Human Dimensions of the Agricultural Revolution
By: Kylee Hendrickson
The agricultural revolution began around 9500 – 8500 BC and the rise of farming was gradual and spread over centuries and millennia. It began in south-eastern Turkey, western Iran, and the Levant. The agricultural revolution was a turning point in human evolution.
The stocks of crop domestication include land ties and crop production. When the domestication of crops began, this substantially increased land ties. When farming, Homo sapiens needed to be able to tend to their crops, therefore necessitating proximity. Better farming therefore prompted increased crop production.
Governance characteristics influenced by crop domestication include community, classism, human violence, and intelligence. Land ties and farming led to community building. As crop production increased, food security also increased, but those left with less or no food experienced classism. Classism was also driven by the hard effort to grow crops and achieve further luxuries to live a pampered lifestyle. As classism rose and surrounding communities experienced food insecurity, human violence also rose as invasions of farmlands began; Homo sapiens were driven to violence by the need to survive and attempts to overpower and take what they required. While foraging increased knowledge of the natural world, it also allowed farmers to better learn how to cultivate crops and tame animals. Though while knowledge expanded, as time passed intelligence did not increase for Homo sapiens.
There were several social contexts that were impacted by crop domestication and all interconnected. As crop production increased, food variety also expanded. A variety of staple grains became important to the human diet, and this was also directly linked to human health. Human health increased because food security became more reliable, and better human health also meant less starvation, malnutrition, and disease. Lessened hunger and illness led to lower mortality rates and longer lives, also contributing to population increases.
While humans succeeded in growing crops to harvest and called it domestication, plants were the ones who in fact domesticated Homo sapiens. Humans had to adapt to their agricultural production and the work that it required. Homo sapiens experienced an excess of effects of their bodies in attempting to do the essential work; Spines, knees, necks, and arches were especially affected with slipped discs, arthritis, hernias, broken bones, and more. Human bodies were accustomed to foraging, not the demands of farming.
The pursuit of farming came in stages and varied by location and time, yet still involved small modifications in daily life. These modifications are what made agriculture actually domesticate Homo sapiens. Farmers drove themselves to do more difficult work that left them less satisfied than foraging. Essentially, farming was not necessary and was a trap, and in chasing an easier life from domestication of crops, it ensued in considerable hardships.
Loopy: https://ncase.me/loopy/v1.1/
Citation:
Harari, Y. N., Purcell, J., & Watzman, H. (2015). Sapiens: A brief history of humankind. Harper, An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
The Domestication of Wheat and Humans
By: Malia Stephens
Resource Characteristics:
The most precious natural resource for ancient humans was for tile land and the ability to grow crops. The land available to ancient people was not always prepared and ready for agriculture. This meant that they had to till and turn the soil until it was ready to grow wheat.
Governance/User Characteristics:
One of the governance characteristics of agriculture in ancient societies was The class divide that came from the social structures of communities. hierarchies were created to divide and classify people which then affected their social standing and their ability to access certain things within the community. This meant that those who are higher in the hierarchy had more access to food and care than those who were at the bottom of the social structure.
Social/Economic/Political Settings or Related Ecosystems:
One of the settings and ecosystems of ancient agriculture was less variation in the diet. As ancient people began to focus more on growing and consuming wheat, The lifestyle and diet of hunter-gatherers began to dwindle. The lack of variety and their diets and the consumption of mainly wheat, placed a great amount of stress and importance on growing wheat. This meant that the success and survival of the population depended on the growing of wheat. wait and also the land that it was grown on was susceptible to disease and other environmental damages, such as flooding or drought. The destruction of a wheat field was a death sentence for an ancient human population. The importance placed on farming wheat also meant that the farmers were connected and bound to their land. Farmers were the sole protectors of the only food source in a community, which meant that they were also a target to outsiders. When other communities or groups of hunter-gatherers could no longer find or grow food they would resort to violence and would attack the farmers to steal their crops. As human society progressed and farming became a main component of it, Farmers became attached to their land and would fight to the death to protect it. This led to human communities and populations having permanent settlements, which led to the development of major cities in the future.
Interaction(s):
The main interaction in agricultural development in human history is largely dependent upon the relationship between humans and wheat. Humans used and cultivated wheat to ensure our survival and to allow for our communities to grow and flourish. Wheat also did the same thing to humans. As humans domesticated wheat, wheat also domesticated humans. The domestication of humans happened at the same rate as the domestication of wheat. There were many physical changes to ancient human bodies, such as injuries which can be seen mainly in the spines, knees, necks, and arches. The growing of wheat also changed human routines. They no longer went on long journeys to forage for food, but instead stuck in one place for long hours under a hot sun to cultivate and protect a plot of farmland. wheat also changed human society. It placed an importance upon farmers and the growing of wheat, which led to communities being centered around farming and wheat fields.
