Old World Asia, Africa, Europe

1
Old World (Asia, Africa, Europe)

• Earliest evidence Near East
• about 8000 BCE
• First crops wheat and barley
• First domesticated animals sheep and goats

2
Old World

• Settled villages predated farming
• Intensive agriculture 4000 BCE
• Cities 3500 BCE

3
New World

• Important crops corn, beans, squash
• Farming began later and took longer to develop in
  New World
• Villages were only possible after long
  experiments with farming

4
Advantage of Farming

• Can feed far more people than with foraging

5
Disadvantages of Farming

• More labor required
• Diet less varied and less healthy
• Race to feed more people
• Damage to the environment

6
Horticulture

• Hand tools
• Multiple crops grown in single plot
• No way to restore fertility of soil so land must
  lie fallow
• Slash and burn

7
Foraging to Horticulture

• More permanent settlements
• More permanent group membership
• Larger group size
• Higher population density
• Need to regulate access to resources
• More accumulation of goods
• More formal leadership and social control

8

• A few full-time specialists, more part-time
  specialists
• More work needed to feed a larger population
  child labor
• Increased concern about time and weather
• Warfare more prominent
• Both genders continue to provide food

9
Intensive Agriculture

• Use of animal or mechanical power
• Use of fertilizer
• Irrigation
• Terracing

10
Intensive Agriculture

• Fertility of soil is restored
• Greater long-term yield per unit of land
• Fields of a single crop
• More investment of labor and capital
• Greater productivity

11
Horticulture to Intensive Agriculture

• Economic specialization
• Social stratification
• Political centralization
• Cities of nonfarmers
• Gender roles became stratified