| The Story of Agriculture All Text Copyright © Vengeance At the end of the Ice Age, there were changing environmental and demographic conditions that enabled new technological innovations and trends towards sendentary settlement. The development of food production practices is seen as a staged development, horticulture then agriculture. Of the 200,000 species of flowering plants, only 3,000 are used as food, and of those, only 200 have been domesticated. Origins 
Food production began at different times: Southwest Asia by 7000 BC, Mesoamerica by 3500 BC, tropical Africa by 1000 BC. Agriculture probably developed in the Near East somewhere in the semi-arid mountainous areas with the cultivation of wheat, barley and other cereal grains. Up until 10,000 years ago, (c. 8000 BC) people were Hunter-Gatherers. They lived in small groups in which disease and malnutrition contributed to small numbers. Given the mode of food acquisition (gathering wild fruits, berries, vegetables and hunting small game), hunger was common throughout much of the preagricultural period. Approximately 10,000 years ago, individuals became food producers. Rather than shift completely to a food producing way of living, individuals entered a transitional period in which they supplmented their hunting and gathering with a small number of domesticated plants and animals. As the variety and number of domesticated foodstuffs increased, people became less dependent on hunting and gathering as a lifestyle. Domestication of the animal species occurred quite early, roughly around the same time as plant domestication. Again, most anthropologists believe that most animal domestication emerged from the Near East, with a few from southeast Asia and a few from the New World.  | In the Near East domestication occurred in the Fertile Crescent, an area that encompasses Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Israel, circa 9000-14,000 ybp. Einkorn wheat, Emmer wheat, barley, peas and lentils were the primary domesticates. In the Far East and India (Thailand, India, China), the domestication of rice, millet, hemp, chickpea and soybean is dated roughly to 7000 to 8000 ybp. | | The New World, had two areas of domestication. MesoAmerica and Peru. Domestication of quinoa, beans, potatoes, oca, mashua, ullucu, llama, alpaca and guineau pigs in Peru can be dated to about 5000 BP or 3000 BC. Domestication in Mesoamerica, which included Mexico and central America had no domesticated animals, but did domesticate maize, beans, lima beans, squash, tomatos and chili peppers. |  | What is known is that Old World agriculture developed thousands of years before the New World. While theories have attempted to account for the differing domestication times, most have discounted the theory that agriculture immigrated with individuals across the Bering Strait because individuals crossed the Bering Strait prior to the development of agriculture; most anthropologists believe that agriculture had several centres of origin and that these centres diffused to other parts. From the Near East, agriculture spread to Africa and Europe and from the New World, to North America. Domestication Theories Why did individuals domesticate plants and animals? Recent studies by anthropologists (see Richard Lee's work on the !Kung San of the Kalahari) suggest that Hunter and Gatherers do not have as harsh a life as previously expected. In fact, hunting and gathering is not as labor intensive, time consuming or disadvantageous as it once was believed to be. Contemporary H-G have much leisure time and are nutritionally and physiologically healthy. Not only do they work less than farmers, they have better balanced diets and are not as vulnerable to famine, gastrointestinal infections or epidemics than other contemporary populations. Early theories on the origins of agriculture suggested that agriculture, horticulture and domestication was a step in an inevitable evolutionary ladder in which the human species naturally progressed towards improving themselves. However, there have been a number of theories that propose that the development of agriculture is more than "a natural progression"; these theories tend to run the gambit from ritual sacrifice to accidental domestication. V. Gordon Childe: In 1936 Childe proposed that a climatic change in SW Asia resulted in a severe drought of the Near East that brought people and animals together to develop a symbiotic relationship near fertile water oases. According to Childe, this symbiosis led to new technological changes, an increase in sedantism and changes in social organization, kinship and religion. Braidwood: Braidwood rejects catastrophic climatic change and argues in favour of an economic change that resulted from increasing cultural differentiation and specialization of human communities; this rendered individuals more culturally receptive to innovation and experimentation. Barbara Bender: Bender essentially argues that when early communities developed extensive trade networks, the expansion of trade and political alliances between neighbouring groups created new social and economic pressures to produce more surplus goods, not only in the form of foodstuffs but also in cultural artefacts. To meet this demand, individuals undertook agricultural pursuits. Ester Boserup: Boserup proposes that the development of agriculture is a result of a relationship between population and available resources. Food production systems are flexible and grow and accommodate to rising numbers. To Boserup, population densities and available resources are directly proportional to whether agriculture will be adopted. Mark Cohen: Cohen suggests that the only factor that can account for the irreversible and nearly uniform emergence of agriculture throughout the world is the growth of populations beyond the size that Hunter-Gatherers would support. To Cohen, over 11,000 years ago, Hunter-Gatherers occupied all lands, but as their populations increased, their choices of food and work standards became more limited. These restrictions forced the population to change its eating habits. Kent Flannery: Flannery prefers to propose a multivariate model. Rather than looking for a single cause of origin, Flannery argues that the rise of agriculture can be attributed to the interaction of a number of factors. Not only was there human intentionality but there was also a set of underlying ecological and evolutionary principles that brought together agricultural production. Eri Isaac: To Isaac, the origin of vegetable cultivation began with the cutting up and burying of plant parts in a ritual enactment of the primeval killing and burial of a God. Seasonal cycles of the death and rebirth of vegetation were thought to be related to the human life cycle. Eduard Hahn: To explain animal domestication, Hahn proposes that cattle were domesticated in order to secure animals for sacrifice at lunar fertility ceremonies. Consequences of Agriculture The new food-producing economies proved successful. In 8000 BC virtually everyone in the world lived by hunting and gathering; by AD 1, most people were farmers or herders with only a handful still Hunter-Gatherers. The spread of food production throughout the world only took 8000 years, and spread to all corners of the earth, except for those areas that were inhospitable to agricultural endeavours. Higher Population Densities: Food production resulted in higher population densities because domestication enabled an economic strategy that increased and stabilized the world's food supplies. Sedentism implied year round occupation, rather than the transitory migration that Hunter-Gatherers employed. As a result of permanent residence, social relations became important as did methods of governance, social regulations, rules, laws, religious sanctions and shifts in ritual behaviour. New Toolkits and Technology: Because the nature of food acquisition had changed, individuals no longer needed the lightweight material tools that Hunters and Gatherers required. Individuals could craft heavier toolkits, build lasting abodes and develop tools that were more appropriate to farming culture. There were increases in permanent housing and storage facilities, pottery vessels to hold farm yield and the development of "advanced" farming implements, such as tilling sticks. The Development of Civilization: With agriculture, came the opportunity for civilization, an urbanized, state-level society with complex social organization, a centralized accumulation of capital and social status, advances in formal records, science, math and written script and monumental architecture. Limited Diet: Before, Hunters and Gatherers had an endless supply of wild grains and foods at their disposal. However, early agriculturalists had to select which foods to domesticate, which resulted in a more limited diet Background courtesy of Eos Development |