Outcomes:
Ancient people took this plant and grew it close to their communities and harvested it for sustenance. The wheat plant uses humans to spread itself across the globe. Before the domestication of humans, wheat was a grass plant that grew in a small area of the Middle East, in modern times wheat is found throughout the globe.
Citations:
Harari, Y. N., Purcell, J., & Watzman, H. (2015). Sapiens: A brief history of humankind. Harper, An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
The impacts of the Agricultural Revolution on Humans
By: Jamileth Picavia-Salazar
To change and constantly adapt to situations on hand, is something humans have constantly been doing. In the beginning humans mostly relied on gathering and hunting animals and plants; any resources that were available for them to use was fair game. Homo sapiens traveled far and wide, starting from East Africia to then eventually ending up in North America, however their habits and way of life did not change during this time. Wherever they went, their instinct was to rely on the resources they had access to: wild animals and plants. Although this began to change 10,000 years ago when homo sapiens began to devote efforts to manipulating some of the wild animals and plants. They began to plant and sow seeds, as they grew understanding that the work they were doing would eventually provide more resources to them in the long run, thus the agricultural revolution began.
The Agricultural revolution emerged around 9,500- 8,500 BC, wild animals and plants began to be domesticated. This included wheat, goats, lentils, olive trees, horses, and grapevines. Agricultural farmers now were able to provide plentiful resources and food for their given communities, as they expanded their knowledge on what resources were best and which were to be avoided. However, there were some complexities that arose with this revolution.
Before the agricultural revolution, as stated, homo sapiens were hunter gatherers. Now that they were able to manipulate which goods they wanted to focus their attention to farming. This meant that they were able to create large sums of food to be able to use, but this did not mean because they had more resources that they had a better diet or easy time. Malnutrition and bad harvests impacted their food sources. Additionally, some governance systems that arose from this revolution involved a class system. The agricultural revolution provided opportunities that created crowded cities and large empires. Thus, this is where stems of class systems developed since some were able to take advantage of the power that comes with plentiful resources and create control. Overall, the agricultural revolution provided opportunities for humans to expand their knowledge and skills, but there were still challenges when it came to providing resources, as the fight for resources created systems of class and power.
Citation:
Harari, Y. N., Purcell, J., & Watzman, H. (2015). Sapiens: A brief history of humankind. Harper, An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
The Agricultural Revolution
By: Carl Malinsky
While the exact time period of the agricultural revolution is not known, it began somewhere around 12000 BCE and lasted until around 500 BCE (Harari 2011). The agricultural revolution was based upon the transition from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a farmer lifestyle. This began was the domestication of certain plants and animals so that Homo sapiens would no longer have to travel for food and could settle down in one place. This way, they were able to rely on the food they grew or raised if the environment could provide. The main stocks of this time were crops such as wheat, corn, rice, and barley and domesticated animals such as pigs, cows, sheep, and chickens (Harari 2011). The users of these resources were the farmers who took care of them as well as their families or other members of their village or community. However, due to the lack of an early legal system and zero policies regarding ownership, crops and animals were free game and anyone could attack these farms in order to obtain their resources which often created conflict during the earlier days of the revolution. In this system, environmental factors caused by drought, pests, and fungi all have the potential to negatively impact the domestic stocks needed for the society. In a social or political setting, we see the transition from a hunter-gatherer society to a farming and somewhat market based one where the market incentives of needing these stocks can create conflict between farmers if one group is lacking in resources. This leads to a struggle for land and resources amongst one another.
With the Loopy model, I started with the spread of humans as this would have portrayed the late hunter-gatherer peoples before the start of the agricultural revolution. From there, domestication of plants and animals begins which sees a decrease in the hunter-gatherer civilization and the rise of farmers. Domestication the leads to the spread of domestication and the establishment of permanent settlements as well as the need for protection for these settlements. As the yield of domesticated crops and animals increase, the population of farmer begins to reproduce more, causing an increase in children in population. This then has a negative effect on the yield of resources because there are more mouths to feed, creating a loop between children, population, and yield. When the yield is high, there is a larger amount of preserved food which increases the amount of enemies and human violence that the population faces which also creates a stronger need for protection. Along with violent enemies, the population must also deal with disease and injuries caused while farming. Finally, the yield of resources can also be negatively impacted by random events such as droughts, swarms of locust, or fungi. The final outcomes are that the amount of hunter-gatherers decrease while the amount of farmers, injuries due to farming, domesticated plants and animals, permanent settlements, and overall spread of domestication increase. The population, amount of children, yield of crops/meat, amount of preserved food, amount of enemies and violence, and need for protection all fluctuate and depend on one another as well as the random environmental impacts.
