What gave rise to early agriculture? The emergence of agriculture and cattle breeding
The development of agriculture and cattle breeding slowly limited the power of chance over the life of primitive man.
The first steps of agriculture are closely related to the simple collection of plant food in the form as nature provided it.
A wandering horde that occupied a certain area returned from time to time to the place where it found large quantities of plant food: roots and fruits, stems and seeds. At first random, these returns became regular and periodic if, during his returns at a certain time of the year, a person each time found the same food as before. Collecting plant food became more or less regular.
Tribes that have switched to proper hunting do not leave the area they occupy as long as there is a sufficient amount of game left in it. For example, even in temperate and cold zones, modern hunting tribes sometimes stay for 20-30 years in a small area covering 400-500 square meters. verst. Consequently, the transition to periodic collection of plant food in certain places is quite feasible for them.
Upon returning, the person found plants useful to him not only where he had previously collected them, but also in the places of previous sites, where all members of this group converged with the prey. The soil at the site of a long stop was unintentionally prepared for unintentional sowing: it was cleared of trees, bushes and grass, loosened in some places when preparing fuel, when strengthening a tent, etc. Scattered seeds, roots and tubers found favorable conditions for germination. Thus, future cultivated plants marked the movement of primitive man as housing modern man accompanied by nettles.
From here, from the unintentional spread of plants, there was only a short transition to agriculture proper, to intentional plant culture, to its most primitive form. Using a pointed stick, holes are made in the ground into which the seeds are dropped. A simple stick develops into a pickaxe (hoe): first, two knots fastened at an angle; subsequently a stick with a long, narrow and slightly pointed stone attached to it. The pickaxe remained the main agricultural tool for several thousand years. Agriculture of the ancient East did not go beyond pickling (Hackbau). South African native agriculture still stands at this stage. And even the Japanese, who have long been familiar with the plow, even recently used it to cultivate the land only for rice, while for other plants they cultivated the land with a pick The plow (plow) developed and became widespread much later. modern forms and especially in its consistent development retains the memory of its origin from the hoe.
Primitive agriculture did not require settling down.
In subtropical countries, where it probably arose first, many cultivated plants require only 5-6 weeks to ripen: the period is so short that during its continuation even a genus that lives mainly by hunting does not have to move its camp to a new place.
Subsequently, when agriculture becomes more important in the life of the clan, the latter begins to conform to it in its movements. It remains in one place until the crop is harvested. Such nomadic agriculture survived until very late times. Thus, the ancient Phoenicians, who developed from land nomads into sea nomads, during their travels around Africa landed on the shore several times, did sowing, waited for the harvest, and only then moved on. In the era of Herodotus, one Scythian tribe combined agriculture with nomadic life. And even today, some wandering tribes combine farming with hunting.
As tools developed and the transition from gathering animal food to hunting took place, the gathering of plant food fell more and more exclusively to women and children. In some cases, a strong differentiation has developed: male hunters (or herders) feed almost exclusively on animal food; Women farmers eat only plant foods. In cases where changing conditions of existence strengthened the role of agriculture as the source of subsistence for the entire group, women quite naturally acquired a highly influential position.
A confluence of particularly favorable conditions was required for agriculture to gain predominant importance in the life of entire tribes. People encountered such conditions primarily in the plains with powerful floods, leaving thick layers of fertile silt. Here, the tribes most adapted to the new conditions of existence were those for whom agriculture developed into the main branch of labor. Treeless soil, free from weeds and quite loose, requires an insignificant amount of labor and, after the most basic preparatory operations, produces rich harvests. Agricultural tribes seize fertile plains, and then, forced out of them, they spread agriculture to other areas in which preliminary soil preparation is required: clearing, uprooting and burning of trees, bushes and grass, artificial loosening. In this way, the farming technique moves even further away from simply collecting plants.
It is currently impossible to decide with which plants agriculture began. A long selection process was required in order to identify modern cultivated plants. Many plants, now considered completely unfit for food, have long served as the main part of plant food. On the other hand, agriculture arose at various points globe completely independently and used the material that was given surrounding nature. Thus, primitive American agriculture could cultivate only one cereal: maize (corn). In the temperate zone of the Old World, millet and barley first played the largest role, then they were joined by oats, and even later by wheat and rye; in the jagar belt, rice very early “acquires predominant importance. Among other plants, already at the first stages of agriculture, pumpkin, onion, fig tree, various types of legumes, etc. are found in different regions.
