1. History of Agriculture Development
Agriculture/Agrifoods 11

2. Objectives
Be able to:
Distinguish between the lifestyles of hunter-gatherers, agriculturalists and pastoral nomads.
Explain the technological advancements that lead to the development of agriculture.
Describe the connection between the development of agriculture and the development of civilizations.

3. History of Agriculture

6. "Over 80 percent of mankind's diet is provided by the seeds of less than a dozen plant species.”
Over the years man has invented new machines and techniques to increase the amount and variety of crop production. 

7. Early Humans

8. Assignment Agricultural Revolution Webquest link
Article – Hunter-Gatherers to Farmers

9. Agriculture to Civilization… Learning Objectives
Be able to explain how environmental change after 11,500 years ago led to new human responses and opportunities.
Be able to explain how changes in human population size and the availability of certain plant and animal species are related to the development and spread of cultivation, domestication, and agriculture.
Be able to trace the relationship between larger communities and social complexity.
Be able to explain the reasons why some people continued to hunt and gather while others established cities and states.

10. Hesoid’s Ages of Man (Greek poet, 8th-7th century B.C.)
Man has been on this earth for over 2 Million Years
I. Golden age (prehistory)
A. Age of the hunter-gatherer…99% of our existence
B. Eden-like pre-agricultural
II. Silver Age (8,000 B.C.)
A. Concept of work born
B. Symbolized by the “Yoke of Oxen”
III. Bronze Age (3,500 B.C.)
A. Trade developed
IV. Iron Age (1, B.C.)

11. Transition from Hunting-Gathering to Agriculture continued…
Man simultaneously developed agriculture
worldwide 10,000 years ago,
after the last Ice Age…
suggests that climate changes contributed to the cultivation of plants.

12. Transition from Hunting-Gathering to Agriculture
Human population growth rate increased slowly:
A % /yr. Pleistocene age
B. 0.1 % /yr Neolithic
C. 1-2 % /yr Present day
Low birth rate attributed to lifestyle of hunter-gatherer – not food scarcity.
Not ignorance of plant growth, but lack of need to practice agriculture prevented earlier development of agriculture.

13. Reasons to become an Agrarian (Agricultural) Society
Less energy is required to cultivate plants in one place versus having to look for and catch plants and animals.
More certainty / consistency in the supply of food
Larger social groups form –
roles and responsibilities are divided
more efficient than a Nomadic lifestyle (always moving).

14. Population Size is affected by:
Available matter and energy
Feeding relationships (predator/prey)
Competition
Intraspecific (within same species)
Interspecific (between different species)
Population density
Density dependent factors (ex. Disease, stress)
Density independent factors (ex. Flood, fire)

15. Agriculture, Energy, and Civilization
Earth’s carrying capacity for hunter-gatherers estimated at million.
Today? (6.7 Billion)
Carrying Capacity:
The number of animals
the habitat can support
throughout the year
without causing damage to
the animals or the habitat

16. Factors that limit populations include:
Food Availability/Accessibility = Starvation
Predators
Disease and Parasites
Shelter / Space
Loss of Habitat
Accidents
Weather
Human Development
Old Age

18. Agriculture, Energy, and Civilization
Earth’s carrying capacity for hunter-gatherers estimated at million. Today? (7+ Billion)
Agricultural and the first cultural revolutions developed symbiotically.
Solar energy (harvested through photosynthesis) fueled the agricultural revolution.
Fossil fuels drove the industrial revolution.

19. Characteristics of Civilizations
Surplus Food Production
One person can produce enough food for several people.
Cities
Groups of people living together in the same place
Specialization of Labour
Increase in efficiency and complexity
Trade
Sharing of ideas and materials = technology

20. Characteristics of Civilizations
Social Stratification
class/caste system
Centralized Government
Streamlined decision making
Shared Values (Religion)
Code of conduct that governs social behaviour
Writing
Communication and historical record
Developed Near Rivers
Land is nutrient rich and easily watered
Animals that were hunted/fished were not likely to eat humans

21. Agriculture, Energy, and Civilization…continued
Use of basic energy sources stimulated cultural, social, and civil development.
Mechanization/fossil-fuels increased capacity to produce food while reducing labor, but also increased environmental degradation and social conflict.
Agrarian societies viewed children as economic assets
(large families were necessary for survival).

22. Agriculture, Energy, and Civilization…continued
A “Catch 22”developed:
A. More people require more food
B. Requiring more intensive agriculture
C. Requiring more energy to produce food
D. Leading to more environmental degradation (particularly soil erosion)
E. Leading to crop failure
F. Leading to starvation
G. Leading to migration to new lands
H. Requiring more people to produce food

23. Agriculture, Energy, and Civilization…continued
Demographic transition –
rising population
with shrinking resources.
What about today…
What are the resources that are shrinking?

