Ch. 1 (First Farmers) Sections: Breakthroughs to Agriculture to end of chapter
Agriculture can be qualified as the beginning of a relatable way of life. It was the beginning of a new era when gatherer hunters began to establish more permanent settlements and abandoned their nomadic ways.
The domestication of plants and animals known as farming is a practice that eventually replaced gathering and hunting all together as a means of survival.
The domestication itself became a mutual relationship as the plants and animals used in farming could no longer survive in the wild, and could therefore be said to be just as dependant on the farmers as the farmers were on them.
Scholars believe that agriculture was able to come about because the last known ice age ending coincided with the migration of homosapiens across the planet. This means that until global warming took place agriculture was not a possibility. There was a long period when gathering-hunting practices coincided with agriculture, meaning that these peoples had many different food sources (broad spectrum diet).
The most likely innovators of farming crops were women considering that in their gathering days they were interacting with plant-life considerably more than men. Since the opposite can be said about men's interactions with animals it can be assumed that they are the innovators of domesticating animals.
With the end of the Ice Age came the extinction of many large animals that nomads may have depended on for food sources. This factor can be taken into account to deduct that agriculture was a product of necessity in response to a food crisis or shortage. Other factors that support this theory include increasing populations, newly settled ways of life, and fluctuations in the process of global warming.
Five of the most important crops domesticated are wheat, corn, rice, barley and sorghum. Five of the most important livestock domesticated are sheep, pigs, horses, goats and cattle. It is believed that figs were the first cultivated crops.
The most successful region in farming a large variation of crops and livestock was the Fertile Crescent, located in Southwest Asia, or where Iraq, Syria, Israel/Palestine, Jordan and Southern Turkey currently lay.
While the European, Asian, and African continents had a number of animals that could be readily domesticated, the Americas combined only had two: llamas and alpacas, which were specific to the Andes. This meant that agriculture in the Western Hemisphere developed several thousand years slower than on the Eastern Hemisphere.
In Eurasia, the spread of agriculture also meant the spread and intermingling of languages.
It is believed that the globalization of agriculture last up to 10,000 after the emergence in the Fertile Crescent
Agriculture came with it's own set of problems. Living in such close proximity to animals meant that there was a higher chance of being exposed to diseases and living in larger populations meant the first ever epidemics.
Beer and wine have been recorded as early as 540 B.C.E.
Horticultural farming means hoe-based farming and was eventually replaced with technological advances such as plowing using horses and donkeys.
There has never been evidence of inherited gender inequality. The gender inequality that had been recorded was cultural, not biological.
Lineage system performed the function of government until the presence of chiefdoms in which the chief uses niceness and praise to maintain obedience from his followers.
This section was important to me because I didn't really understand how early agriculture had begun in human history. I was also very intrigued by the equality among men and women and that some women held very high positions, especially in religion.
The domestication of plants and animals known as farming is a practice that eventually replaced gathering and hunting all together as a means of survival.
The domestication itself became a mutual relationship as the plants and animals used in farming could no longer survive in the wild, and could therefore be said to be just as dependant on the farmers as the farmers were on them.
Scholars believe that agriculture was able to come about because the last known ice age ending coincided with the migration of homosapiens across the planet. This means that until global warming took place agriculture was not a possibility. There was a long period when gathering-hunting practices coincided with agriculture, meaning that these peoples had many different food sources (broad spectrum diet).
The most likely innovators of farming crops were women considering that in their gathering days they were interacting with plant-life considerably more than men. Since the opposite can be said about men's interactions with animals it can be assumed that they are the innovators of domesticating animals.
With the end of the Ice Age came the extinction of many large animals that nomads may have depended on for food sources. This factor can be taken into account to deduct that agriculture was a product of necessity in response to a food crisis or shortage. Other factors that support this theory include increasing populations, newly settled ways of life, and fluctuations in the process of global warming.
Five of the most important crops domesticated are wheat, corn, rice, barley and sorghum. Five of the most important livestock domesticated are sheep, pigs, horses, goats and cattle. It is believed that figs were the first cultivated crops.
The most successful region in farming a large variation of crops and livestock was the Fertile Crescent, located in Southwest Asia, or where Iraq, Syria, Israel/Palestine, Jordan and Southern Turkey currently lay.
While the European, Asian, and African continents had a number of animals that could be readily domesticated, the Americas combined only had two: llamas and alpacas, which were specific to the Andes. This meant that agriculture in the Western Hemisphere developed several thousand years slower than on the Eastern Hemisphere.
In Eurasia, the spread of agriculture also meant the spread and intermingling of languages.
It is believed that the globalization of agriculture last up to 10,000 after the emergence in the Fertile Crescent
Agriculture came with it's own set of problems. Living in such close proximity to animals meant that there was a higher chance of being exposed to diseases and living in larger populations meant the first ever epidemics.
Beer and wine have been recorded as early as 540 B.C.E.
Horticultural farming means hoe-based farming and was eventually replaced with technological advances such as plowing using horses and donkeys.
There has never been evidence of inherited gender inequality. The gender inequality that had been recorded was cultural, not biological.
Lineage system performed the function of government until the presence of chiefdoms in which the chief uses niceness and praise to maintain obedience from his followers.
This section was important to me because I didn't really understand how early agriculture had begun in human history. I was also very intrigued by the equality among men and women and that some women held very high positions, especially in religion.
Greetings Cat T.,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your comment, "Agriculture can be qualified as the beginning of a relatable way of life." This is very true and important because it is important to consider it as a way of life that has contributed to oppression of the wealthy and poor as well as the larger social structure of capitalism. It is important also, like you say, that hunter gatherers abandoned their "nomadic ways," as their ideas needed to match the needs of human survival.
Thank you for sharing,
Cat G.
Thank you for the feedback!
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