Page 78 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol I - Abraham to Coal

tfw-18 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

In truth, the historian can never get away from the question
of time in history: time sticks to his thinking like soil to a
gardener’s spade. • FERNAND BRAUDEL (1902–1985)

ing standards, then an explanation of the origins of agri-
For more on these topics, please see the following articles:
culture must rely more on “push” than on “pull” factors.
Andean States p. 86 (v1)
Rather than taking up agriculture willingly, we must as-
China p. 332 (v1)
sume that many early agriculturalists were forced to take
Egypt, Ancient p. 629 (v2)
it up.
Mesoamerica p. 1230 (v3)
Mesopotamia p. 1235 (v3)
Affluent Foragers
probably cultivating rice in the south and other grains in The outlines of such an explanation are now available,
the north by 7000 BCE. By this time farming based on the even if many details remain to be tested in particular
cultivation of taro (a large-leaved tropical Asian plant) instances. The origins of agriculture have been studied
and yam evidently existed in Papua New Guinea in the most thoroughly in Mesopotamia and in Mesoamerica.
Malay Archipelago. Communities probably farmed root In both areas the first agricultural villages appeared after
crops early in many coastal communities in the tropics, many centuries during which foragers intensified their
although most traces of such communities would have exploitation of particular favored resources, adapting
been submerged as sea levels rose at the end of the last their tools and techniques with increasing precision and
ice age. In Mesoamerica (the region of southern North efficiency to local environments. This was the first step
America that was occupied during pre-Columbian times towards agriculture. When taken far enough, such tech-
by peoples with shared cultural features) people probably niques can turn conventional foragers into what anthro-
domesticated squash as early as 7000 BCE, but clearer evi- pologists call “affluent foragers.” Affluent foragers extract
dence of systematic agriculture does not appear before more resources from a given area than traditional for-
5000 BCE; in the Andes region the earliest evidence agers. Eventually they may extract enough resources to
comes after about 3000 BCE. From these and perhaps a become semisedentary, living in one place for much of the
few other regions in which agriculture appeared quite year. This development is particularly likely where prey
independently, agricultural technologies and ways of life resources such as fish or wild grains are unusually abun-
eventually spread to most of the world. dant.The appearance of such communities in many parts
At present we lack a fully satisfactory explanation for of the world toward the end of the last ice age tempts us
the origins of agriculture. Any explanation must account to link such changes with the erratic global warming that
for the curious fact that, after 200,000 years or more dur- began sixteen thousand to eighteen thousand years ago.
ing which all humans lived as foragers, agricultural life- In both temperate and tropical zones warmer climates
ways appeared within just a few thousand years in parts may have created local “gardens of Eden”—regions of
of the world that had no significant contact with each exceptional abundance—where highly nutritious plants
other. The realization that agriculture arose quite inde- such as wild wheats that had once been scarce thrived
pendently in different parts of the world has undermined and spread. Indeed, intensive agriculture may have been
the once-fashionable view that agriculture was a brilliant impossible under the harsh conditions of the last ice age;
invention that diffused from a single center as soon as if so, the end of the last ice age was a crucial enabling fea-
people understood its benefits.That view was also under- ture, making agriculture possible for the first time in per-
mined after researchers realized that foragers who know haps 100,000 years.
about agriculture have often preferred to remain for-
For more on these topics, please see the following articles:
agers. Perhaps foragers resisted change because the
Carrying Capacity p. 297 (v1)
health and nutritional levels of the first farmers were often
Foraging Societies, Contemporary p. 764 (v2)
lower than those of neighboring foragers, whereas their
Indigenous Peoples p. 963 (v3)
stress levels were often higher. If agriculture depressed liv-