Factors Which Led To The Origins Of Agriculture History Essay

Factors Which Led To The Origins Of Agriculture History EssayThe innovation from a hunter-ga at that placer life- panache to that of an agriculturist, is find outed by some, to founder been inevitable as part of the natural evolutionary progression and ontogenesis of universe (Rindos 1986 6). It is in our spirit as serv frostman to be progressive and, as such, we automatically follow a order of pre-ordained (Harris 1986 12) and invariable steps in order to achieve higher trains of amicable development (Westropp 1872, cited by Barker 2006 8). A lack of cognition was the however factor that prevented the transition from hunting and conference to farming before the Holocene, man had simply non reached the cognitive nor heathen level required to grow the concept of countrified subsistence (Richerson et al. 2001 394). Bender agrees, noting that the mental capacity and physical courtesy of the humans that were responsible for the origins of culture, in product var. to hunter-gatherers of 4million years ago, were signifi stubtly much advanced, which in vary state enab direct the development of to a greater extent(prenominal) complex societies (Bender 1978 209). This suggests that the accumulation of acquaintance regarding their local anesthetic environment and resources, led in the end to experimentation and ultimately domesticatedation. At the Cave of Diaotonghuan in the Jiangxi res publica of China, there is a gradual yield in the number of rice phytoliths of domestic form in coincidence to those of wilderness form (Higham 2005 242). This indicates a gradual assimilation of domesticates into their subsistence base succeeding(a) the acquisition of appropriate knowledge in regards to vapidity of their local resources this eventually led to total assent on intensive agriculture. Similarly, at Abu Hureyra in Northern Syria, the percentage of gazelle b 1s decreases over the sites period of occupation, whereas the number of b geniuss b elonging to domesticates gradually adjoins, eventually becoming the dominant component in the villagers subsistence base (Watkins 2005 214). This was not a rapid, single event, but a to a greater extent gradual process in which the villagers steadily became more than dependent on domesticates. These exercises demonstrate how knowledge was the limiting factor and how the gradual accumulation of knowledge (Zvekebil 1986 9) and the resulting familiarity with potential domesticates resulted in their manipulation (Braidwood 1960, cited by Cohen 1977 8), and, ultimately, domestication. The varying rates at which disparate cultures adopted agriculture can overly be explained by this model it took different societies different amounts of time to acquire the required level of knowledge and familiarity with their local resources (Braidwood 1960, cited by Richerson et al. 2001 399) until this was achieved, progression to domestication could not occur.It is a cosmopolitan assumption that the life-style that is concurrent with agricultural production is significantly superior to that associated with Hunter-Gatherer communities. It has been suggested by some that if the adequate level of knowledge and cultural readiness had been achieved in favourable ecological circumstances, then the advantages of agriculture would go for appe ard so discernable as to make the transition to a domestic mode of production axiomatic (Zvelebil 1986(b) 8). It is wrong to make this assumption, however, as it is not inevitable that agriculture will bring with it an easier and more rock-steady lifestyle indeed, it has been adduced that the emergence of agriculture bought with it a number of disadvantages. These include chronic malnutrition the here and now of an instable subsistence base and resultant famine careen magnitude labour input and decreased empty time. Furthermore, the appearance of widespread stress does not occur until trust upon intensive agriculture is wholesome established (Rindos 1986 38). The Kung-San Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert provide an fire illustration of a modern hunter-gatherer group that has no need or desire to transfer to an agrarian way of life. Their subsistence base consists of varying wild materials, including both preferential and contingency resources they operate on a inventory of strategic oceansonal movements in order to exploit busy resources at specific times and locations throughout the year (Lee 1968, cited by Barker 2006 29). mixed mechanisms, including infanticide, allow population levels to be kept low and well at bottom the capacity of the available food supply (Lee 1968, cited by Scarre 2005 186) as well as enabling them to maintain their ubiquitous lifestyle. The Kung-San do not smart from any Puritan Ethos (Bender 1978 206), and therefore the number of hours per day spent salt away food is kept to a minimum, relinquishing the majority of their time for leisure purposes. It can be seen, therefore, th at the hunter-gatherer lifestyle can provide a reliable and varied subsistence base, as well as a more relaxed style of living the incentives for transition to an agricultural lifestyle be not obvious. Because of this, it is feasible that hunter-gather communities did not willingly accept to abandon their lifestyle of choice, but were kind of strained by some external factor. Stark identified such factors