9th Grade Review -=- The Neolithic Revolution

The modern world owes itself for the revolution that turned the world on its head, the Neolithic Revolution. What did the Neolithic revolution do for us? It introduced to us the concept of civilization. All the cities and the communities you see around you today are a result of the millions of years of evolution of the human populous’ psyche. Though many historians argue that this change to civilized societies was inevitable, the bare bones of the revolution remain static.

Before the revolution, there were Nomads. Nomads are people who lived off the land (hunters and gathers basically), who relied on animal game and fruits and berries for their food source. They change their home seasonally, usually with the movements of their game. When food was scarce, either they resorted to attacking other nomad communities to restock their supplies, or they just changed their location again until a sufficient source was found. They harnessed simple tools, and most of which were designed especially for hunting. This era was called the Paleolithic Age. Humans lived this way since the dawn of their existence until 10,000 BC, when humanity took a u-turn. In 10,000 BC, mankind had discovered agriculture. They became able to grow food, virtually wherever they wanted. Now they no longer had to aimlessly search for food, because they’d be able to create it in a place they found suitable. They didn’t have to travel anymore, because their food would always stay in one place. It was from this simple innovation that the first civilizations would sprout from.

The Neolithic Revolution was not an immediate change. In fact, it took nearly one million years for communities of people to discover, and then perfect this new way of living. On top of that, the communities did not learn this all at the same time; depending on their geographical location, some individuals gained the knowledge of agriculture sooner than others. In the end however, all the people of the world had learned about the agrarian way of life.

The revolution’s introducing of the sedentary way of life brought various changes to the active lives of the nomads. Whole communities began to revolve around the new technology that was agriculture. They built settlements by sites for growing crops, since they did not need to move anymore. They produced the crops native to their area, and after years of testing to see which produced the most yields, they’d establish their staple crop. This advancement into the realm of farming signals the beginning of the sedentary lifestyles that the people of the world live in today. Of course, this sedentary lifestyle encouraged the development of individual roles in a community. Before, during the Paleolithic Age, jobs were the same among men and woman; typically the men hunted, and the women gathered. However, the growth of civilized communities also brought the beginning of a structured society and specialized jobs. For farming, new tools were needed. To keep their settlement safe from outsiders, they needed new weapons. To keep the settlement under control, they needed a leader. It was these basic necessities that the people developed the first civilizations from. The first jobs were created, and for the first time it was not the exact same between genders. Varieties of jobs became available as the needs of the people increased (ex Clothe weavers, artisans, warriors, etc). It also called for the need of a government, or a way to maintain the people. Early societies made use of a “Chief Elder,” who would be advised by his subordinates, a “Council of Elders.” Only those with high merit would be allowed to lead the people.

The Neolithic Revolution also had a significant effect on the human race itself. First, it increased the birth rate. Food was usually no longer a problem for people, and with an abundance of food, mothers were healthier, thus babies being born healthier. The closed communities also fostered the growth of children because their food source was always their, unlike during the time of the nomads that food had to be fought for. Theoretically, the number of people born would have risen exponentially, but because of these communities, new problems arose. Famine, disease, war between rivaling settlements, and natural disasters became the biggest threat for people. But besides that, the people were able to grow. Second, it increased life span. Again, the food surplus allowed people to live healthy, and prolonged their life. The limiting factors like famine and etc. helped to curb the population to a safe level. In times that overpopulation occurred, people died as the food become more and more scarce; when the rate of which food was grown / found became greater than or equal to the rate the people consumed them, the communities returned to the normal state. Third, and last, the Neolithic brought us to control our own evolution. Humans during the Paleolithic age evolved with their environment, taking whatever nature threw at them, and becoming stronger against it. But the Neolithic revolution encouraged something else. WE took control over nature. Instead of using our body for everything, we relied on technology to do it for us. We brought our own evolution through technology. I can’t prove the following opinion, but maybe, the Neolithic revolution might have been a u-turn for the worst because we are hindering our bodies to evolve as it should with the earth; relying on technology, which is essentially one of the things brought to existence by the revolution, could make us too weak in the future if this technology were to be taken away from us.