Neolithic Revolution 8000 BCE Why is the Neolithic

Neolithic Revolution 8000 BCE

Why is the Neolithic Revolution considered the first historical turning point ? Neolithic Revolution Paleolithic Age n Neolithic Age Understanding chronology and causation

The Debate: The Origins of Agriculture n Was it an event or process? n Early Evolutionary Theories emphasized the order of the process, rather than the How? Or Why? n A search for a more dynamic theory emphasized the need for some catalyst…

Environmental/ Ecological Theories

Oasis Theory V. G. Childe As climate got drier, people were forced into close association in and around oases. In these communities people eventually domesticated animals and agriculture.

Readiness Model or Hilly Flanks Theory Robert Braidwood rejected Childe’s theory Climate was not drier as Childe had believed Agriculture began in the hilly flanks of the Taurus and Zagros mountains. (Catyl Hyuk or Catalhoyuk) Fertile land supported a variety of plants and animals amenable to domestication. Intellectually ready…people began domestication

Social Theories

Competitive Feasting Model Brian Hayden Agriculture was driven by ostentatious displays of power, such as giving feasts, to exert dominance. This required assembling large quantities of food which drove agricultural technology.

Demographic Theories Lewis Binford The local environment could not sustain the increasing semi-sedentary population and thus required more food than could be gathered. People pushed to marginal areas forced to farm in order to survive

Conclusion… Not all people instantly developed agriculture as their form of survival n Subsistence societies continued to exist in any of the following forms… n Foraging n Horticulture n Pastoral n n The developments of the Neolithic Revolution eventually gave rise to Urban Societies