Chapter 1 (First Farmers): Breakthroughs to Agriculture - End of Chapter

                             As I started reading the second part of the first chapter I realized, "Wow the Paleolithic era was long, and lots of things happened during this time!" I guess we should all say a big "thank you" to our great great great ancestors for innovating building blocks and foundations to the technology and things we have today.

                          Agriculture plays a big role on how our society functions today. It affects our daily lives, as simple as our morning routines. The products we use to groom ourselves are products of agriculture. It amazes me that agriculture began and flourished all the way from the Paleolithic era! That would be 250,000 years away! Our agriculture and technology started to reform after the great transition and emerged the Neolithic Era. The neolithic era or also known as the stone age is what was believed as an agricultural revolution. Cultivation of particular plants as well as breeding of particular animals and practices of hunting and gathering emerged during this era. As we continue and learn about the additions and emergence of different techniques and advancements I begin to wonder... why did it take long for the agricultural revolution to happen? Looking back at the data, they had the basic skills in agriculture and started migration which would enable to develop new skills quickly.. but why did it take them a period after 10,000 BCE to even start an agricultural revolution? This is when the ice age comes into the picture. The end of the ice age arose new beginnings thus, an open opportunity for an agricultural revolution. The ice age is a process of global warming that began some 16,000 years ago and continued on for many years. (Can you believe global warming already existed back then?)

                         The book displayed a world map which featured the spread of Agriculture and Pastoralism. Based on the map most of the world had already engaged in agriculture with parts of northern africa and western euroasia engaged in pastoralism.

The practices of agriculture and pastoralism also varied depending on the area. There were certain stock or plants which required to be grown and harvested in hot climates while some some which required colder temperatures.


              The globalization of agriculture spread immediately after the migration. It coexisted with hunting and gathering ways of life even as it eroded and diminished those cultures. Perhaps our ways of agriculture and pastoralism differ a lot from the past as we have technologies and machines which usually do the job as opposed to man labor.

                  As I continued on the chapter I was introduced to the social variations in the Age of Agriculture which was distinctive into two; the first, would be Pastoral Societies. This was a distinct form of a food- producing economy. Activities such as farming was evident in these type of societies. Usually meat, dairy, fiber and hides were the main produce. The second social variation would be agricultural village societies. The difference of the two societies would be; pastoralism was nomadic while agricultural societies were more settled into farms. These societies formed into kin groups which we know now as villages.

              As the first chapter concluded I started to reflect on the lives of those who lived during the paleolithic and neolithic era. It must have been tough trying to live life without knowing how the world works. Testing out numerous techniques and creating useful things from scratch  is a tough job.