In general, already in the Neolithic era (New Stone Age, the era of tools made of polished and generally relatively carefully finished stone), people in various parts of the globe began to cultivate the vast majority of the most important modern cultivated plants. The so-called “historical era” added relatively few species to it. It has not made any progress in the field of selecting animal species for domestication.
The domestication of wild animals was also a slow process, the successive stages of which did not make noticeable changes in the life of primitive man. Only the accumulation of an endless series of such infinitesimal changes led to a radical revolution in the method of production, to the identification of some tribes as predominantly pastoral.
Perhaps one of the first steps on this path was the domestication of young animals that followed their murdered mother to the temporary site of primitive man. Their domestication was unintentional and did not pursue economic goals. They were more an object of amusement than a supply of food; but in case of need they were eaten.
The process of domestication of various species of animals in various parts of the globe took various shapes. So, for example, a dog, in all likelihood, has long followed a person in herds, just as a modern person in hot countries is accompanied by herds of hyenas and jackals pouncing on the remains of his MACK. With their barking, dogs warned people in advance about their approach. dangerous enemies, and sometimes participated in their reflection. Over a series of generations, joint wanderings little by little led to a certain rapprochement between man and dog, to the gradual taming of the wild dog, and finally to the fact that it is found only as a tamed animal - one of the most ancient companions of man.
Primitive man, who lived partly by collecting plant food and lower animals, partly by hunting higher animals, over time began to conform in his movements to the movement of herds: deer and antelope, cows and sheep. Methods of hunting and capturing individuals were developed that would disturb the herd as little as possible. Not little help At the same time, animals turned out to be tamed because man took them in as cubs; Using them, a person could more easily approach the herd or bring the herd closer to himself, lulling its mistrust. Thus, gradually, a kind of symbiosis of primitive man and wild animals developed. Its various stages are characterized by the degree of domestication of wild animals. In the north, even in very recent times, and partly even now, one could observe successive stages of the transition from primitive hunting to primitive predatory cattle breeding: stages of sequential domestication wild deer. Deer are still divided into wild ones, which serve as the object of hunting, semi-tamed and completely tamed. The method of using semi-tamed herds closely resembles hunting. Tamed animals remain to live in their usual natural conditions. Here, a person adapts to them rather than adapting them to himself, as is the case with domestic animals themselves, which appear later, with the development of settled agriculture.
The process of domestication accelerated if a person wandering behind the herds managed to drive part of the herd into a natural one, and then into an artificial trap: into a pasture with few exits, guarded by people and dogs. Living in; in a familiar environment, the animals did not lose their ability to reproduce, as they often lose it during a sharp transition from the wild to the domestic state.
Arose in direct connection with hunting, cattle breeding at the first stages represented only a further development of hunting and served exclusively as a source of meat food. The dog, from being primarily a slaughter animal, quite early became a man's assistant in hunting. The use of animals as a means of transportation developed much later and is far from universal. In America, when it was discovered by Europeans, only the Peruvians used one type of llama as a beast of burden; Australian tribes had no animals at all for transportation. Finally, the first steps in the development of dairy farming and the use of animals for various types of work, especially agricultural work, date back to a very late era. Modern cultivated animals were gradually isolated through a long process of selection. Some of them were initially domesticated for completely different purposes than in subsequent times. So, for example, the dog was almost everywhere, and among some tribes it still remains, a slaughter animal, bred exclusively for meat. Many animals that were domesticated at the beginning of cattle breeding were subsequently replaced by other species and are now found only in the wild. So, in ancient Egypt Some species of antelope were domesticated, but then they were replaced by sheep and goats.
The emerging cattle breeding initially served simply as an aid to hunting and was almost no different in nature from hunting. With increasing population density, it acquired decisive importance in the steppes and on the slopes of mountains with rich grass cover, in the tundras, which provide abundant food for deer. In these areas, it is cattle breeding that, with a relatively small amount of labor, provides greatest number means of subsistence, and the opportunity for relatively rapid reproduction opens up for the pastoral tribes living here. Thus, pastoral tribes develop here, just as agricultural tribes develop in the fertile river valleys.