as Push Models people were coerced into farming by some common factor or stress (Stark 1986, cited by Barker 2006 36). Bellwood agrees, stating that there are no compelling reasons why hunter-gathers would have adopted agriculture, unless pushed (Bellwood 2005 41).The origins of agriculture are practically attributed to climatic variation, a significant push factor in the process of achieving intensified domestication (Moore 1986 626). The study of ice cores, deep sea cores, and pollen profiles has revealed that the Post-Glacial period was characterised by a cold, dry and ex tremely variable mode. The transition into the Holocene, however, saw a shift to a more stable climate, with smoke and misty conditions (Bellwood 2005 20). It is this important climatic transition that is thought to have enabled the renewal to agriculture and is the foundation of a number of important hypotheses regarding agrarian development. An example of such is Childes Oasis Theory he promotes that the melting of the European ice sheets at the end of the last glaciation would have forced rain drift depressions north, promoting dehydration in the honest East. This in turn would have forced animals and humans into closer proximities around the ever decreasing number of piddle side locations. This allowed humans to develop a greater understanding of their local resources, and further to this, enabled them to realise the benefits of establishing a symbiotic relationship with the local fauna, as opposed to exploiting them using hunting strategies (Childe 1936 cited by Scarre 2005 188) the advantages of this would simply have snuff it obvious to them given the stress they were under from post glacial desiccation (Barker 2006 14). An example of how desiccation can affects the subsistence base of a conjunction can be found at Abu Hureyra. During the Pleistocene the villagers were dependent on a wide range of resources they hunted wild cattle, sheep and gazelle, but also self-contained a number of different plant species. With the on sic of the Younger Dryas, the colder and more arid climate made gathering more difficult. The people of Abu Hureyra preferably turned to intensive cultivation of rye, a robust cereal that could make the more difficult conditions (Watkins 2005 214). Although this supports Childes idea that it was desiccation that ca utilize the transition to agriculture, his surmisal in general is flawed and cannot be universally utilize. Pollen analysis in the Near East confirms that the Early Holocene was indeed characterised climatical ly by a warmer, waterlogged regime and not by desiccation. The climatic transition in this surface area progressed from dry to moist, rather than the reverse, which devalues the foundation of Childes hypothesis (Wright 1977 cited by Rindos 1984 15) delinquent to the failing environmental data which is the basis of his call fors. The emergence of domesticated rye at Abu Hureya between 10800-9600BC, or during the Younger Dryas, is very early in contrast to other sites. For the some part, agriculture in the Near East was not adopted under desiccated conditions, but in the warmer and wetter conditions of the Holocene. The recovery and study of rice phytoliths at the Cave of Diaotonghuan in the Jiangxi province of China has revealed a correlation between climate change and the development of the domesticate. Within regularise G, which correlates to a period of more favourable climate, there is relatively high number of rice phytoliths. This number severely depreciates inside Zone F, however, which is reflective of the colder and more arid climate of the Younger Dryas. The bill of phytoliths once again increases significantly within Zones D and E due to a longer period of warmth between 8000-6000BC the phytoliths here are evenly split between wild and cultivated forms. By Zone C, the phytoliths are entirely cultivated in form, and remain abundant, due to the continuing warm climate. This sequence reveals a correlation between fluctuations in climate and the quantity of rice phytoliths present. During colder periods, the amount of phytoliths decreases, whereas, they increase with more favourable climates. ever increasing quantities of phytoliths of domestic form relative to the quantity of wild is also observable during the warmer periods (Higham 2005 241). This demonstrates that it was during better climatic conditions that domesticates began to be more widely utilised, and not during periods of desiccation. Although Childes theory is, in general, flawed, there is evidence to support the claim that climatic variation did indeed have an effect on the origins of agriculture. ace of the most interesting theories regarding the origins of agriculture considers the relationship between sedentism, population growth, and the handiness of local resources the transition to agriculture occurred, simply, because of disequilibrium between the number of available resources and inflation population numbers (Zvelebil 1986 (a) 9). Increased sedentism brought with it relaxation of mechanisms and birth controls previously used to keep population levels low (Rindos 1984 19), which resulted in a significant increase in population numbers. The favourable, coastal, resource rich areas, that could previously support these smaller, hunter-gatherer populations, could no longer cope once the population had expanded beyond the regions