Loopy: https://bit.ly/2ZQs2a5
The Domestication of Wheat and Therefore Humans
By: Grace
Time period: 9000 BC
Resource characteristics: The natural resource units in my essay include pasture land and amount of wheat produced. The amount of pasture land decreased after the domestication of wheat due to changes in land use. Land that was formerly pasture land was converted into areas to grow domesticated agriculture and support developing communities. The amount of wheat produced experienced a drastic increase. Going from only appearing in places it had been sewn naturally to being cultivated increased the amount of places wheat was grown and increased concentration.
Governance/user characteristics: The governance/user characteristics in my essay include class divide and specialization. There was a increase in class divide and specialization. Since everyone was no longer needed to hunt and gather individuals were able to find other positions within the community.
Social/economic/political settings or related ecosystems: The Social/economic/political settings or related ecosystems include variety in diet, food security, ties to land, violence in the face of invasion, community, population, and spread of disease. Variety in diet decreased with the domestication of wheat. When plants were domesticated there was no longer a need for forging so agriculture was specialized leading to less diversity of plants in diets. The loss of variety of diet decreased the level of food security within communities. Since a more limited amount of crops were being grown harvest was more susceptible to being compromised. Community members began more tied to the land they resided on. Before the domestication of agriculture communities would move around as they foraged. After domestication people settled where their crops were being grown. Because of increased ties to land violence in face of invasion also increased. Since the lands were settled upon communities were more committed to defense of their land when attacked. This also increased community and spread of disease. Communites were built on setteled lands and the grouping of people made it easier for disease to spread. Population also increased due to the heightened acsessiblity of food.
Interaction(s): As people began to domesticate agriculture they began to become domesticated themselves. Because of the stability of crops being confined into specific areas people settled down and the way that society operated went through a transformation. Many of the flows and feedbacks are interconnected.
Outcomes: From the domestication of wheat the structure of society changed along with it. Communities were established and there was more time for livings to be made in places beside hunting and gathering.
Citations
Harari, Y. N., Purcell, J., & Watzman, H. (2015). Sapiens: A brief history of humankind. Harper, An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
Society during the Agricultural Revolution
By: Gillian Garnett
Human interactions with the environment during the Agricultural Revolution changed from using what resources that were available to manipulating those resources to fit human needs. Before the revolution, Homo sapiens were hunter-gatherer societies consisting of no more than a few dozen individuals (Harari et. al 2015). A major factor in hunter-gatherer societies was the need to be nomadic in order to find food and other resources. This limited the ability of these societies to care for small children as well as their ability to have materialistic goods (Baker 2020).
Before the Agricultural Revolution, humans hunted wild animals and foraged for wild plants. Over time, they learned which plants were good for consumption and which plants were to be avoided. There has been evidence that foraging societies would set up temporary “camps” where resources were plentiful or use caves they found within their territory as a temporary shelter (Barker 2020). Some wild resources that foragers may have gathered are mushroom, nuts, wild grasses, deer, wild pigs and goats, and rabbits. Wild grasses, such as wheat before it was domesticated, were very rarely part of a forager’s diet due to the need to process wheat to make it edible (Harari et. al 2015). The domesticating of wild animals was gradual and brutal, with selective breeding used.
Once the Agricultural Revolution was under way, farming societies began to form. Despite the increase in food supply, life did not necessarily improve for humans. The human body at this point in time was not used to doing back-breaking work such as plowing and sowing seeds. With food becoming plentiful, women began having more children (Harari et. al 2015). This led to population explosions. Conflicts between neighboring societies also escalated, with the need to guard fields and pastures being life or death for farmers. Also with the surplus of food came the development of class systems, with superior individuals ruling over the peasants and farmers.
Social structures began to form as the revolution progressed. Harari et. al (2015) compares human societal structures to a beehive. The authors explain that in the millennia between foraging societies and farming societies, the human genome did not adapt to allow for mass cooperation. Bees are encoded with social jobs in their genome to allow the hive to exist, and their queen does not cheat them out of food that her workers need. Humans do not have this aspect in the genome (at least at this point in time), so it is easy for a leader of a society to unfairly cheat the lower class out of what they deserve.