Already the transition from collecting food to hunting itself presupposes a significant improvement in tools. As cattle breeding develops, clashes between clans and tribes become more frequent, which in turn causes the accelerated development of new weapons of defense and attack. Primitive stick and stone give way to complex tools; Hammer and spear, knife and axe, spear thrower, sling, boomerang and bow and arrows appear and improve. In coastal areas, a raft appears, slowly developing into a boat, a tree trunk burned out in the middle, pushed first by poles, then by oars; Fishing accessories arise and become more complex: a harpoon and tackle woven from flexible branches, roots and plant fibers, hooks made of bones. Primitive agriculture also requires special tools; a hoe, a shovel, a millstone, and a knife adapted for cutting fruits and herbaceous plants develop.
In place of a limited number of simple primitive tools, each of which was used for a wide variety of purposes, there appears a comparatively larger number of differentiated tools, each of which from the very beginning was intended for a specific, more or less delimited function, but nevertheless differs from the previous period significant complexity. The number and variety of weapons is increasing.
Tool production technology is progressing. The stone is given one shape or another through careful beating, depending on the goal; it is subjected to grinding, polishing and, if necessary, drilling. Tools for performing these operations are gradually being developed—tools for
production of tools: hammer, rudimentary form of anvil,
In connection with these changes, the selection and selection of material most suitable for a particular purpose takes place. Initial indifference in this regard is replaced by a conscious, planned choice. Flint, obsidian, and jade become the main materials for the production of weapons. In the era under review, they were joined by bronze and iron. Metal weapons spread extremely slowly. Thus, even in such a late period as the era of Saul, his army had only two metal swords in one battle; all other weapons were made of stone and wood. According to the method of production, metal tools were initially no different from stone ones. Only with the greatest slowness did blacksmithing develop from beating, grinding, drilling, etc.
The production of new tools, characterized by an increase in number, variety and complexity, requires considerable skill, skill and endurance. It stands out as a special branch of labor. The process of separation occurs most quickly in areas rich in materials necessary for the production of tools. Under certain conditions, it leads to the fact that some clans develop the production of tools (including weapons) just as one-sidedly as others develop agriculture and cattle breeding. In such clans, the production of tools becomes the predominant occupation of men, while the procurement and preparation of food falls almost exclusively on women alone.
The labor energy of primitive man, his entire working day, was entirely spent on obtaining food. With the development of agriculture and cattle breeding, with the expansion of the use of new, more and more advanced tools, with the progress of food preparation, obtaining and preparing it no longer requires the entire working day, but only a certain part of it, which is increasingly reduced as technology develops. If the race, which in primitive times howled its work time spent on obtaining food, now spends only half of the previous time on this, this means that labor productivity in this branch has doubled. To obtain the same quantity of products, one has to expend half as much labor energy. The transition from simple search for food to agriculture and cattle breeding, migration from hot countries with rich nature V temperate zone with meager nature may not be accompanied by “diminishing fertility”, but, on the contrary, by an increase in labor productivity.
Part of the forces that were previously expended directly on obtaining food is freed up and can be directed to new areas of labor, primarily to the production of tools. But it does not absorb all the liberated labor energy of the race. Thanks to this, it becomes possible to grow needs that are not directly related to the maintenance of life, as a purely zoological existence. Clashes and struggles between individual clans accelerate the development of new needs. From the relations of struggle between genera arose primary embellishments.” The winner removed his weapons from the vanquished: a shield, an ax, etc., cut off his ears and nose, and scalped him. Some of these trophies received their original purpose in his hands: they were used as weapons. Others - the scalp, ears and other members of the body of the defeated - served only as trophies, and, accumulating, were supposed to frighten later enemies from the very beginning. The belt with trophies suspended from it served as the embryonic form of the apron, from which the main forms of later clothing subsequently developed. In the same way, for example, the teeth of a killed enemy attached to the hair of the winner; gave rise to head decorations. Only philistine ideas, supported in the biblical story, remove clothing from a sense of shame. In fact, the development of the feeling of shame followed the development of clothing: it became “ashamed” to leave open places, usually covered with the clothing to which a given tribe developed during the struggle.
