Transcript The Neolithic Revolution - Brookdale Community College

The appearance of agriculture and pastoralism
(maybe the single most important change in history)
The origins of agriculture and domestic animals. The development of agriculture and
the domestication of animals took place independently in different parts of the world, but the
Near East, Mesoamerica, southeast Asia, and China were among the first and most
 The Neolithic revolution didn’t happen abruptly, but
emerged gradually as a result of trial and error
 It first appeared in a few places, not everywhere
 Most people didn’t go through it at first, and some
still haven’t
 On the whole, agriculture was the big winner over
pastoralism and hunting and gathering
 Domestication is not taming
 Taming is accustomizing an animal to the
presence of humans (many animals
have been tamed but not domesticated)
 Domesticating is changing a plant or animal
on the biological level (most plants
and animals have never been domesticated)
1. Notice a desirable trait in a species
2. Separate members of the species from nature
3. Selective breeding (artificial selection)
4. Exaggerate and stabilize desirable trait(s)
5. Change on the biological level
Domesticated Plants
There are about 200,000 wild species
12 domesticated plants account for 80% of
the tonnage of all crops:
Cereals: wheat, corn, barley, rice, sorghum
Pulses: soybeans
Tubers: potato, manioc, sweet potato
Sugar: sugar cane, beet sugar
Fruit: banana
Large Terrestrial Domesticates
The Major Five:
1. Sheep
2. Cow
3. Goat
4. Pig
5. Horse
The Minor Nine:
6. Arabian Camel
7. Bactrian Camel
8. Llama and Alpaca
9. Donkey
10. Reindeer
11. Water Buffalo
12. Yak
13. Bali Cattle
14. Mithan
What was the impact of the Neolithic Revolution?
 Agriculture led to a sedentary lifestyle
Pastoralism led to a nomadic lifestyle
 Agriculturalists often used domesticated animals
 New social institutions emerged:
 Neolithic villages
 Pastoralist clan-tribes
 Agriculture led to enormous productivity increases
 Agriculture led to significant population increase and density
 Specialization of technology and skills developed
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Population (millions)
3000
BCE
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BCE
1000
BCE
500 BCE
 The vulnerability of monoculture
 Soil destruction
 Disease
 The nomad-sedentary conflict
 Social disruption