Loopy Link: https://ncase.me/loopy/v1.1/?data=[[[2,566,303,1,%22Humans%22,5],[3,337,127,0.5,%22Wheat%22,3],[4,778,91,0.5,%22Other%2520Societies%22,1],[5,613,-1,0.5,%22Wild%2520animals%22,3],[6,802,311,0.5,%22Wild%2520plants%22,3],[7,445,-41,0.5,%22Bad%2520Harvest%22,4],[8,338,494,0.5,%22Disease%22,0],[9,229,261,0.5,%22Malnutrition%22,0],[10,623,539,0.5,%22Domesticated%2520Animals%22,3]],[[2,5,59,-1,0],[2,3,-27,-1,0],[3,2,87,1,0],[5,2,-19,1,0],[9,2,-28,-1,0],[6,2,-22,1,0],[4,2,-28,-1,0],[2,6,-53,-1,0],[2,4,-35,-1,0],[10,2,-51,1,0],[2,10,-37,-1,0],[8,2,32,-1,0],[2,8,33,1,0],[2,9,-29,1,0],[10,8,45,1,0],[8,10,21,-1,0],[7,9,-111,1,0],[3,7,-36,-1,0],[7,3,-47,-1,0],[9,7,185,-1,0]],[],10%5D
References
Barker, G. (2020). The Agricultural Revolution in prehistory: Why did foragers become farmers? Oxford University Press.
Harari, Y. N., Purcell, J., & Watzman, H. (2015). Sapiens: A brief history of humankind. Harper, An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
The Domestication of Wheat by Homo Sapiens (Natufian People) since 9000 BC
By: Michael Sengmong
The Natufian people lived in Syria since about 9000 BC. These people mostly relied on the production of wheat for their diets. Wheat was one of the earlier plants that was domesticated by early civilizations. Wheat is also used in many dishes like breads and cereal that these people would eat. The natufian people were actually one of the first groups of people to start cultivating plants. Since they learned to cultivate plants, they also started to create settlements near the farmed areas. Wheat had to be broken down and stored in certain places so they also created new technologies. One of which was the stick and mortar, which was used for grinding down the wheat, and another one was a silo which they stored the extra wheat in. The Natifians also had to create tools in order to maintain the crops, so they made sickles to help. Even with all these new tools, the human body was not adapted to this kind of labor. We used to be hunters and gatherers not farmers. The long days of watering, picking out weeds, harvesting, sowing seeds, etc took a big toll on the human body. It would cause arthritis, soreness, broken bones, dehydration, etc, so many human health problems that people were not used to. A good thing that came from the new technologies was the surplus of food available. This meant that they would be able to use more energy and do more activities. One of which was to have more kids and the creation of more farms or houses. But with the increased amount of kids and people using their energy, the food surplus turned into a regular amount because there were more mouths to feed and people had to make their energy go back up. This led to a scarcity of food and an increase in child mortality because they were not able to be fed. While the population spike happened it also meant there were more people to help maintain the farms. But with more people, there was less land available for everyone. This started up arguments between neighbors. People would fight over land and people would be killed. There were also people that did not own any land and would have to work for others to make sure they could survive. This would then create a pyramid of levels between peasants and elite members like chiefs or priests. Nature is also unpredictable at times and it would cause natural disasters that would harm the production of wheat. There could be plant disease that kills off a whole farm’s plants, or there could be a swarm of locusts that come and eat everything. Events like these would just further the demise of the Natufian people. The increased amount of wheat farms and people growing had a negative effect on the environment. The soil from the farms would be overused eventually making them less fertile, making it hard for plants to survive. Many of these people already settled in these areas making it hard for them to just pack up and leave. All the negative impacts ultimately led to their people passing because of the lack of awareness and knowledge of what wheat production could do to growing populations.
Link to Loopy: https://ncase.me/loopy/v1.1/
Citation:
Bar-Yosef, O. (1998). The Natufian Culture in the Levant, threshold to the origins of Agriculture. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews, 6(5), 159–177. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1520-6505(1998)6:5<159::aid-evan4>3.0.co;2-7
Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2016, March 22). Natufian culture. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Natufian-culture
Harari, Y. N., Purcell, J., & Watzman, H. (2019). Sapiens: A brief history of humankind. Vintage.