Having originally arisen from such a need for “decoration,” clothing did not lose this meaning as people moved to areas with a more severe climate. But here it has also become an object of absolute necessity. The new purpose - protection from the waste of animal heat - led to changes in the shape of clothing and in the materials from which it was made.
Clothing and fire, together with housing, no matter how primitive, allowed man to exist in areas, for example, on the edge of the ice during ice ages, which would otherwise have been uninhabited.
The production of tools, especially weapons, has become a unique branch of the artistic industry. The dwelling developed from a casual shelter into a permanent structure among agricultural clans and into a mobile tent among nomadic families. It is filled with all kinds of utensils, which serve partly only for decoration, and partly, in addition, for various economic purposes. Dressing of hides, various types of weaving and knitting, turning into weaving, stone, bone, horn and wood carving, pottery production, combined with painting and carving, were the new branches of labor that were supposed to satisfy new needs. There are such amazing achievements in the field of painting that relate to “ stone age", to the relatively early "th period.
More on topic 1. The emergence of primitive agriculture and cattle breeding. - Development of tools. - Growing needs:
Agriculture is one of the main and essential elements of our civilization for the entire period of its existence known to us. It is with the beginning of agriculture and the transition to a sedentary lifestyle that the formation of what we understand by the terms “society” and “civilization” is associated.
Why primitive people moved from hunting and gathering to farming? This issue is considered to have been resolved long ago and is included in such a science as political economy as a rather boring section.
The scientific view goes something like this: primitive hunter-gatherers were extremely dependent on their environment. Entire life ancient man waged a fierce struggle for existence, in which the lion's share of the time was spent searching for food. And as a result, all human progress was limited to a rather insignificant improvement in the means of obtaining food.
And then the population grew exponentially (fast in the sense of it), there was very little to eat, but there were still a lot of hungry people. Hunting and gathering could no longer feed all members of the primitive community. And the community had no choice but to master new uniform activity - agriculture, which required, in particular, sedentary image life. This transition to agriculture stimulated the development of tools, people mastered the construction of stationary housing, then social norms of social relations began to form, etc. and so on.
This scheme seems so logical and even obvious that everyone, somehow without saying a word, almost immediately accepted it as true.
But in Lately opponents of this theory appeared. The first and, perhaps, the most serious “troublemakers” were ethnographers who discovered that the primitive tribes that had survived until recently did not fit into the harmonious picture painted by political economy. The patterns of behavior and life of these primitive communities not only turned out to be “unfortunate exceptions”, but fundamentally contradicted the pattern according to which a primitive society should have behaved.
First of all, the highest efficiency of gathering was revealed:
“Both ethnography and archeology have now accumulated a mass of data, from which it follows that the appropriating economy - hunting, gathering and fishing - often provides an even more stable existence than earlier forms of agriculture... The generalization of this kind of facts already at the beginning of our century led the Polish ethnographer L. Krishivitsky to the conclusion that “with normal conditions Primitive man had more than enough food at his disposal.” Research in recent decades not only confirms this position, but also concretizes it with the help of comparisons, statistics, and measurements” (L. Vishnyatsky, “From Benefit to Benefit”).
The life of a “primitive” hunter and gatherer in general turned out to be very far from the all-consuming and harsh struggle for existence. But these are all arguments!
Beginning of farming
The art of agriculture is too difficult an art for a beginner, lacking experience, to achieve any serious success. Obviously that's why early farming is extremely difficult, and its efficiency is very, very low. In this case, cereals become the main crop.
The nutritional efficiency of cereal plants is not very high - how much grain will you get even if you sow a large field with it! “If the problem really were to find new sources of food, it would be natural to assume that agrotechnical experiments would begin with plants that have large fruits and produce large yields already in their wild forms.”
Even in an “uncultivated” state, tuber crops are ten or more times higher in yield than cereals and legumes, but for some reason ancient man suddenly ignored this fact, which was literally under his nose.
At the same time, the pioneer farmer for some reason believes that the additional difficulties he has shouldered are not enough for him, and he complicates his task even more by introducing the most complex crop processing that could be invented.
