Download The Neolithic Revolution WHAP/Napp Read and Annotate: “The

The Neolithic Revolution
WHAP/Napp
Objective: To analyze the
impact of the Neolithic
Revolution on human
societies
Do Now:
List three effects of the
Neolithic Revolution on
human societies:
Read and Annotate:
“The spread of agricultural peoples was a great demographic takeover. Not a
biological evolution, like the appearance and spread of homo erectus and homo
sapiens sapiens, it was a cultural adaptation, humans applying their intelligence as a
survival mechanism. Agriculture, however, created a new kind of relationship with
the ecosystem, a cultural adaptation almost equivalent to biological evolution. It
created a disequilibrium that resulted in a demographic explosion, a plague of
people. A sharp upward surge of population occurred after about 8000 B.C.E.,
which continues into the modern age, driven almost entirely by the increase of
agricultural peoples.
Populations did not grow because agricultural peoples were better nourished or
healthier or somehow lived easier. Disease actually increased, in part because
population densities rose and because many diseases of livestock transferred to
humans. Living together, people and animals thickened the web of infectious
connections. Agricultural villages were ten or twenty times larger than foraging
camps. They multiplied and formed clusters over the landscape, interacting
through trade and social contacts. Rivers, streams, and wells became
contaminated. Dysentery and other intestinal disorders were especially debilitating
for young children and contributed to their malnutrition. In warmer climates,
agriculturally rich river valleys and estuaries developed malaria and
schistosomiasis, caused by a blood fluke transmitted in water. In short, mortality
and malnutrition increased, and life expectancies fell.
But agricultural populations increased because birthrates rose. The settled life
permitted women to have more children during their reproductive age by
shortening the intervals between births. Given the natural urge to sexuality, a
sedentary living pattern meant that cultural restraints against multiple children
relaxed.” ~ Experiencing World History
 Identify the disadvantages of agriculture:
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
 Complete the following thesis statement:
The Neolithic Revolution profoundly harmed humanity and the planet due to
__________________, __________________, and ______________________.
Notes:
I. The Neolithic Revolution
A. Beginning around 12,000 years ago
B. Definition: Domestication of plants and animals
II. Effects
A. Permanent settlements
B. New diseases from close proximity to animals
C. Food Surpluses led to cities
D. Increased impact on environment
E. More food and resources from much smaller areas
III. Factors that Encouraged Agriculture
A. Global warming that began 16,000 years ago
B. Around 11,000 years ago, Ice Age was over
C. Migration of Homo sapiens across planet
D. New conditions for agriculture
1. Natural flourishing of wild plants, especially cereal grasses
E. Extinction of some large mammals
F. Locations: occurring separately and independently
IV. Fertile Crescent
A. Present-day Iraq, Syria, Israel, and southern Turkey
B. After 9,000 BCE, figs, wheat, barley, rye, peas, lentils, sheep, goats, pigs,
and cattle domesticated
C. Use of sun-dried mud bricks
V.
A.
B.
D.
Eastern part of Sahara, present-day Sudan
Between 10,000 and 5,000 years ago, Sahara desert did not exist
Cattle and donkey domesticated
Widely scattered farming practices
1- Sorghum, teff, yams, oil palm trees, okra, and kola nuts
VI. Americas
A. Coastal Andean regions, Mesoamerica, Mississippi Valley, Amazon basin
B. Absence of animals that could be domesticated
1- Only one (llama/alpaca) large mammal
C. Lacked sources of protein, manure, and power that domesticated animals
provided
D. Lacked rich cereal grains
1- Had maize or corn, first domesticated in southern Mexico by 4000 to
3000 BCE
E. North/South Orientation of Americas impacted progress of Agricultural
Revolution
1- Distinct climatic and vegetation zones
VII. Spread of Agriculture
A. Through gradual spread of agricultural techniques or colonization
1- Bantu migration
2- Austronesian expansion
VIII. Culture of Agriculture
A. Increase in population/Permanent settlements
B. Technological explosion
C. Soil erosion and deforestation
D. Class divisions and patriarchal systems
IX. Variations
A. Pastoral societies  dependent on animals
B. Agricultural village societies  without kings
C. Chiefdoms  inherited positions of power
1- When did the Neolithic Revolution begin?
__________________________________________________________________
2- What occurred during the Neolithic Revolution?
__________________________________________________________________
3- Identify advantages of agriculture:
__________________________________________________________________
4- Identify disadvantages of agriculture:
__________________________________________________________________
5- What factors encouraged agriculture?
__________________________________________________________________
6- Identify differences between rise of agriculture in Fertile Crescent and rise of
agriculture in eastern Sahara:
__________________________________________________________________
7- Identify significant differences in rise of agriculture in Americas:
__________________________________________________________________
8- What is the significance of the Americas’ North/South orientation or axis?
__________________________________________________________________
9- How did agriculture spread?
__________________________________________________________________
10- Yet did agriculture develop independently? Explain your answer.
__________________________________________________________________
11- Defend the following statement: The Neolithic Revolution was the most
significant turning point in world history.
__________________________________________________________________
12- How did agriculture clearly change the cultural realities of many
individuals?
__________________________________________________________________
13- Did women benefit from the rise of agriculture?
__________________________________________________________________
14- How did agriculture impact the rise of class hierarchies?
__________________________________________________________________
1. Which of the following was NOT
a common trait of early
civilizations?
(A) Writing
(B) Formal state structures
(C) Urban life
(D) Monument building
(E) Nomadism
3. Based on the preponderance of
archaeological evidence, which region of
the world saw the development of the
earliest civilizations?
(A) Northern Eurasia
(B) South America
(C) Indonesia
(D) The Middle East
(E) North America
4. Which of the following was true
for ALL of the early agricultural
systems?
(A) Domestication of perennial
plants in each region
(B) Wheat and barley cultivation
(C) Economic activity based on
raising a combination of
domesticated plants and draft
animals
(D) Primary reliance on pastoral
forms of social organization
(E) Abandonment of sedentary
agriculture
2. River valley civilizations,
such as the Egyptians or
Sumerians, developed all of
the following EXCEPT
(A) Craft specialization
(B) Social stratification
(C) Constitutional monarchy
(D) Long-distance trade
(E) Complex religious rituals
5. Compared to other revolutions in
world history, which feature of
the Neolithic Revolution is most
unusual?
(A) Altered gender roles and
relations
(B) Attenuated unfolding over
thousands of years in diverse
locales
(C) Impact on population growth
(D) Transformation of class
relations
(E) Abandonment of previously
held patterns of religious
worship
6. Surplus production
(A) Is caused by poor cultivation
methods
(B) Prevents specialization of
labor
(C) Gives rise to specialization
and stratification of society
(D) Can never occur in modern
societies
Strayer Questions:
 What accounts for the emergence of agriculture after countless millennia
of human life without it?
 In what different ways did the Agricultural Revolution take shape in
various parts of the world?
 In what ways did agriculture spread? Where and why was it sometimes
resisted?
 What was revolutionary about the Agricultural Revolution?

What different kinds of societies emerged out of the Agricultural
Revolution?