The first farmers
- 1. SOC 111 Int. to Anthropology THE FIRST FARMERS
- 2. Scientists found enough evidence to claim that modern human are originated in Africa and then spread into Europe and Asia. ‘Eve Theory’ homo sapien’s descendants left Africa no more than 135000 years ago. They eventually displaced the Neandertals in Europe and went on to colonize the rest of the world.
- 3. What is Nandertal? • Primitive Person. • The ancestor of human who lived in Middle Europe on Stone Age duration. • Neandertal Y chromosome differs significantly from that of modern humans, means there was little interbreeding between the two groups. • In Western Europe, Neandertals may have survived until about 28000 years BP.
- 4. • 2.6 million years ago hominins were still in Africa making stone tools. • 1.7 million years ago they had spread from Africa to Asia and Europe • 200.000 years ago anatomically modern humans evolved from ancestors who had remained in Africa. • Eventually anatomically modern humans replaced nonmodern human types such as Neandertals in Europe.
- 5. • Tool making and the qualification of tools determine Paleolithic Age. • Knives, Pins, Needles with eyes, Fishhooks – Upper Paleolithic Bone Tools With increasing technological differentiation, specialization and efficiency, humans have become increasingly adaptable.
- 6. • ‘The Wurm Glaciel’ Ice Age • Tundra and Step Veggitation • Humans moving to North for hunting. • Seas rose. • Edible species of marine life. • Birds migrated across Europe. • New resources such as migratory birds and springtime fish. • Evidence from the arts of Upper Paleolithic people. Ex: the cave paintings.
- 7. • With glacial retreat, foragers pursued a more generalized economy, focusing less on large animals. This is the beginning of broad-spectrum revolution. • Wider range of plant and animal life hunted, gathered, caught, collected, fished. • Revolutionary because it led to food production – human control over the reproduction of plants and animals.
- 8. The Mesolithic • Mesolithic followed Upper Paleolithic • Microliths: small stone tools typical of Mesolithic technology – New hunting techniques – New kinds of axes, chisels, and gouges • The process of preserving fish and meat by smoking and salting grew important. • Dogs were domesticated. • Woodworking
- 9. • Broad-spectrum economies lasted 5,000 years longer in Europe than in the Middle East. Whereas Middle Easterners had begun to cultivate plants and animal breeds by 10,000BP, food production reached Western Europe only around 5,000BP.
- 10. The Neolithic • Neolithic: refers to new techniques of grinding and polishing stone tools –The transition from Mesolithic to Neolithic occurred when groups became dependent on domesticated foods –Shift toward the Neolithic was under way in the Middle East by 12,000 BP
- 11. • Neolithic Revolution refers to the origin and impact of food production (plant cultivation and animal domestication). • By 12.000 BP in the Middle East (Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Israel) people started intervening in the reproductive cycles of plants and animals. • No longer just harvesting nature’s bounty, they grew their own food.
- 12. The Neolithic • The primary significance of the Neolithic was the new total economy rather than just its characteristic artifacts (pottery). • Cultivation • Sedentary life • Use of ceramic vessels
- 13. • Food production did not start in alluvial desert which relied on irrigation systems to sustain cultivation. Instead, plant cultivation and animal domestication started in areas with reliable rainfall (re. dry farming) • Scientists proposed that in certain areas of the Middle East, local environments were so rich in respurces so people could adapt sedentism- settled life in villages.
- 14. • The Middle East had a vertical economy, as had Mesoamerica, including Mexico, Guatemala, Peru. – Exploited environmental zones that were close but contrasted with one another in altitude, rainfall, overall climate, and vegetation. Allowed the use of different resources in different seasons. –Movement of people, animals, and products between zones was a precondition for the emergence of food production.
- 15. Food Production and the State • The shift from foraging to food production was gradual. – Middle Eastern economies became geared more exclusively toward crops and herds. – In the hilly flanks areas, people began to intensify production by cultivating. – Farming colonies spread down into drier areas with the invention of better irrigation techniques.
- 16. • In Mesopotamia, a new economy based on irrigation and trade fueled the growth of an entirely new form of society: the state. • The state: a social and political unit featuring a central government, contrasts in wealth, and social classes.
- 17. Other Old World Producers • The path from foraging to food production was followed independently in at least seven world areas: – Three in the Americas – Four in the Old World • Food production spread, through – Trade – Diffusion – Migration
- 18. The Neolithic in Europe and Asia • 8,000 BP: Communities on Europe’s Mediterranean shores were shifting from foraging to farming. • 6,000 BP: Thousands of farming villages grew up, from Russia to northern France. – Domestication and Neolithic economies spread rapidly across Eurasia.
- 19. Seven World Areas Where Food Production Was Independently Invented
- 20. The First Farmers in the Americas • The most significant contrast between Old and New World food production involved animal domestication. – Large game animals were not domesticated in the New World. – Three caloric staples were domesticated by Native American farmers: • Maize: corn • Potatoes • Manioc: cassava
- 21. The Tropical Origins of New World Domestication • New World farming began in the lowlands of South America and spread to Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean Islands.
- 22. Explaining the Neolithic • Domestication rested on a combination of conditions and resources that had not come together previously. • Several factors converged to make domestication happen: – Development of a full-fledged Neolithic economy required settling down. – Sedentism became especially attractive when several species of plants and animals were available locally.
- 23. • Eventually, with climate change, population growth, and the need for people to sustain themselves in the marginal zones, hunter-gatherers started cultivating.
- 24. Geography and the Spread of Food Production – In Eurasia, plants and animals could spread more easily east–west than north–south. – The spread of Middle Eastern crops southward into Africa was eventually halted by climatic contrasts. – By contrast, less diffusion in America.
- 25. Major Axes of the Continents
- 26. Costs and Benefits • Food production brought the advantages of discovery and invention. – Spinning and weaving – Pottery and brickmaking, arched masonry – Smelting and casting metals – Trade and commerce • By 5,500 BP, Middle Easterners were living in vibrant cities with markets, streets, temples and palaces.
- 27. Costs and Benefits • The new economy also brought hardship: – Food producers typically work harder than foragers. – Herds, fields, and irrigation systems need care. – Trade takes men and women away. – Producers have more children. – Public health declines – Social inequality and poverty increase – The rate at which human beings degrade their environments increases with food production. • Deforestation in the Middle East.
- 28. The Benefits and Costs of Food Production (Compared with Foraging)