Grain is an extremely labor-intensive product, not only in terms of growing and harvesting, but also in terms of its culinary processing. First of all, we have to solve the problem of removing the grain from the strong and hard shell in which it is located. And this requires a special stone industry.
After the melting of glaciers and climate change, primitive people began to use what nature provided - they began to collect fruits.
In some areas of Asia, wheat, rice, and barley were collected; in America, they paid attention to corn, tomatoes and potatoes, and on the islands Pacific Ocean there were taro or yams.
How did agriculture originate and spread?
People especially liked the cereals. The thing is that the grains were well saturated, and if you crushed them and added a little water, you got something like porridge. And if you grind it between stones and then put it on a stone hot from the fire, you will get a flat cake. These first recipes for making primitive bread were obtained by people as a result of simple observation and experimentation.
As it turned out, grains could also be stored, and this was very important, since they did not always return from hunting with spoils, and the fruits were collected only in certain seasons. In addition, it was difficult to store meat or fruits, but grain lay for a long time. In this way, people could protect themselves from hunger during cold seasons and unsuccessful hunting.
People came in whole communities to the fields where wild grains grew, collecting grains from the ears or cutting off the stalks with reaping knives.
The reaping knife was a sharp stone plate on a wooden base. This was the prototype of the sickle.
Experiments and observations told people that it was possible not only to collect wild grains, but also to plant crops themselves right next to the house, no longer relying on luck from nature, because the grains could be pecked by birds or the crops could be destroyed by animals, while the crops near the house were already under attack. a kind of human protection.
To plant the same wheat, it was enough to loosen the ground, dig up the roots and pour in the grains. This was the beginning of agriculture.
In Palestine, traces of the collection of wild cereals were discovered. The find dates back to the 10th-9th millennium BC. e. Hunters and fishermen no longer roamed for a long time, preferring to lead a sedentary lifestyle. The main settlements were still caves and peculiar round houses, which were built slightly deeper in the ground, with the walls wiped with clay and the floors laid with stone tiles.
The same can be said about livestock breeding - everything was achieved through experiments and observations.
According to scientists, the first domesticated animal was the dog. It was she who helped in protection from predators and enemies during hunting.
As for livestock, in Asia they were able to train wild ancestors goats, sheep, pigs, and in America these were llamas.
A sedentary lifestyle allowed people to build pens for livestock and wait for the offspring of goats or pigs to grow up. With sheep and goats it was very simple; these animals themselves followed the person who fed them.
Skins and meat were no longer an urgent need on the agenda; now it was necessary to learn not so much hunting as cattle breeding. This is how the first shepherds appeared.
By this time, people had already used the skin for warmth and clothing, but now it was possible to spin fabrics and threads from the wool of livestock, and therefore to sew clothes.
At some stage, people learned to use animal milk, and later experimentally learned to make cottage cheese and cottage cheese.
Scientists called this period neolithic revolution, a period when a sedentary, quiet lifestyle allowed people to engage in agriculture and cattle breeding.
The Neolithic Revolution did not happen in one day, it took thousands of years. As you know, the pace of development was very slow ().
Agriculture and animal husbandry first developed in the Middle East in VIII-VII millennium BC e.(Western Iran, Northern Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Palestine), and then spread to other territories.
The apogee of development of the appropriating economy of the early tribal community was the achievement of a relative supply of natural products. This created the conditions for the emergence of two greatest achievements primitive economy - agriculture and cattle breeding, the emergence of which many researchers, following G. Child, call the “Neolithic revolution”. The term was proposed by Child by analogy with the term “industrial revolution” introduced by Engels. Although agriculture and cattle breeding did not become the main branches of the economy for the majority of humanity in the Neolithic, and many tribes remained hunting and fishing, not even knowing agriculture as an auxiliary branch of production, yet these new phenomena in industrial life played a huge role in the further development of society.
Making ceramics:
1 - spiral-bundle technology, New Guinea; 2 - stuck, Africa
Eskimo sleigh and leather boat - kayak
For the emergence of a productive economy, two prerequisites were required - biological and cultural. It was possible to move to domestication only where there were plants or animals suitable for this, and only when this was prepared by the previous cultural development of mankind.
