Define one and explain how agriculture helped to cause it.

Question

In the article mentioned above, the author explains some of the negative developments (other than peoples’ health) in human society that resulted from the movement to agriculture. Define one and explain how agriculture helped to cause it.

the full question

Answer 1

The adoption of agriculture did not happen in a single place or time (agricultural societies developed independently of another on multiple continents). However, the adoption of agriculture in places like the Levant and Near East during the Neolithic Period are often discussed as having several trade-offs or downsides. One of the biggest downsides of agriculture was the time investment and risk. Raising crops from seed to harvest takes a large amount of time, and there are a suite of factors (e.g. climate, aridity) which might have an impact on the success of the harvest. Compared to hunting or gathering non-domesticated plants, the adoption of intensive agricultural strategies seems full of downside potential.

Another negative result of Neolithic societies adopting agricultural lifestyles was an increase in negative health factors visible in the archaeological record (Larsen 2006). An increase in dental cavities within burials of agricultural societies suggests that the newly carbohydrate-rich diets led to worse dental health, which could have resulted in lower life expectancy.

Another downside of the adoption of agriculture that is often discussed is more philosophical: the creation of surplus and inequality. The argument for this idea is that with the creation of agriculture individuals were able to generate stable surplus over longer periods of time, something that would have been more difficult for Pre-Neolithic societies dependent on hunting. Some have argued that the development of agriculture set societies up for millennia of inequality, leading to conflict and fighting.

Each of these possible trade offs or negatives involved with the adoption of agriculture is complex and multi-faceted. For example, agricultural surplus was not the only means of creating inequality. More importantly, societies developed agriculture independently of one another. This indicates that the reasons (likely multiple and complex) were not all the same, so it is difficult to speak too generally about such a vast subject.

A Conversation on Agricultural Origins: Talking Past Each Other in a Crowded Room

Melinda A. Zeder and Bruce D. Smith

Current Anthropology 2009 50:5, 681-690

The agricultural revolution as environmental catastrophe: Implications for health and lifestyle in the Holocene.

Clark Spencer Larsen

Quaternary International 2006 150:1, 12-20

Social Complexity and Social Inequality in the Prehistoric Mediterranean

Thomas P. Leppard

Current Anthropology 2019 60:3,