Download The Neolithic Revolution WHAP/Napp Do Now: “Until about 12,000

The Neolithic Revolution
WHAP/Napp
Do Now:
“Until about 12,000 years ago humans hunted and gathered their food, following the
migrations of animals and the seasonal cycles of the crops. They established temporary
base camps for their activities and caves served them for homes and meeting-places but
they had not established permanent settlements. They had begun to domesticate some
animals, especially the dog and the sheep, but they had not yet begun the systematic
practice of agriculture. Then, about 10,000 B.C.E., people began to settle down,
constructing the first agricultural villages.
Why did they do it? Is food production through agriculture easier than hunting and
gathering? Surprisingly, the answer seems to be ‘no.’ Research suggests that, with the
technology available at that time, adult farmers had to work an equivalent of 1000-1300
hours a year for their food, while hunter-gatherers needed only 800-1000 hours.
Why did they change? An appealing, although unproved, answer is that increasing
population pressure, perhaps accompanied by worsening climatic conditions, forced people
to take on the more productive methods of agriculture. Scientists estimate that even in a
lush tropical environment, 0.4 square miles of land could support only nine persons
through hunting and gathering; under organized, sedentary agricultural techniques, the
same area could support 200-400 people. To survive, sedentary agriculture became a
necessity.
The memory of this transition survives in myth. For example, the myth of Shen Nung,
whom the ancient Chinese honored as the inventor of agriculture and its wooden tools (and
of poetry), captures the transformation:
The people of old ate the meat of animals and birds. But in the time of Shen Nung, there
were so many people that there were no longer enough animals and birds to supply their
needs. So it was that Shen Nung taught the people how to cultivate the earth. (Bairoch, p.6)”
~ The World’s History
Description of Human Life
Until about 12,000 Years
Ago
What significant
Possible Theory for this
development occurred round Dramatic Shift:
10,000 B.C.E.
How Myth may support this
theory?
Key Words
/Questions
Reflection:
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
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 encouraging agriculture
1- Natural flourishing of wild plants, especially cereal grasses
2- Extinction of some large mammals
E. 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. Eastern part of Sahara, present-day Sudan
A. Between 10,000 and 5,000 years ago, Sahara desert did not exist
B. Cattle and donkey domesticated
C. Sorghum, teff, yams, oil palm trees, okra, and kola nuts
VI. Americas
A. Coastal Andean, Mesoamerica, Mississippi Valley, Amazon basin
B. Absence of animals that could be domesticated
1- Only one (llama/alpaca) large mammal
2- Lacked animal proteins, manure, and power from animals
3- Lacked rich cereal grains
a. Had maize or corn, first domesticated in southern Mexico
C. North/South Orientation of Americas slowed diffusion
VII. Spread of Agriculture
A. Through gradual spread of agricultural techniques or colonization
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
Provide a title for the map:
1- When did the Neolithic Revolution begin?
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2- What occurred during the Neolithic Revolution?
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3- Identify a significant advantage of agriculture:
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4- Identify a significant disadvantage of agriculture:
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5- What factors encouraged agriculture?
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6- Identify one difference between agriculture in the Fertile Crescent and Eastern
Sahara.
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7- How did the lack of domesticated animals impact the peoples of the Americas?
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8- How did the North/South orientation or axis of the Americas affect the spread of
agriculture in the Americas?
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9- How did agriculture spread throughout the world?
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10- Yet did agriculture develop independently? Explain your answer.
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11- Defend the following statement: The Neolithic Revolution was the most significant
turning point in world history.
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12- How did agriculture clearly change the cultural realities of many individuals?
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13- Did women benefit from the rise of agriculture?
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14- How did agriculture impact the rise of class hierarchies?
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15- Was the Neolithic Revolution a blessing or a curse? Explain your answer.
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1. 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
2. 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
Excerpt from “The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race” by Jared Diamond,
1999
“…From the progressivist perspective on which I was brought up, to ask ‘Why did almost
all our hunter-gatherer ancestors adopt agriculture?’ is silly. Of course they adopted it
because agriculture is an efficient way to get more food for less work. Planted crops yield
far more tons per acre than roots and berries. Just imagine a band of savages, exhausted
from searching for nuts or chasing wild animals, suddenly grazing for the first time at a
fruit-laden orchard or a pasture full of sheep. How many milliseconds do you think it
would take them to appreciate the advantages of agriculture?
…While farmers concentrate on high-carbohydrate crops like rice and potatoes, the mix
of wild plants and animals in the diets of surviving hunter-gatherers provides more protein
and a better balance of other nutrients. In one study, the Bushmen's average daily food
intake (during a month when food was plentiful) was 2,140 calories and 93 grams of
protein, considerably greater than the recommended daily allowance for people of their
size. It's almost inconceivable that Bushmen, who eat 75 or so wild plants, could die of
starvation the way hundreds of thousands of Irish farmers and their families did during
the potato famine of the 1840s.
…There are at least three sets of reasons to explain the findings that agriculture was bad
for health. First, hunter-gatherers enjoyed a varied diet, while early farmers obtained most
of their food from one or a few starchy crops…Second, because of dependence on a limited
number of crops, farmers ran the risk of starvation if one crop failed. Finally, the mere fact
that agriculture encouraged people to clump together in crowded societies led to the spread
of parasites and infectious disease. Epidemics couldn’t take hold when populations were
scattered in small bands that constantly shifted camp.
Besides malnutrition, starvation, and epidemic diseases, farming helped bring another
curse upon humanity: deep class divisions. Hunter-gatherers have little or no stored food,
and no concentrated food sources, like an orchard or a herd of cows: they live off the wild
plants and animals they obtain each day. Therefore, there can be no kings, no class of social
parasites who grow fat on food seized from others…”
Identify and explain the author’s thesis and two points to support his thesis.
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