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The Transformations Brought by Agriculture

Explore the profound changes brought by agriculture on society, environment, and technology. Learn about agricultural breakthroughs, food crises, spread of agriculture, drawbacks, and benefits. Discover how agriculture shaped human evolution and civilization.

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The Transformations Brought by Agriculture

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  1. The Transformations Brought by Agriculture

  2. Transformation of Society • Agricultural Cultivation • farming • Pastoralism • raising livestock • domestication

  3. Domination of Environment • Changing natural world; not just using it • shaping the landscape • selective breeding of animals • Domesticationcreated mutual dependence • many domesticated plants & animals came to rely on humans • humans lost gathering and hunting skills

  4. Domination of Environment • Intensification More food & resources from less land Greater need to exploit land More people

  5. Agricultural Breakthroughs • Womenas agricultural innovators (they were the gatherers)

  6. Agricultural Breakthroughs • Technology– development of sickles, baskets, and other tools to make use of wild grain

  7. Agricultural Breakthroughs • Establish more permanent villages in resource-rich areas

  8. Food Crisis of Settlement • Population growth food crises • Now required to support growing populations • subject to sudden short-term weather fluctuations (drought, cold, etc.) • couldn’t move away

  9. Food Crisis of Settlement • Solutions to “food crisis” • Experimentationrapid innovations • Communities work together to solve problems • begins development of specialized trades

  10. Spread of Agriculture • Diffusion • Gradual spread of techniques, plants and animals, but without movement in the human population • Colonization • Migration of agricultural peoples • Language & culture spread with agriculture

  11. Spread of Agriculture • Process took about 10,000 years • Where agriculture was resisted: • Land was unsuitable for farming (unsuitable climate or soil) • Where there was great natural abundance • Steady erosion of nomadic ways of life

  12. Drawbacks of Agriculture • Meant much harder work • Health deteriorated • New diseases from interaction with animals • First epidemicsthanks to large communities

  13. Drawbacks of Agriculture • New vulnerability to famine • Due to dependence on a small number of plants or animals to survive • Can’t move • New constraints on human communities • Settled in permanent villages • Begins to result in the loss of freedoms

  14. Benefits of Agriculture • More reliable food source • Surplus of food • Storage to prevent against famine • Healthier people; live longer • Carry babies to term; lower infant mortality die less frequently • More food = more people (always!)

  15. Benefits of Agriculture • Specialized labor • Produces technological innovation to improve production, trade, transportation

  16. Benefits of Agriculture • pots (essential for carrying surpluses)

  17. Benefits of Agriculture • textiles (fibers, looms) • women were the inventors

  18. Benefits of Agriculture • wheels & wheeled carts

  19. Benefits of Agriculture • Plows

  20. Benefits of Agriculture • Metallurgy

  21. Benefits of Agriculture • Weaponry • Beginnings of warrior class & class of elites

  22. Benefits of Agriculture • Secondary products revolution • Started c. 4000 B.C.E. • New uses for domesticated animals • Milking Riding • Hitching them to plows and carts • Only available in the Eastern Hemisphere – not in Americas

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