carrying capacity. This led to expansion into more marginal zones (Binford 1968, cited by Bellwood 2005 22 and Scarre 2005 18 9), until further territorial reserve extension became undesirable or untenable (Cohen 1977 12) the populations of these areas were then forced to turn to agriculture as a means of subsistence intensification, allowing them to feed their growing numbers. This theory is particularly desirable as it not only accounts for why agriculture was adopted, but for why it occurred at differing rates at various different loci Population pressure had simply not yet reached the point where reliance upon agriculture was called for (Rindos 1984 33). Unfortunately, there is an underlying problem with this hypothesis. As mentioned above, climatic change cannot be used as a globally extendable bill for the change in subsistence base climate, by nature, is regionally specific and the do of it are therefore hugely diverse (Rindos 1984 16). The favourable coast line habitats, which, according to Binford, were the areas where people first turned to sedentism, flourished with increasing sea levels. How ever, increased sea levels would affect differing coastlines in a number of ways (Cohen 1977 7) the humankind of superior habitats is just one of these. This would not have been a universal or uniform effect, and therefore cannot be a globally applied theory for the origins of agriculture. It still seems tenable, however, that population growth would have brought about a necessity for agriculture in order to provide a more stable food supply for an ever increasing population.Alternative views consider the origins of agriculture to be the result of loving factors. Bender in particular promotes this idea, claiming that other factors, such as demography, are often considered to have compete a much greater role than is realistic, whilst social structure is significantly over looked (Bender 1978 204) ultimately it is the social relations that articulate society and set the evolutionary pattern(Bender 1978 218). In other words, it is social factors that bring about the most significan t transitions and cause the greatest change. Competition between social groups is often considered to have led to the development of intensified food production in order to provide the specifically valued kinds of food deployed in warring strategies and acts of reciprocity (Scarre 2005 187). Feasting and the accumulation and distribution of prestige items were common mechanisms for achieving wealth, consideration and power. They are, however, expensive in terms of subsistence and require surplus resources (Zvelebil 1986(a) 10) hunting and gathering can only supply limited resources. This is why agriculture was substantial in order to fund such reciprocal mechanisms via a more stable and consistent subsistence base. Alternatively, for Hodder, the domus the location of production and reproduction which constitute society and social relation (Hodder 1990 39) was the social mechanism which drove the transition to agriculture. As a concept, it acted as a metaphor for the desire to control and translate nature the individual experience of domestication led ultimately to intensification and domestication (Hodder 1990 41). In summary, for economic domestication to be successful, it must be preceded by social domestication. Both of these examples illustrate how social pressure provided a absolute incentive for hunter-gatherer societies to transfer to an agricultural lifestyle. Bellwood, however, considers an alternative view on how social pressures had an effect on the transition to domestication in certain landscapes, from the linear perspective of how hunter-gatherer communities were put under pressure from agriculturalists moving into their territories looking for regions of high agricultural potential. The relationship between the native hunter-gatherers and invading agriculturalists would have initially been one of exchange, and would have been mutually beneficial to both parties involved (Bellwood 2005 41). It is often considered that fill with the agri culturalists would eventually lead the hunter gatherers to realise of the benefits of domestication, encouraging them to switch to this lifestyle. Bellwood suggests, however, that this may not have happened he argues that as pressure on resources increased, on with increasing attempts by the agriculturalists to dominate the hunter gatherers, this would only have dissuaded them to change their lifestyle (Bellwood 2005 41). This form of social pressure therefore acts only a deterrent to the adoption of agriculture.It can be seen therefore that no one explanation for the origins of agriculture is entirely satisfactory. This is to be expected, however these factors are conceived at level that is too general to account for local distinctions (Moore 1986 622). Domestication would have been adopted for a number of distinct and differing reasons, due to the diverse nature of the various loci where agriculture originated (Zvelebil 1986(b) 167). The origin of agriculture was not brought abo ut by one driving factor it was not a monocausal phenomenon (Scarre 2005 186). It was a cabal of factors most importantly climatic variation, demographic change and social pressure, as well as the accumulation of necessary knowledge which would have have in various ways to ultimately bring about a shift to food production.