Agricultural Revolution or Neolithic Rev. – Second great human endeavor after the settlement of the globe Started about 12,000 years ago Deliberate cultivation of plants and domestication (taming) of animals Transformed human life across the globe

How did agriculture bring a new relationship between humans and other living things? – Shaped the landscape i.e. canals, slash and burn, dams – Selectively bred animals/ dogs-hunting, oxen- plowing

Domestication of nature created a new mutual dependence – Many plants and animals began to rely on humans – Humans lost gathering and hunting skills

Intensification of living or the getting of more food and resources from less land – May result in exploitation of resources More food led to greater population increase

Happened independently in China, New Guinea, Mesoamerica, the Andes, Eastern North America Same time, 12,000-4,000 years ago

Common patterns: End of the Ice Age 16,000 years ago. By 11,000 years ago completely over – End of Ice Age led to human migrations – Warmer, more stable climates- plants flourish, new food sources such as cereal grasses

The natural world became one to manage – Broad spectrum diet developed. Humans ate large and small animals with expanded plants. – Tools developed to address agriculture Sickles, baskets, developed to for new grains in the Middle East Women were probably the agricultural innovators Clearing, slash and burn

Permanent villages – Population growth then food crisis – Only a few hundred plant species have been domesticated and only fourteen large mammal species

Fertile Crescent- - first Agricultural Revolution – Domesticated plants and animals – Mud bricks = more sophisticated building, shrines, homes, burial sites

Eastern Sahara Domestication (Sudan) – Region more hospitable 10,000-5,000 years ago. Sahara did not exist – Domesticated cattle 1,000 years before Middle east and India – Less productive agriculturally in Africa than in Fertile Crescent

Americas – Absence of animals to domesticate. – Without the protein from animals and manure to fertilize people of the western Hemisphere (Americas) relied on hunting and fishing – Only cereal grain was maize or corn Agricultural development took longer Americas are oriented north south across different climate zones slowing trade and diffusion

Globalization of Agriculture – Spreads in two ways Diffusion- gradual spread of techniques but without much movement of people Colonization or migration of agricultural people

Language and culture spread with agriculture – Indo-European languages started in Turkey and today spoken from Europe to India – Similar in China – Spread of Bantu language in southern Africa – Austronesians in the Pacific

Agriculture took 10,000 years to globalize. – Was resisted where land was poor or resources were great – By the beginning of the Common Era most gathering/ hunting societies were a minority

The Culture of Agriculture – Greater populations 10,000 years ago 6 million 5,000 years ago 50 million people Common Era 250 million

Farming did not improve life – People were shorter and lived shorter lives than gathering societies – Difficult work, sickness due to animal born disease, dependence on climate and rainfall meant droughts and famine – Larger populations led to epidemics

New technologies: – Pots, textiles, and metallurgy – Secondary products revolution 4,000 BCE: New uses for domesticated animals other than meat and hides: fertilizer, milk wool, beasts of burden to haul and plow Only in Eastern hemisphere

Deliberate alteration of the ecosystem – Removal of ground cover, irrigation and grazing taxes and ecosystem – Evidence of soil erosion and deforestation in the Middle East 1,000 years after

Reliance on different animals in different regions – Horses were domesticated by 4,000 BCE Encouraged the growth of pastoral (pasture animals) people on the central Asian steppes

Social variation – Pastoral societies- Animal husbandry or raising of animals for milk, meat or blood – Pastoral societies Nomadic,began in Central Asia, Arabian Peninsula and parts of eastern and southern Africa Land did not lend itself to agriculture Must pasture animals-cover more land

Domesticated camels allowed human life in the inner Asian, Arabian and Saharan deserts No pastoral societies emerged in the Americas

Agricultural Village Societies – Banpo and Jericho were early villages that maintained an egalitarian (equal) society – Catalhuyuk in southern Turkey Buried dead under houses, moved on rooftops, specialized crafts, little sign of inherited social inequality and no gender dominance

Village-based agricultural societies organized by kinship group or lineage – Functions of government by maintaining order but did not have chiefdoms. – Goal: good for all Sometimes inequalities existed – Elders taking advantage of the young for labor – Controlling the reproduction of women to maintain lineage

Chiefdoms Chiefs unlike kings relied on generosity, ritual status, or charisma to govern, not force Goal: common good Later birth right would influence chief then kinks of civilizations and states Chiefdoms emerged in Mesopotamia