Nicole Watson October 24, 2011 Introduction to Archaeology

The Effects of Agriculture on History Throughout modern history, agriculture has been a necessity in the advancement of mankind as a whole. We need it to survive and thrive as a society. This was not always the case though. Before the Neolithic Revolution, people lived off what they could find instead of what they could produce. Jared Diamond argues that the switch from hunting and gathering to agriculture in the form of farming and domesticating animals was The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race." He believes that we were better off physically, socially, and intellectually. In some respects, I agree with Diamond, but on the whole, I do not. Diamond argues against the most common reason agriculture is said to be a benefit to mankind. Most progressives say that agriculture has given people more free time that hunter/gatherers never had. Diamond brought up that when archaeologists tried an investigation on this theory, through indirect testing, they discovered that this is not the case. They observed that one group of Kalahari Bushmen only devoted 12-19 hours of foraging a week to sustain a calorie intake of 2,140 calories per day with large amounts of their food intake being protein. These numbers are significant in proving that hunter/gatherers can spend fewer hours a week, compared to agriculturists, collecting their food supply while maintaining health and nourishment. At the dawn of agriculture farmers were growing only a few staple crops, which made nutrition and

overall health very poor. These crops were easy to grow, but with so much time and effort invested in them it made the consequences of their failure very severe. Not only would the early farmers break their backs tending to these crops, and then they received little nutrients from their yield. Diamond also mentions that an increase in agriculture encouraged people to clump together in crowded societies. (Diamond, p. 80) Population densities greatly increased when people switched over to agriculture, and with it came social classes based on power given by supplies, as well as a spread in infectious diseases and parasites. On average there would have been one hunter/gatherer per 10 square mile compared to farmers averaging 100 times that. With all of these factors added together the onset of farming looked very grim, but we have to look at the picture in the long run. Before agriculture, hunters and gatherers lived in simple shelters made of bowed tree branches and animal hides (as seen in the Conner Museum) that were easy to transport from one location to another. They were innovative and fulfilled their purpose, but what are they compared to the beautiful architecture of the Victorian style home or the more modern and technologically advanced homes of the age today? Hunters and gatherers also used hatchets and other plain tools made of chipped stone and sticks for their daily work, but how much easier would that work have been if they had a gun, a chain saw, or a tractor? Diamond argues that the increase in population only hindered people at the time, but would we have been able to achieve all the advances we have made on this earth if we had not switched over from hunting and

gathering to agriculture? I agree with Diamond that this conversion was very difficult on people at the time, but it was a milestone that opened us up as a society, to the bigger and brighter world we have today. If we were still hunting and gathering, we could not manufacture products, build homes, or have dependable jobs like we do now. Hunting and gathering requires constant relocation. There is always the need to move after you have used up all of one locations resources, and with hunting alone you are always in the pursuit of your game animals. We see that before the switch to agriculture, technology was almost at a standstill. People had the tools they needed, the shelter they could live in, and the resources they could forage for, so there was no need or means to develop anything new. After the change from hunting and gathering to agriculture, we see a great increase in technological advancement. We domesticated animals and planted crops. We then started working with new materials like metal and began spinning cotton to make clothes. A whole new world of opportunity emerged. With metal came the plow and with cotton came the loom. Technology has not stopped since, and with our switch to agriculture, we have never ceased to create bigger and better things that continue to help us thrive today. I can agree with Diamond that the initial changeover from foraging to farming was a tough one. Diseases spread, people withered away due to malnutrition, and some crops failed. Even today we still struggle with some of the after effects of nutrition problems created by agriculture, such as malnutrition and obesity. Overall, agriculture is

a big part of who we are now, and without it we would not have been able to make all the achievements we have made.