was the development of agriculture the worst mistake in human history?

ANT1000

Assessment 2

Major Essay

 

Discuss the conditions (how and why) under which hunter-gatherers began domesticating plants and animals. Closely examine one case study as part of your answer.

 

 

World Archaeology: An Introduction

Due date: 17^th October 2014

Submitted by: Rochelle Lindsay

Student number: W0047085

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This assignment will explore hunter gather societies and their transition to farming.  This assignment will look at how and why hunter gathers began domesticating plants and animals.  In particular the Levant.  Hunter -gathers societies always existed in various forms, it was the only means of subsistence, over the centuries the techniques improved (Feder, 2014).  Around 10000 – 12000 years ago at the end of the Pleistocene period and when the Holocene period began, which continues to this day (Feder, 2014).  There was a shift and Hunter- gathers began to domesticate animals and plants, this is known as the Neolithic or agricultural revolution (Feder, 2014).

Archaic Homo sapiens were hunter -gathers, or foraging cultures.  Hunter- gathers were a group of people, usually small family units that would hunt and gather wild food sources such as animals and plants (Redding, 1998).  Often the men would hunt wild animals and the women would gather edible plants, Hunter- gathers did not keep animals or grow food (Redding, 1998). Hunter -gathers were often migratory moving where the food sources were or following the migrations of the wild animals (Redding, 1998). Their survival depended on their ability to hunt wild game and identify edible plants including fruits and berries. Hunter -gathers used tools they made using rocks, wood and animal hide, such as stone axes and spears, to help with hunting and gathering (Redding, 1998; Price 1987).  In coastal areas fishing was a good source of food and the Homo sapiens in those areas made nets and spears to assist (Feder, 2014). During this time, Homo sapiens spent most of their time and resources in survival mode, seeking food and shelter, making tools. During the Pleistocene period the climate was cold, this period was marked by repeated glacial cycles (Blummer & Byrne, 1991; Feder, 2014). Homo sapiens needed large areas of land to support them; permanent camps were only possible if the food sources were reliable and sustainable.  Hunter -gathers could only poses what they could carry with them. The agricultural revolution marked a change for Homo sapiens that had far reaching consequences and impacted on cultural evolution (Redding, 1985).

During the end of the Pleistocene period or the beginning of the Holocene period the climate changed, the ice age ended (Feder, 2014). In some parts of the world areas became tropical, semi arid or arid.  With this change food sources became easier to find, vegetation grew more readily. As the climate grew warmer the need for finding shelter and warmth lessoned. As food sources became easier to find the need for survival became easier (Redding, 1985).

Interestingly changes from Hunter -gather to farmer occurred in separate parts of the world over roughly the same time periods , between 1200 and 8000 B.P. domestication of plants occurred in several parts of the world (Blumler & Byrne, 1991). Domestication of plants and animals required a number of factors to be present including environmental and human capacity (Zeder, 2006).Gathering edible foods is a productive means of survival.  Experienced gathers would have needed and had a great knowledge of plant resources (Blumler & Byrne, 1991). It is believed by anthropologists that these gathers would have come to understand plant reproduction and that the planting of seeds would have led to new plant growth (Blummer & Byrne, 1991).

 Anthropologists and Archaeologists suggest agriculture occurred due to the climate changes, mega fauna began to die out but mammals such as bison flourished and plants all over the world grew more readily (Redding, 1985; Blummer & Byrne, 1991).  There are no written records of the transition period between 8000 and 5000 B.C when many animals were first domesticated and plants were cultivated on a regular basis, it is uncertain why or how people adopted new ways of producing food (Matheny & Gurr, 1983).  It is thought that climatic changes associated with the last of the glaciers at the end of the Pleistocene period, may have played an important role (Feder, 2014).  These climatic changes ensured the migration of many larger animals to northern grazing lands.  They also left a dwindling supply of animals for human hunters in areas such as the Middle East, which is where agriculture first arose and many animals were first domesticated (Gould, 1985).  Climatic changes also led to changes in the growing and distribution patterns of wild cereals and other crops on which hunters and gatherers depended (Gould, 1985). It is likely that the shift to sedentary farming was prompted in part by an increase in human populations in certain areas. It is possible that the population growth was caused by changes in the climate and plant and animal life, forcing Hunter-gathers to move into other areas. During this time Hunting and gathering likely reached higher productivitiy prompting population growth (Gould, 1985). Peoples like the Natufians found that by harvesting grain intensively their community populations could increase, as the population grew, more  attention had to be given to the grain harvest, which eventually led to the conscious and systematic cultivation of plants and thus the agricultural revolution (Gould, 1985; Bar-yosef, 1998).  Recent theories also suggest that humans themselves were motivated in the process and were active in bringing about changes in social, ideological and economic conditions (Price, 1987).  These changes would have occurred slowly and Flinlayson (2014), suggests that hunter gather ideologies would have existed long into the development of agricultural societies.

 

The change from Hunter -gather to farmer would have been very gradual.  Henry (1985) suggests that simple Hunter- gather societies, those that moved to find food, that dealt with stressors by moving to a new area or reducing their population groups gave way to complex Hunter -gather societies that were more geographically fixed and dealt with stressors by increasing population groups and diversifying resources and developing structures social situations this in turn gave way to agricultural societies.  At first a large part of the diet would have relied on old familiar food sources.  Domesticated plants and animals started in Asia and slowly spread out across the world (Blumler & Byrne, 1991; Price, 2000). Western Asia and parts of Africa known as the Fertile Crescent start domesticating wheat, barley, chickpeas, peas, beans, flax and bitter vetch. Sheep and goat were also domesticated, although slightly after the crops (Blumler & Byrne, 1991; Price, 2000).From here agriculture spread out across the world eventually reaching Europe.  Only a few groups remained hunter gathers until recently including the Australian Aboriginals and some tribes in North America (Feder, 2014).

