germs, with the interaction of farm species, and technological innovations, in the form of guns and steel.

In the former part, through showing how diversely Polynesians exploited the natural resources of different Pacific islands Diamond argues two questions: how geography can cause differences among human societies that have a common starting point, and how such features of civilization are resulted from intensive food production. Then, the later part comes the heart of the book---The Rise and Spread of Food Production, in which chapter Diamond addresses the questions of ultimate causation of contemporary human inequalities. In short, Diamond proposes that the more domestication of plant and animal, the more food, and then the denser human populations. The resulting food surpluses and the animal-based means of transporting those surpluses contribute to the development of settled, complex, and technologically innovative societies in Eurasia. However, MCneil thinks that to some extent, Diamond’s views are misguided. Though he accedes that during the early stage of human history when technical skills and organizational coordination were still undeveloped, human societies were indeed closely constrained by the local availability of food, he argues that as time goes by, many factors made the course of human history increasingly autonomous, for example, our greater capacities to reshape the environments to suit our purposes, the multiple of inventions, and the adoption of more effective

As we look back in time, ages ago, humans had organized ways of living. Scientist have found that it is easiest to classify their body into seven categories. These categories consist of urban focus, new political and military structures, new social structure based on economic power, the development of more complexity in a material sense, a distinct religious structure, the development of writing, and new and significant artistic and intellectual activity. Each of these categories played a key role in the effectiveness in which their societies were ran. We have been able to find evidence from as far back as 250,000 years ago.

Human cultures and societies have developed at various rates and achieved different levels of progress over thousands of years, resulting in some societies being labeled as more advanced than others. More advanced societies experienced complex technologies, evident in their tools and innovations, and more refined cultural structures such as social class and government systems. Other societies experienced slower rates of development as they maintained rudimentary lifestyles with simple technologies and social structures. Examining and comparing the varying levels of progress and development achieved by different human societies across the world raises the question of how certain societies developed at a higher rate than others. Jared Diamond, an evolutionary biologist, and William McNeill, a historian, seek to explain this variation in development with each offering different perspectives. In Guns, Germs, and Steel, Diamond chronicles the history of human development through a biogeographical lens and proposes that environmental and biological factors are the main influences on the development of human societies. Diamond’s ideas, however, do not go unchallenged as McNeill presents in his article “History Upside Down”, that anthropological factors pertaining to human cognition are also crucial in explaining how human societies have developed. Although both authors examine human societal development through different lenses, Diamond’s ideas on geographic location and

Explanation of common sense and sociological approaches to the study of Human Societies, with examples.

Social inequality began with the emergence of horticulture and pastoral societies. For the first time people had reliable sources of food and the