B. SETTLING DOWN: THE NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION

Agricultural Societies: This Is My Land

In a span of several thousand years from approximately 8000 B.C.E. to 3000 B.C.E., groups of people moved from nomadic lifestyles to agricultural lifestyles and town and city life. This transition period is often called the Neolithic (“New Stone”) Revolution or theAgricultural Revolution.Keep in mind that we still aren’t talking about full-blown civilizations. People still lived in relatively small, independent groups or communities. To be sure, the towns and cities that they built were bigger than anything else that came before them, but civilizations on a grand scale didn’t get rolling until around 3000 B.C.E., give or take a few centuries, depending on the region of the world.

Here’s how it worked: When people figured out how to cultivate plants, they could stay in the same place, as long as there was good soil and a stable source of water. Because they also knew how to domesticate animals and use simple tools, they could rely on a relatively varied and constant supply of food, and this encouraged them to stay in the same place for longer periods of time.

Staying in the same place changed things dramatically, because people in a community stayed within close proximity of each other, which added to their sense of unity and helped them build and sustain cultural traditions. What’s more, unlike nomadic societies, agricultural communities were not just collections of people, but people tied to a particular piece of land. In other words, they began to think of property in terms of ownership.

Contrast Them: Nomadic versus Agricultural Societies

The difference between nomadic and agricultural societies is about more than just moving around versus staying put. It also involves emotional and psychological issues. Think about it this way: When you and everybody else is on the move a lot, the land more or less belongs to everybody. But when people stay in the same place for generations, they begin to think of the particular piece of land that they live on as home—their home. If someone else comes along and drinks from their river or builds a house on their hill, they might begin to think of the newcomers as intruders or invaders, not as neighbors. Once nomads started interacting with sedentary societies through trade or conflicts, things started to get complicated.

Important Consequence of Agriculture: A Food Surplus

Imagine two people who only grow enough food for themselves. They both have to farm all day every day. There’s little time left to do anything else. Now imagine that one person farms enough food for two people. The second person can do something else, say, make tools or dig anirrigation ditch or study to become a philosopher or religious leader. Now imagine that one person can farm enough food for five people, or ten people, or a hundred people. Now the other ninety-nine people can build towns, organize armies, develop a system of writing, create art, experiment, and discover new technologies. In other words, individual labor becomes specialized. Each person can get really good at doing a particular task because he or she no longer has to worry about where the next meal is coming from.

As agricultural societies became more complex, organized economies, governmental structures, and religious organizations began to emerge to keep things as predictable and orderly as possible. Suddenly, there was society, or the beginnings of what we’d call a civilization.

With the invention of irrigation techniques, lands that previously couldn’t be farmed could be used for additional surpluses. This would lead to more growth and complexity, which would lead to more agricultural advancements, which would lead to more growth and complexity, and so on.

Focus On: What Contributes to the Development of a Civilization?

As described above, specialization of labor is key. If everyone has to farm to have enough food, a great civilization won’t develop. If a certain number of farmers can provide a surplus of food, then other people in the community are free to build, invent, and create tools, art, and institutions.

Impact of Agriculture on the Environment

There’s no question that the Agricultural Revolution had an impact on the environment. Farming villages began to dramatically change the lay of the land by diverting water, clearing land for farming, and creating farmland where none previously existed. As villages grew into more permanent towns and cities, roads were built to link them, further altering the landscape. Stones were unearthed and cut to build increasingly large buildings and monuments. All of this activity led to a world in which land and resources were continually being reconfigured to fit the needs of growing, geographically stable populations.

What’s more, the impact on the animal kingdom was equally momentous. With the development of large-scale agriculture, animals began to be used not only as a source of food and clothing, but also as a direct source of agricultural labor. For example, oxen were used to pull plows on ever-expanding farmland. This enabled farmers to increase the size of their fields dramatically because they no longer had to turn the soil by hand.

Technology: Metal Workers Deserve Medals

If there had been a stock market for new technologies in the Neolithic Era, it would have attracted many investors. During this period, hard stones such as granite were sharpened and formed into farming tools such as hoes and plows. Pottery was made to use for cooking. Weaving was invented to shape baskets and nets; more complex and comfortable clothing was designed. Eventually, wheels were invented for use on carts, and sails for use on boats. The list goes on and on.

But perhaps one of the most significant advances of the Neolithic Era was the knowledge of how to use metals. This greatly advanced the development of not only tools, but also weapons. When people figured out how to combine copper with tin to create an even harder metal, bronze, the building of civilizations was well on its way. This development was so significant that some people call the latter part of the Neolithic Era the Bronze Age. Bronze was superseded by the discovery of iron, but more on that later.