To understand our social organization of today, we must take
several factors into consideration that have influenced us over the years. The Neolithic
Revolution was one of the most influential ones because it completely changed
the way humans lived, being considered by anthropologists and scientists the
most impact oriented change in human behavior.
During the Paleolithic period, humans were nomad, meaning,
they moved around in search for food and better resources in different places.
They were usually divided in groups of 20 – 30 people maximum, just to help
each other on hunting and gathering and keep each other protected from
dangerous predators.
Around 10,000.00 ya, everything started changing. That was
when the Neolithic Revolution happened. Such revolution was a fundamental
change in the way people lived and an essential influence to the way we live
today. They shifted from hunting and gathering to domestication and agriculture
a very characteristic element of a sedentary lifestyle.
Before we begin discussing the new habits of the Neolithic,
it’s important to understand the difference between domestication and
agriculture, or cultivation.
The first stage of the revolution was the domestication
which consisted in using elements of wilderness and taking them into the home
or the surroundings with the intent of manipulating and using these elements as
part of their household. One good example of domestication is using dogs to protect
the people in the household from predators in exchange for feeding the dog. It
is a situation that is beneficial for both parts. While agriculture is based on
cultivation of crops, preparation of the field, and storing seeds - notably
grains such as wheat, rice, corn, rye, barley. The domestication came before
the agriculture, but once agriculture began, they both coexisted and still do. A
wide variety of plants and animals have been independently domesticated at
different times and in numerous places. The first agriculture appears to have
developed at the closing of the last glacial period, or Ice Age,
the temperature was getting warmer and therefore more likely for crops to grow
and the global climate change definitely played a role in the development of
agriculture.
Besides domestication and agriculture, other elements were
changing at this period such as craft specialization. Craft had changed to supply
their current needs and one big tool advancement at this period was the
microlith. Microliths are usually made of flint and are typically
one centimeter long and half a centimeter wide. Depending on the shape of the
microlith, it would be related to a specific time period, ranging from
geometric shapes to types of blades.
All of these discoveries wouldn’t be able without
archeological sites that have found important piece of information that helps
us today, understand when everything begun. Some of the famous archeological
sites are divided by region, considering that in different regions would have
changed into different paces and accordingly to the resources provided in each
region. For example two sites in Israel have evidence of hunters and gatherers who
harvested on the side to add more variety to the diet. Same evidence was found
in Africa – Egypt, but using the geographical location, the locals of that area
would harvest the rich fauna and flora around Nile region. In China, dating
10,300 – 8,700 ya evidence of cultivation of millet was found. In Guila
Naquitz, an archeological site located in Mexico, evidence was found from a
cave that was occupied by 4 to 6 people, and that confirms the idea that they
were now living in groups and staying at one place.
The result of the succession of changes happening at that time
was not always good. There are a few problems generated from the new lifestyle
that begun during Neolithic Revolution. Some of these problems are results of
fast pace growth on the number of humans living in the same region. With the beginning
of agriculture, people would rely on the aliments provided from the crops to
sustain their needs, so many times their diet was not very variable and not as nutritious
as before causing diseases related to lack of vitamins, a disease related to
bad nutrition is anemia. Other diseases were generated from the fact that
humans were interacting and living closely to animals and close to other
humans, which would facilitate the diseases to spread with ease. Some of these diseases are anthrax,
brucellosis and tuberculosis. On a broader perspective, living in cities lead
to issues such as managing the placement of waste. Many times that management was
poor, due to the lack of infrastructure, so that also caused the appearance of
some diseases.
Personal
Input
I feel like we have had a great semester overall, the study
of human behavior in a chronological organization was really interesting. I was
able to understand biologically the changes that were happening in the human
body during the evolution and as result of these changes, the behavior adaptations
and change of habits and costumes.
In this chapter of the book, we took a great look at how the
Neolithic changed the organization of the society and their habits in relation
to nature. The decision of adopting a sedentary lifestyle COMPLETELY changed
everything in a way that we couldn’t go back to being nomads ever. I understand
the benefits of settling in a place and the possibility of accumulating things,
rather than living a life with a few belongings in search for the best
environment or the best resources. I do wonder from time to time how things
would be if we were still wandering around. Would h. sapiens have survived or
would we have evolved to a different species?
Additional
Information
For my additional information this is map that shows what
where the different products harvested around the world when agriculture
started.
This second link is a very interesting video explaining the
Neolithic Revolution based on archeological sites and archeologists work, using
evidences found in relation to human behavior and habits at the time.
This is my last link for my anthropology class blog and I
thought it would be interesting to go back to where everything begun. We saw
how agriculture started and changed human habits, but nowadays it seems like
agriculture has lost a lot of its power to industrialization. This next link
explains how to live a more sustainable life using agriculture as a part of it.
Maybe that will take as back to our ancestor and appreciate where we came from.
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