1.2 The Neolithic Revolution

Period 1 – Technological and Environmental Transformations, c. 8000 BCE to c. 600 BCE

In response to warming climates at the end of the last Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago, some groups adapted to the environment in new ways, while others remained hunter-foragers. Settled agriculture appeared in several different parts of the world. The switch to agriculture created a more reliable, but not necessarily more diversified, food supply. Farmers also affected the environment through cultivation of selected plants to the exclusion of others, the construction of irrigation systems, and the use of domesticated animals for food and labor. Populations increased; village life developed, followed by urban life with all its complexity. Patriarchy and forced-labor systems developed, giving elite men concentrated power. Pastoralism emerged in parts of Africa and Eurasia. Like agriculturalists, pastoralists tended to be more socially stratified than hunter-foragers. Pastoralists’ mobility facilitated technology transfers through their interaction with settled populations.

I. The Neolithic Revolution led to the development of more complex economic and social systems.

A. Possibly as a response to climatic change, permanent agricultural villages emerged first in the lands of the eastern Mediterranean. Agriculture emerged independently in Mesopotamia, the Nile River Valley, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Indus River Valley, the Yellow River (or Huang He) Valley, Papua New Guinea, Mesoamerica, and the Andes.

B. People in each region domesticated locally available plants and animals.

C. Pastoralism developed in Afro–Eurasian grasslands, affecting the environment in a variety of ways.

D. Agricultural communities had to work cooperatively to clear land and create the water control systems needed for crop production, drastically affecting environmental diversity.

• Explain how different types of societies have adapted to and affected their environments.
• Explain how environmental factors, disease, and technology affected patterns of human migration and settlement over time.
• Evaluate the extent to which migration, population, and urbanization affected the environment over time.
• Explain how societies with states and state-less societies interacted over time.
• Explain how local, regional, and global economic systems and exchange networks have influenced and impacted each other over time.
• Explain the causes and effects of economic strategies of different types of communities, states, and empires.

II. Agriculture and pastoralism began to transform human societies.

A. Pastoralism and agriculture led to more reliable and abundant food supplies, which increased the population and led to specialization of labor, including new classes of artisans and warriors and the development of elites.

B. Technological innovations led to improvements in agricultural production, trade, and transportation.

• Illustrative examples, technological innovations: w Pottery w Wheels

C. Patriarchal forms of social organization developed in both pastoralist and agrarian societies.

• Explain how different types of societies have adapted to and affected their environments.
• Explain how environmental factors, disease, and technology affected patterns of human migration and settlement over time.
• Explain how different forms of governance have been constructed and maintained over time.
• Explain how and why internal and external political factors have influenced the process of state building, expansion, and dissolution.
• Explain how societies with states and state-less societies interacted over time.
• Explain the causes and effects of economic strategies of different types of communities, states, and empires.
• Explain how and why labor systems have developed and changed over time.
• Explain how local, regional, and global economic systems and exchange networks have influenced and impacted each other over time.
• Explain how distinctions based on kinship, ethnicity, class, gender, and race influenced the development and transformations of social hierarchies.
• Explain how the development of specialized labor systems interacted with the development of social hierarchies

Neolithic Revolution

AKA the First Agricultural Revolution. This was a long and drawn out historical process that began taking place around 10,000 BCE. Over the course of hundreds of years, human societies began to develop new farming techniques. Before this started taking place, humans were primarily hunter-gathers, spending all of their time and energy on finding food and on basic survival. But with new farming techniques, food was easier to come by. So, people began to settle down, form civilizations, and imagine more complex understandings of the world around them (new ideas about science, religion, etc.).

Illustrative examples, technological innovations:

• Pottery
• Wheels