Agriculture arose from highly organized gathering, during the development of which man learned to take care of wild plants and obtain their new harvest. Already the aborigines of Australia sometimes weeded thickets of cereals, and when digging up yams, they buried their heads in the ground. Among the Semang of Malacca, in the 19th century. standing at approximately the same stage of development as the Bushmen, collecting wild fruits was accompanied by the beginnings of their cultivation - pruning the tops of trees, cutting down bushes that interfered with the growth of trees, etc. Some Indian tribes took even more careful care of the new harvest of nature's gifts North America who collected wild rice. Societies at this stage of economic development were even designated by the German ethnographer J. Lips with a special term: “harvesting peoples.”
From here it was not far from real agriculture, the transition to which was facilitated both by the appearance of food supplies and the associated gradual development of a sedentary life.
At some Mesolithic sites, signs of highly organized gathering or, perhaps even incipient agriculture, have been traced archaeologically. Such, for example, is the Natufian culture, widespread in Palestine and Jordan and named after finds in the Wadi en-Natuf area, 30 km northwest of Jerusalem. It dates back to the 9th millennium BC. e. The main occupation of the Natufians, like other Mesolithic tribes, was hunting, fishing and gathering. Among the Natufian tools, stone inserts were found that, together with a bone handle, made up sickles, peculiar bone hoes, as well as stone basalt mortars and pestles, which apparently served for crushing grain. These are the same dating back to 11-9 millennia BC. e. cultures of the Near East, represented top layer Shanidar caves, the settlement of Zavi Chemi (Iraq), etc. The inventor of agriculture was undoubtedly a woman: having arisen from gathering, this specific sphere of female labor, agriculture for a long time remained predominantly a female branch of the economy.
There are two points of view on the question of the origin of agriculture: monocentric and polycentric. Monocentrists believe that the primary focus of agriculture was Western Asia, from where this most important innovation gradually spread to North-East Africa, South-East Europe, Central, South-East and South Asia, Oceania, Central and South America. The main argument of the monocentrists is the consistent emergence of agriculture in these areas; they also indicate that it was not so much different agricultural cultures that spread, but rather the idea of agriculture itself. However, the paleobotanical and archaeological material accumulated to date allows us to consider the theory of polycentrism developed by N. I. Vavilov and his students, according to which the cultivation of cultivated plants independently arose in several independent centers, more justified subtropical zone. There are different opinions about the number of such centers, but the main ones, the so-called primary ones, can apparently be considered four: Western Asia, where no later than the 7th millennium BC. e. barley and einkorn wheat were cultivated; Yellow River Basin and surrounding areas Far East, where millet-chumiza was cultivated in the 4th millennium; Southern China and Southeast Asia, where by the 5th millennium BC. e. rice and some tubers were cultivated; Mesoamerica, where no later than 5-4 millennia, cultures of beans, peppers and agave, and then maize, arose; Peru, where beans have been grown since the 6th millennium, and pumpkin, peppers, maize, potatoes, etc., from the 5th to 4th millennia.
The initial cattle breeding dates back to approximately the same time. We saw the beginnings of it already in the late Paleolithic - Mesolithic, but in relation to this time we can only speak with confidence about the domestication of the dog. The domestication and domestication of other animal species was hampered by the constant movements of hunting tribes. With the transition to sedentism, this barrier fell away: osteological materials of the Early Neolithic reflect the domestication of pigs, sheep, goats, and possibly cattle. How this process went can be judged by the example of the Andamanese: they did not kill the piglets caught during round-ups, but fattened them in special pens. Hunting was the sphere of male labor, so cattle breeding, genetically associated with it, became a predominantly male branch of the economy.
The question of the place of origin of cattle breeding also remains a subject of debate between monocentrists and polycentrists. According to the first, this innovation spread from Western Asia, where, according to modern paleozoological and archaeological data, cattle, pigs, donkeys and, probably, dromedary camel. According to the second, pastoralism arose convergently among various groups of primitive humanity, and at least some species of animals were domesticated completely independently of the influences of the Central Asian focus: the Bactrian camel in Central Asia, the deer in Siberia, the horse in the European steppes, the guanaco and guinea pig in the Andes.
