The Birth of Agriculture

1. The Birth of Agriculture FOH 4 - 5

2. What is agriculture?

3. Agriculture = the knowledge/ability and the activity of producing one’s own food supply (and other materials needed for daily life) basic activities?

4. Agriculture = the knowledge/ability and the activity of producing one’s own food supply (and other materials needed for daily life) - cultivating plants - domesticating/raising animals

5. Around what time was it discovered and developed?

6. Around what time was it discovered and developed? Circa 8000 BCE

7. Where was it first developed?

8. Eurasia the ancient “Near East” the Fertile Crescent Mesopotamia

9. the Fertile Crescent

10. And from there? Fertile Crescent  North Africa and Europe  Indus River Valley China – Yellow and Yangtze Rivers

11. Spread of agriculture

12. Why in the Fertile Crescent? List as many factors as you can that explain why agriculture seems to have begun there. Environmental?

13. Environmental factors: Climate: cool rainy winters + hot dry summers

14. Environmental/biological factors: Climate: cool rainy winters + hot dry summers  cereal plants with many characteristics?

15. Environmental/biological factors: Climate: cool rainy winters + hot dry summers  cereal plants with many characteristics: - rapid growth - self-pollinating - large seeds - easy to harvest b/c stems are NOT woody and seed pods do NOT shatter easily

16. Geographic factors: Spreading is easier across a zone with similar conditions (climate, sunlight, diseases, etc.)

17. Spread of agriculture

18. More generally, what developments* or “factors” made it possible or easier to domesticate plants? * Slow, gradual changes in the human world and in the natural world

19. Factors? • Better techniques in hunting and gathering Result?

20. Factors? • Better techniques in hunting and gathering more stable food supply

21. Factors? • Better techniques in hunting and gathering • End of the Ice Ages  warmer and wetter conditions in the Near East  spread of cereal grains with the characteristics just described Result?

22. 1) Better hunting and gathering techniques 2) End of the Ice Ages  warmer and wetter conditions in the Near East  spread of cereal grains more stable food supply

24. With a more stable food supply, what major change could people make in the way they lived?

25. Major change? They SETTLED DOWN in more permanent villages. So what? Why was this change so consequential?

26. Why consequential? • Since they were no longer on the move, they weaned children earlier, and had more frequent births. The population grew… and they needed more food than H & G alone could provide.

27. Why consequential? - Since they were no longer on the move, they weaned children earlier, and had more frequent births. The population grew… and they needed more food than H & G alone could provide. • Being settled, people could observe seeds grow into plants, and started to figure out the cycle of growth.

28. Did people who were used to H & G switch quickly to the lifestyle of agriculture?

29. A quick switch? No… • reluctant to change because H & G provided no “cushion” to fall back on – what if it failed? • agriculture required a lot more work! they saw it as a “curse”

30. Despite reluctance, why did they eventually take up agriculture?

31. Despite reluctance, why did they eventually take up agriculture? • As population grew, they had to. Agriculture: only way to provide for larger population. • Agriculture required more and more time from able-bodied people (women and men). Left less time for H & G.

32. A gradual process Agriculture Hunting and (domestication Gathering of plants and animals)

33. Effects of agriculture? On human societies?

34. Effects of agriculture? On human societies: • Surplus of food  not everyone had to produce food  new kinds of work • People worked to organize, store, trade surplus  first cities, civilizations, and new crafts and technologies (building, writing, metallurgy, etc.)

35. Effects of agriculture? On human societies: • Food production occurs in smaller groups, households/families • Less sharing of food with the community on a day to day basis • Communally owned lands and surplus gradually become private property • Private property  classes, conflicts bet. rich and poor, owners and workers

36. Effects of agriculture? On environment?

37. Effects of agriculture? On environment: • Varieties of plants that are easier to harvest (non-scattering grains) or of animals that are easier to raise became more common • People cut down forests, harnessed the power of rivers, changed the quality of soils • Human perceptions of the natural world shifted: there for everyone, to be respected? Or private property, to be exploited?

38. With the birth of agriculture comes… • social stratification?

39. With the birth of agriculture come… • social stratification = a system of putting people in a hierarchy, according to their perceived value • on-going conflict – over who has what Why?

40. What forms did surplus take under agriculture?

41. Surplus under agriculture? • Extra crops or animals • Extra by-products from them (wool, milk) • More land than is needed to meet needs of local population • Extra tools or weapons • Extra shelters, furniture, furnishings, clothes • Things obtained via trade • Accumulated wealth and privileged access

42. Agriculture: domestication of animals • What is involved in “domestication?” • What makes an animal “good for domesticating?” • Which animals were first widely domesticated and why?

43. Why do social stratification and conflict emerge with agriculture? • Because surplus from agriculture is no longer shared and consumed quickly. • Instead, it is accumulated, recorded, and treated mostly as private property. • Treating surplus as private property gets in the way of the egalitarian, reciprocal relationships cultivated under H & G.

44. Private property under agriculture? • One piece of land is never equal to another: location, soil, water, vegetation, drainage, etc. • Labor invested in a piece of land changes its value. • Some lands can be used for communal purposes (grazing), but others not so easily.

45. Private property under agriculture? • The group of people involved in food production shrinks: from a band of interdependent people moving through the natural world to households and dependents working on specific pieces of land. • Consequently, people share less routinely and start to connect their personal labor with the “fruits of their labor.”

46. Private property under agriculture? • Not everyone has to produce food. Some people produce/provide other goods and services, in exchange for surplus food. • Surplus in various forms becomes the means to acquire items that you yourself do not produce, and/or accumulated wealth that you can pass on to your descendants.

47. What happens to the status of women with the shift to agriculture?

48. Women’s roles in agriculture? • Essential! Agriculture is labor-intensive, and girls and women contribute significantly: preparing fields, planting, watering, weeding, protecting, praying, harvesting, preserving, tending to animals, birthing, milking, shearing, spinning, weaving, trading/selling surplus….

49. Why -- in some societies -- does women’s status decline? • Where techniques of tilling and planting require brute strength (hoe vs. plow), men’s role may be more valued. • During childbearing years, women may need to do tasks that more easily accommodate care of young children (e.g., barnyard animals vs. grazing animals, garden vs. fields).

50. Decline in women’s status? • Most importantly, in societies where control or ownership of property, by law, is limited to men OR a gendered distinction between “private” and “public” space is created/maintained women do not have access to the main resources (wealth and social connections) that men use to maintain their status.