Chapter 1: Nature, Humanity, and History: The First Four Million Years The Agricultural Revolution- The change from food gathering to food production. y
Semi-cultivation-
technique for farming in which seeds of desirable plants are grown where they would thrive
and discouraging the growth of competing plants. y
Specialization
y
Diffusion
of tools and trade- settled agriculture required new, improved tools to do various jobs.
vs. Borrowing- spread of agriculture was not caused by diffusion, but by societies that borrowed ne w
plants, animals, tools, and techniques. y
Swidden
agriculture (aka shifting cultivation) - some fields were left abandoned and new ones were cleared
nearby. They were left fallow (abandoned to natural vegetation) to restore its fertility. y
Animal
domestication-to have ready supply of meat.
Dogs
were one of the first to be domesticated to help
hunters track game. Examples of livestock animals: goats, sheep, buffalo, cattle, et c. y
Pastoralism-
a way of life dependent on herds of stock. Pastoralists migrated with their herds to new pastures
and watering places. y
Ecological explanation for farming- researchers believe that climate change pushed people more over to the Agricultural
y
Population
Revolution in order to have a dependable food source.
increase- the surpluses of food gave people a long-term advantage in population growth. Women
could stop working and take care of children. Communities were organized around kinship and marriage. As populations increase, different religions and cultures are established. y
FA: Analyze Changes in global climate appear to have caused the tr ansformation from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to farmers and food producers. Because of global warming (after the Ice Age), lands were fertile and able to be cultivated, which drove people to abandon hunting and gathering in favor of a Pastoralism and agriculture. By adopting this new lifestyle, people had a steady and dependable food source and shortages of wild food were not a problem. The effects of the g radual adoption of food production were momentous and have created the society we live in today.
Life in Neolithic y
Communities
Reexamined assumptions- researchers are examining the assumption that the people were better off in agricultural societies after finding evidence that an ecological crisis forced them to settle down.
y
o
Food producers have to work harder and longer.
o
Farmers diet was less varied.
o
Survival
Gradual
rate was shorter because the people w ere exposed to diseases, water contamination, c ontamination, etc.)
infiltration- farmers displaced foragers by gradually increasing in population, rather than rapid
conquest. Transition was smooth and peaceful and foragers eventually became producers too. y
Patrilineality
vs. Matrilineality- tracing descent through men/women. In Neolithic societies, descent through the
mothers side was more important than the fathers. y
Burial practices- people shared respect for the dead by performing rituals and worshipping ancestors.
y
Hindu Story- /the fire god Agni asks Krishna and Arjuna to satisfy his hunger by burning down the forest and every creature in it. Scholars interpret this as a sign that food gatherers cleared the land for cultivation and destroyed wildlife.
y
Spread
of languages- The Neolithic Period also contributed to the scattering of large languages ( German,
Roman, Greek, Latin, etc.). The differentiation of the language family into many related ones was caused by gradual infiltration.
y
Specialization-
specialist workers focused on a specific craft or a job. These worke rs were needed because there t here
was already a surplus of food. y
Religious monuments- Çatal Hüyük (a town in the Middle East) had many shrines devoted to gods/goddesses, animals, etc. There is evidence of food sacrificing/offerings.
y
FA: Describe In the city of Çatal Hüyük, there is evidence that the Neolithic people practiced religion in everyday life. The most remarkable finds in the city were the many shrines and temples made of special material like gold and silver. There is a shrine for every two houses, making it almost forty rooms, filled with shrines of various creatures and gods. The people burned dishes of food as offerings as a method of worship. An interesting observation was that female deities outnumbered the mal e deities, which lead researchers to believe that there was a cult of the goddess administered mainly by women. The figure of the goddess most likely represe nted fertility and power over nature. Overall, the sacred and spiritual findings of the Neolithic people reveal that even early civilizations established religion in society.
