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Threshold 7: Agriculture
What makes us humans
Early humans survived by foraging for food, moving from one place to another as the seasons changed or resources were used up. Then, in several locations at the same time about 11,000 years ago, humans learned to farm. People stayed in one place to tend crops. Populations exploded. Civilizations formed and became diverse. Collective learning accelerated.
Early hunter gatherers used to go out and hunt animals, or find fruits and vegetables to eat. There was also a lot of uncertainty as to whether there would be food to eat or not. They would be out for large amounts of time, usually getting 1 or 2 meals a day.
This was a very dangerous job as well.
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This also meant that the food would soon run out in that area. That lead to the society moving to another place, and they would continue to do so. Increases risk of clashes with other such tribes
What Goldilocks conditions lead to rise of agriculture
At the end of the last Ice Age, many people decided to stay put instead of migrating any further. Communities grew denser and they had to draw more resources from a smaller area.
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With the new knowledge, they started to experiment with agriculture and soon everyone was using it to grow food. Farming produced a lot of food, and did not require a lot of people, so others could do other work. Societies became diverse, populations exploded, and collective learning thrived.
Agriculture in Civilization
The agrarian civilization was a society where most of the members were farming, and in the field of agriculture. The first agrarian civilizations developed at about 3200 BCE in Mesopotamia, in Egypt, Nubia and in the Indus Valley.
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Some features of agrarian civilizations
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Farmers learned to use the domesticated animals to their advantage: Oxen have 10 times the power of humans, so they were essential in the farms, and also were able to carry goods over long distances, enabling farmers to trade with each other.
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They also learned to use the resources that the animal provided when it was alive, like milk or fur, rather than killing it to get meat or skin.
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Humans learnt to control water the way they wanted (Called irrigation). This way they were able to produce larger harvests
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Because of this, cities and towns grew and some sort of social organization was required, so some early forms of law were starting to appear. A famous one is The Code of Hammurabi, which was found in Mesopotamia.
How civilizations developed
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Since all the people of the society don't need to follow a specific routine of finding food, only some farmers are required. This allowed other people to take other roles, like potters or merchants or soldiers or priests. There were many specialists, but it was hard to control all of these, and with so many activities going on, some sort of organization was required.
As a response to all these needs, a class of power brokers appeared. What they did was to coordinate the society. Now, the first governments were starting to appear.
Early civilizations had classes of people, the highest being the king, or in this case, the pharaoh, and the lowest being the slaves.