As a rule, the formation of a producing economy occurred in a complex form, and the emergence of agriculture was somewhat ahead of the emergence of cattle breeding. This is understandable: for the domestication of animals, a strong food base. Only in some cases were highly specialized hunters able to domesticate animals, and, as ethnographic data show, in these cases there was usually some kind of cultural influence of settled farmers-pastoralists. Even domestication was no exception reindeer: although there is still debate about the time and centers of its domestication, the most well-reasoned point of view is that reindeer husbandry was taken up by the peoples of Southern Siberia, already familiar with horse breeding, who moved to the northern regions unfavorable for horses.
About ten thousand years ago, truly revolutionary changes took place in human life: agriculture emerged from gathering, and cattle breeding emerged from hunting. People learned to make clothes from fabric and sculpt clay pots. The social structure also became more complex.
Topic: Life of primitive people
Lesson:The emergence of agriculture and cattle breeding
About 10 thousand years ago, truly revolutionary changes took place in human life: agriculture emerged from gathering, and cattle breeding emerged from hunting. People learned to make clothes from fabric and sculpt clay pots. The social structure also became more complex. What caused the abandonment of traditional methods of obtaining food for primitive society? What changes in people's lives occurred as a result of the transition to agriculture and cattle breeding? You will learn about this in our lesson today.
While improving the methods of hunting and gathering, primitive people still experienced difficulties associated with a lack of food; they were forced to constantly roam in search of animals and edible plants. People depended on nature.
While collecting, the women noticed that grains of wild barley or wheat that had fallen into the ground were sprouting. People began to deliberately sow grain in loosened soil. Thus, agriculture arose from gathering.
Men sometimes brought back the young of killed animals from hunting. They could be fed and tamed. Humans have domesticated wild dogs, pigs, sheep, goats, and cows (Figure 1). Thus, cattle breeding arose from hunting.
Rice. 1. Wild pigs ()
Scientists called the transition from an appropriating economy to a producing economy the Neolithic Revolution. This process took hundreds and even thousands of years.
As a result of the spread of agriculture and cattle breeding, new tools began to appear. To clear forests for arable land, they began to make especially strong stone axes from jade, the digging stick turned into a hoe, and the stone knife for cutting ears of corn was replaced by a bone sickle with stone inserts (Fig. 2). There are more perfect weapon for hunting.
Rice. 2. Farmers’ tools ()
Clay dishes began to be used for preparing and storing food. Primitive pots were made from baskets woven from twigs and coated with clay; later people learned to burn clay. This is how one of the most ancient crafts arose - pottery (Fig. 3).
Rice. 3. Ceramics (clayware) ()
People learned to make threads (spinning) from sheep wool and flax fibers. From the beginning, people wove threads by hand, then a primitive loom appeared. This is how weaving arose (Fig. 4). With the invention of spinning and weaving, people began to wear clothes made from linen and woolen fabric.
Rice. 4. Loom ()
The transition to agriculture and cattle breeding, the invention of crafts led to changes in the human collective. Relatives gathered together to resolve common affairs; they elected elders - the most experienced and wise members of the clan, who knew the habits of animals and the properties of plants, ancient legends and rules of behavior. The elders ruled the clan communities. Close contacts were established and alliances were concluded between clan communities living in the same area. Some tribal communities united into a tribe. The tribe was governed by a council of elders. He settled disputes between fellow tribesmen and determined punishments. Expulsion from the tribe was considered the worst thing - after all, a person could not live alone.
Bibliography
- Vigasin A. A., Goder G. I., Sventsitskaya I. S. History Ancient world. 5th grade. - M.: Education, 2006.
- Nemirovsky A.I. A book for reading on the history of the Ancient World. - M.: Education, 1991.
- Ancient Rome. Reading book / Ed. D. P. Kallistova, S. L. Utchenko. - M.: Uchpedgiz, 1953.
Additional precommended links to Internet resources
- The World History for schoolchildren ().
- World history for schoolchildren ().
Homework
- From what occupations did agriculture and cattle breeding originate?
- What changes occurred in people's lives as a result of the Neolithic Revolution?
- What functions did the council of elders perform in the tribe?
