Page 168 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol I - Abraham to Coal

agricultural societies 53

The Annual Cycle

The annual cycle of preparing the fields, planting,
and harvesting has always defined life in farming
seeds, these generally demand too much labor to use on communities. The following extract summarizes
a large scale. the annual farming cycle in a farm village in cen-
Without domesticated animals, there were relatively tral Turkey.
few places in the New World where a society could
As soon as the spring comes, the men get busy.
depend wholly on agriculture, and those were sur-
The oxen weakened by the long winter must be
rounded by large areas where societies continued to be
got into training work, and spring ploughing
organized for hunting and gathering—sedentary pockets
and sowing must be done. The ox-herds and
surrounded by mobile raiders. By contrast, agricultural shepherds take charge of the animals.The sheep
communities of the Old World spread into much more of are lambing and in each household a woman
the total landscape, settled it more densely, and consis- must be ready at midday to milk the ewes.
tently obliterated the hunting and gathering communities Ploughing and sowing of spring wheat and bar-
that remained in between their settlements. This differ- ley is immediately followed by the ploughing of
ence had important consequences for the way their the year’s fallow, which goes on perhaps into
respective organizational systems developed. May, even until June, depending on individual cir-
cumstances. Meanwhile the vineyards must be
Old World dug over, and potatoes and other vegetables
Settled communities cultivating wild plants first appeared sown. Most of this later work is done by women.
in the Old World about 10,000 BCE. Domesticated ver- In June, all grasses and weeds growing in odd
sions of these same wild plants first appeared in such places among the crops are cut for hay, again
communities around 7000 BCE, in the “fertile crescent” mostly by women. During late May and June the
around the Jordan valley and on the flanks of the nearby men are comparatively idle. In July the harvest
Taurus and Zagros mountains; they included emmer begins, first with vetch and lentils, them with the
and einkorn (ancient varieties of wheat), barley, lentils, main crops of rye and wheat. Threshing follows
chickpeas, pea, bitter vetch, and flax. Domesticated ani- the reaping; reaping, threshing, and storing
mals appeared shortly thereafter: sheep, goats, humpless together last about two months of ceaseless activ-
cattle, horses, and pigs. The presence of domesticated ity for everyone; a whole household frequently
plants necessarily implies that farmers are planting each works right through a moonlit night.
new crop from seeds harvested previously. Once this In September the pressure eases. As soon as
practice is established the crops can be spread into rain falls on the hard baked ground—even
wholly new areas and evolutionary change can occur before, if the rains are late—the men must plough
rapidly. again and sow their winter rye and wheat. By
Agriculture spread by both diffusion of ideas and culti- November there remains for the men only a visit
gens from group to group and by the migration of whole to town to lay in supplies of coffee, paraffin, salt
groups, with migration apparently the most prominent of and so on, and perhaps cheap vegetables for the
the two processes. Domesticated crops reached the months of winter isolation, and then idleness
Balkans in the seventh millennium BCE, brought by immi- again until the spring. He was overstating his
case and, as someone commented, in two
grants. Farming villages appeared in southern France by
months’ harvesting they do four months’ work;
5000 BCE. Beginning about 5400 BCE agricultural vil-
but the idea of having, like an English agricultural
lages of a distinctive culture called Bandkeramik spread
labourer, to work for wages day in and day out all
from the area of Hungary to the Netherlands. The first
year round was greeted with horror.
agricultural settlements in South Asia appeared in the
Source: Sterling, P. (1965). The Village Economy (p. 47). London: Charles Birchall
beginning of the seventh millennium BCE in what is now & Sons.
southern Afghanistan, with a Middle Eastern mixture of