Emergence of AGRICULTURE: summary + video
One of the most important during Prehistory was the discovery of agriculture, since it was one of the reasons why it was possible to go from a sedentary way of life to a nomadic one. For centuries human beings had lived as hunters and gatherers, and therefore had to travel constantly, but all this changed with the appearance of agriculture. For all this, and to explain how agriculture was discovered, in this lesson from a Teacher we must talk about the emergence of agriculture: summary.
Index
- How did agriculture appear?
- How agriculture was discovered in the Neolithic
- History of agriculture: its extension across the planet
- The Neolithic Revolution
How did agriculture appear?
The origin of the emergence of agriculture can be traced back to about 12,000 years ago, during the prehistoric period known as Neolithic. It was at this time when human beings began their sedentary lives, and always being fixed on one same place made them able to experiment with the earth, and achieve the first results with the agriculture.
The first crops of human beings with the so-called eight founding cultures, being the first crops to appear in the Eastern Mediterranean area. These first 8 crops were:
- the wheat
- barley
- peas
- the lentils
- the yero
- the linen
- the farro
- the chickpeas
Over time, many were added to these crops, but we can say that the original crops of Western cultures were these.
How agriculture was discovered in the Neolithic.
Regarding the reasons that led to the birth of agriculture, there are various theories.
- The most general is that There was a big problem due to lack of food, perhaps due to a population increase or changes in climate, causing the search for food to become increasingly complicated and they needed to change the system. There were fewer and fewer crops and animals naturally, so human beings They learned agriculture and the domestication of animals to be able to get out of a food crisis situation.
- Another theory says that human beings spent so much time collecting that They were able to understand nature, and with this they began to see the different effects that crops had, as a prelude to the knowledge of agriculture. We must understand that at that time human beings were almost entirely dedicated to gathering and hunting, so their knowledge of plants and animals must have been very high.
History of agriculture: its extension across the planet.
For a long period of time in human history, agriculture was used only in some regions, since It took a long period of time to begin to expand. We must understand that agriculture was not a simple process, and that learning it was a complex process.
Regarding the expansion of agriculture, it is thought that it was caused by the migratory movements of people from the Middle East, which were taking the associated knowledge to other places in the world. It is said that human beings carried food, animals, and instruments on their journey to produce agriculture. This made the populations of other places learn the basic methods of agriculture, and with this they could produce this economic activity.
Other theories speak of the extension of agriculture may not be related, in the sense that it may be that human groups all over the planet learned how to use agriculture in a similar period of time. Experts believe that it could be that changes in the planet's temperature will make agricultural production easier, and this, together with the greater knowledge of the field by humans, will bring an expansion of agriculture throughout the world.
In a few centuries, agriculture was able to expand throughout a large part of our planet, causing groups of sedentary human beings in many places, and achieving birth of many of the first civilizations in the history of mankind. Find out here what were the first agricultural civilizations of the planet.
The Neolithic Revolution.
To finish this summary of the emergence of agriculture, we must talk about one of the most important processes within of the arrival of agriculture, being the so-called Neolithic revolution, which brought agriculture as the main model economic.
The Neolithic Revolution, also known as the Agricultural Revolution, It was a large-scale transition that affected numerous prehistoric human cultures. In this revolution they began to understand how plants worked, and over time they progressed and evolved in their understanding of how agriculture worked.
Current studies seem to show that the revolution took place all over the world at the same time, causing all human societies to have a similar evolution. For this reason, it is considered the first great economic and social revolution of history, since the appearance of agriculture brought changes in every sense that would remain and change human beings forever. We must understand that human beings until that moment had been hunters and gatherers, and that from that moment on they began to be focused on the agricultural process.
Although not the entire process of the revolution was positive, since brought a change in human nutrition, because human beings were not capable of generating all the products they consume through agriculture, causing the diet to be much smaller in terms of variety.
It was the Neolithic revolution that brought the appearance of agriculture, changing the world forever, and bringing about a new period in the history of humanity.
If you want to read more articles similar to Emergence of agriculture: summary, we recommend that you enter our category of History.
Bibliography
- Redman, C. (1990). The origins of civilization. Criticism, Barcelona, 276.
- Krapovickas, A. (2010). Domestication and the origin of agriculture. Bonplandia, 193-199.
- McClung de Tapia, E. (2013). The origin of agriculture. Mexican archeology, 19(120), 36-41.