The Natufians an Epipaleolothic culture (14000 to 9800 years ago) lived in Levent  – the Eastern Mediterranean, also part of the Fertile Crescent, which is where early agriculture began ( Henry, 1985 , Feder, 2013  ).  There is evidence to suggest people arrived there from the near east and found large low lying fertile lands.  Long term communities or settlements developed and these communities were largely dependent on harvesting food (Henry, 1985). The first known area of animal domestication or animals kept for meat is at Shandiar where Archaeologists found pits with sheep bones, the sheep being or around 12 months of age at time of death, soon after in this area goats are also kept (Feder, 2013).  Shandiar is located along what is known as the Fertile Crescent a region that has fertile lands in otherwise arid landscapes (Feder, 2014; Byrd, 1989).  The domestication of dogs – wild wolves that ever eventually tamed over the generations were among the first animals domesticated including sheep and goats, cattle were not domesticated until 8000-9000 years ago (Feder, 2014). Natufian’s hunted gazelle deer, wild boar as well as water fowl and fish along the coastal areas.

In this area there was an abundance of wild cereal grasses, such as wheat and barley. As discussed earlier hunter gathers would have had an extensive knowledge of plants and over generations would have been able to determine the most easily grown the better tasting plants, collected and stored those seeds and grown them the next season, this over time changed the genetic makeup of the plants (Zeder, 2006; Blumler & Byrne, 1991).  The Natufian’s experienced a cold period known as the Younger Dryas period – 12900-11600 years ago.  It is likely that the cold snap reduced the abundance of wild cereals and legumes, nuts and animals that the Natufian’s had become accustomed too.  It is thought that during this period the Natufian’s started to artificially increase the abundance of plant food, possibly by planting seeds and attending to them (Bar-Yosef, 1998).  This is likely the reason for the advance in agriculture.

Fedder (2013) suggests that in the Levant foraging foods would have required a more sedentary life because of a stable food source, while at the same time allowing for a sedentary way of life.  The wild seeds found in the woodland areas of the Levant provided humans the carbohydrates and proteins they needed.  Archaeologists have uncovered sickles made of goat horn, sickles are curved blades attached to handles allowing the person to easily harvest the cereal grasses.  Other artefacts found include mortal and pester for grinding seeds (Bar-Yosef, 1998). The Natufian’s intensely collected and stored food and seeds. Storage structures were built above the flood plains of the Levant to sore the food in these are cylindrical structures with wooden raised floors  (Bar-Yosef, 1998).  Housing structures were built with stone foundations suggesting long term use (Bar-Yosef, 1998).  There is evidence of more elaborate burials, personal adornment including shells and bone and works of art have also been recovered. This suggests further development of culture (Bar-Yosef, 1998)

In conclusion a number of factors lead to the development of agriculture including climate change, population increase and human capacity.  While agriculture in some form occurred all over the world in roughly the same time frame the earliest evidence of agriculture is at the Levant in the naturfrian culture.  Plants and animals were slowly domesticated. The advent of agriculture led to food surplus, growth in population more structured societies and advancement’s in technologies and arts. Although the end of the ice age during the last of the Plestoine period prompted vegetation to grow more readily and animals to migrate and some to even flourish it was The Younger Dras period – a cold snap that likely reduced crop production that prompted humans at Levant to actively start farming.

 

 

 

 

Reference List

Bar-Yosef, O 1998, 'The natufian culture in the Levant, threshold to the origins of agriculture', Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues News and Reviews, vol. 6, pp. 159-177

Blumler, MA, & Byrne, R 1991, 'The ecological genetics of domestication and the origins of agriculture', Current Anthropology, vol. 32, pp. 23-54, JSTOR.

Byrd, B. 1989, ‘The Natufian: Settlement Variability and Economic adaptations in the Levant at the end of the Pleistocene’, Journal of world prehistory, Vol 3 pp 18-28.

Feder, KL 2014, The Past in Perspective: An Introduction to Human Prehistory, 6^th edn,Oxford University Press, New York.

Flinlayson, B 2014, The ‘complex Hunter-gather’ and the Transition to Farming. Blannflakes to Bushmills. Viewed 01/10/2014 www.academia.edu

Gould, R 1985, '"Now let's invent agriculture ...": a critical review of concepts of complexity among hunter-gatherers', in TD Price, & JA Brown (eds.), Prehistoric hunter-gatherers: the emergence of cultural complexity, Academic Press, Orlando, Florida, pp. 427-434.

Henry, DO 1985, 'Preagricultural sedentism: the Natufian example', in TD Price, & JA Brown (eds.), Prehistoric hunter-gatherers: the emergence of cultural complexity, Academic Press, Orlando, Florida, pp. 365-384.

Matheny, RT, & Gurr, DL 1983, 'Variation in prehistoric agricultural systems of the new world', Annual Review of Anthropology, vol. 12, pp. 79-103, EBSCOhost, Academic Search Complete, item: 11240752.

Price, TD 1987, 'The Mesolithic of Western Europe', Journal of World Prehistory, vol. 1, pp. 225-305.

Price, TD 2000, 'Lessons in the transition to agriculture', in TD Price (ed.), Europe's first farmers, Cambridge University Press, New York, New York, pp. 301-318.

Redding, RW 1988, 'A general explanation of subsistence change: from hunting and gathering to food production', Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, vol. 7, pp. 56-97.

Zeder, MA 2006, 'Central questions in the domestication of plants and animals', Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues News and Reviews, vol. 15, pp. 105-117, Wiley Online Library.