The Specialization Of Domesticated Animals

The goat was the first ruminant to be domesticated. A ruminant is an animal that has more than one compartment in the stomach. Goats began arriving in Plymouth in 1623. In A History of Domesticated Animals, goats were a good source for milk, meat, hides, and some

Early farmers in Europe and elsewhere practiced shifting cultivation, also known as swidden agriculture.Although the lands around the Mediterranean seem to have shared a complex of crops and farming techniques, geographical barriers blocked the spread elsewhere. Rainfall patterns south of the Sahara favored locally domesticated grains—sorghums, millets, and (in Ethiopia) teff—over wheat and barley. In the Americas a decline of game animals in the Tehuacán° Valley of Mexico after 8000 B.C.E. increased people’s dependence on wild plants. Agriculture based on maize (corn) developed there about 3000 B.C.E. and gradually spread. The first domesticated animal, the dog, may have helped hunters track game well before the Neolithic period. Later, animals initially provided meat but eventually supplied milk, wool, and energy as well.Meat eating did not decline during the revolution.

How did the domestication of plants and animals affect agrarian societies? The domestication of plants an animals helped the agrarian societies because they could then get milk, cheese, butter, etc. from cows; cheese from goats, wool for coats and string from sheep, and they could grow their own crops and have a healthy maintained diet. The agrarian societies were smart about what they ate and when they ate, and if they did not recognize it, they did not eat it. They did not have to constantly worry about when or where they had to move their people to, they just built up what they had and used their resources to

Fertile Crescent had environmental advantages; therefore, it had had more resources than in Mesoamerica. For example, only llama or alpaca could be domesticated in Mesoamerica, and no sheep, goats, pigs, cattle, or horses were found in the Eastern hemisphere. Thus, the people in Mesoamerica had to find a source of protein, and they started relying more on hunting and fishing than domesticating. Had people also lacked mineral-rich cereal grains, so they grew squash, beans, and teosinte, an ancestral form of corn or maize, to supplicate themselves with dietary protein. On the other had, in the Fertile Crescent, they could domesticate more various kinds of species, since they had already existed in the Fertile Crescent. Rich cereal grains, barley, wheat, lentils, and figs could be grown, and people could intake sufficient nutrients. With existing animals and plants in the Fertile Crescent, people could breed animals to produce more different types of species, which could provide them plenty of food. Even though a blight would strike the plants, people would still have other foods that they could feed themselves with. As a result, people of the Fertile Crescent were able to have a longer lifespan, and a greater population than it did in Mesoamerica. With more people to work together with, agriculture was able to thrive more in the Fertile Crescent than in

The development of agriculture by Native Americans more than five thousand years ago sparked new cultures and innovations. Hunters who previously roamed the land like nomads established permanent villages. Corn, sun, and water became focal points for many societies and played

The most significant development during the Neolithic Era was the development of agriculture. This occurred approximately 10,000 years ago in human history. Humans began to domesticate animals and engage in selective breeding. With the end of the Ice Age, new plants became available and were cultivated to provide a more stable food source than hunting and gathering. Humans began to domesticate plants as well. "People had long observed wild plants as they gathered

Slowly, permanent villages rose up all over the world and it became possible for families to bear more children making population surged. Within these new villages it became doable for the civilians to specialize in the sort of work they could do best. In permanent settlements economies based on trade were cultivated, languages were formed, and so did cultures. (Document #8)

Domestication is a very useful skill that has remained the same for many years. Animals can be used for meat, milk, wool, etc. They are also used as farming tools and transportation. Certain animals much better suited to domestication than others; Jared Diamond calls this the “anna Karenina principle’ (Class Lecture).

Natives managed to genetically engineer plants in drastic ways, managing to make plants such as maize usable almost everywhere. Strains where made that could survive in severe weather, such as extreme cold or short harvesting months. The more variety of foods that grew in crops and different climates gave more people the ability to live in one place in larger numbers.

    Both documents A and B, each show how domestication helped the agricultural revolution. These documents show the domestication of plants and animals. Both give examples of how the plants and animals evolved because of domestication. One of the two documents show how the corn started to provide more food, showing how we began to create surpluses in food. The second document showed how the animals changed when we domesticated them.

The transition to farming was a turning point in human history since people who remained hunter/gatherers couldn’t produce food as quickly as farmers, and couldn’t produce food that could be stored for a long period of time. Instead of roaming to search different locations for food, farming allowed them to drop seeds in soil that grow next to their

They learned how to herd animals so they no longer had to risk their lives on dangerous hunting voyages. This meant that there was a steady supply of meat, which could be stored for the winter when food was scarce. In about 10,000 B.C. the domestication of goats occurred, which lead to the domestication of cattle, pigs, sheep, and chickens around 8,000 B.C. (Document 1). These crops included wheat and barley, which for favored for their longevity when kept dry. Therefore, grains could be saved for winter when crops could not be grown.

8.) Connection - In what ways did agriculture spread? Where and why was it sometimes resisted?

The establishment of food production proved to be more fulfilling than hunting and gathering since it reduced the risk of starvation. Despite being provided with some of the advantages that came with transitioning to agriculture, many regions remained as hunter-gatherers. While some areas, such as the Fertile Crescent and Eurasia, had many advantageous plants and animals that could be domesticated, other areas, New Guinea, Eastern United States, and Mesoamerica, possessed limited availability. Some areas are simply not suited to agriculture of any kind, while others may support some crops that are suitable for domestication but not others. Likewise, while there were big animals living in several regions, those species were not suitable for domestication since they did not follow the six requirements, which involved being sufficiently obedient, humble to humans, cheap to feed, able to breed well in captivity, immune to diseases, able to grow rapidly (Diamond 1999, 169). On the other hand, in some areas, food production developed independently. However, only a few places developed food production without any outside influence, which included the Fertile Crescent in western Eurasia, China, the eastern United States, Mesoamerica, and New Guinea. In the Andes and Amazonians, and three areas of Africa, food production was also probably an independent development, but there are

The first settlers of Mesopotamia learned to cultivate and harvest crops, which would provide a bountiful supply for food. This enabled the people to settle and create villages, which eventually led to larger communities and cities. People no longer had to move throughout the land hunting animals in order to feed but instead could live off the land and in