24. What is Agriculture?
Agriculture is an artificial ecosystem in which selected species of plants and animals are cultivated and reared.
Its two basic premises are:
the intentional propagation of food and
the isolation of the domesticated species from their wild relatives, leading to changes (intentional and unintentional) in their morphology (structure and function of body parts).

25. Important terms
Domestication: intentional or unintentional changes in the genotypes and physical characteristics of plants and animals, making them dependent on humans for reproductive success.
Cultivation: the intentional preparation of fields, and sowing, harvesting, and storing of crops, requiring significant and deliberate changes in technology, subsistence, and perspectives.
Herding: similar intentional changes in human-animal relationships.
Agriculture: a commitment to these changed human-plant-animal relationships, ultimately involving changes in use of the earth, including forest clearance, cultivation of storable crops, and the invention of new farming technologies; resulting in increased population and eventual increases in social and political complexity.

26. Origins of Agriculture
Eastern North America
Yangtze and Yellow River Basins
Fertile Crescent
Mesoamerica
New Guinea Highlands
South American Highlands

27. Transition from Hunting-Gathering to Agriculture continued…
New evidence suggests that people cultivated rye over 13,000 years ago, while continuing to hunt animals and gather wild plants in the Fertile Crescent.
Suggests this is a long development process and not an all or nothing scenario.
Hunter-gatherers turn to agriculture only as a last resort when population pressure forces them to acquire more food on available space.

28. Extending from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf
Why There and Then?
The Fertile Crescent is a large arc of rich, or fertile, farmland that many migrated through.
Extending from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf
Supplied with water from two major rivers
The Tigris and the Euphrates
Optimal growing conditions due to:
Temperate climate (Not too hot/dry or cold/wet)
Hills/mountains to north (encouraged precipitation; supplied rivers)

29. Why There and Then? Other Contributing Factors: High diversity of
Crop yields (variety of plant species)
Annual variation (some years had more production)
This allowed for storage of surplus in plentiful periods that would help them through less plentiful periods.
Able to employ artificial irrigation systems
Back up plan for dry periods
Essential in drier areas
Developed plowing strategies to loosen soil since it would dry up and crack easily

30. Hunter
gatherers
settled in small
communities
in the
Fertile Crescent,
a narrow band
of land arcing
across the
Near East.

31. Two of the earliest settlements are known as Catal Hüyük and Jericho.
The roots of farming began in the areas of present day Turkey and the Middle East about 10,000 years ago. 
Two of the earliest settlements are known as Catal Hüyük and Jericho.   
Catal Hüyük  had, by 6000 B.C., more then 1000 houses.

32. Seed Culture…
It is at this place that we have discovered evidence of people taking wild grasses and using the seeds for food and planting for the next years food. 
These seeds are now known as cereals and make up a large percentage of the worlds food supply. 

33. Seed Culture… Old World
Cereals, or cereal grains, are mostly grasses cultivated for their edible brans or fruit seeds

34. Seed Culture in the Old World
I. Seed culture originated in drier subtropics of both hemispheres (8,000-10,000 years ago)
Fertile Crescent (Middle East)
Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
Northern India and Pakistan
Indus River
Egypt
Nile River
Northern China
Huang Ho (Yellow River-Yangtze)

35. Indus Valley between India and Pakistan

36. Seed Culture in the Old World continued…
II. Irrigation and long term food storage was required – higher degree of social organization required.
III. Major civilizations built in regions of seed culture.
A. Food was potentially abundant
B. Great effort required to obtain food

37. Seed Culture in the Old World continued…
IV. Cereal grains were early crops
Wet-dry season requirements
Large seed(endosperm) to resist drought/support rapid growth during brief wet periods.
V. Ancestral cereals were attractive weeds
VI. Domesticated seed crops have shown a disability to compete with weeds.

38. Seed Culture in the Old World…
VII. Seed culture developed most rapidly in ecologically diverse regions.
Earliest village farming community in western Iran (wheat, barley, and domestic animals)
Provide a rich diversity of plant materials
VIII. Cultivation of grains pre-dated cultivation of fruits by several thousand years.
More permanent settlement required due to long term nature of fruit crops.

39. Why Start with Grains and Grasses?
Wild seeds were abundant, inexhaustible, and could easily be harvested
In Turkey, a person could harvest 2.2 lbs. of wild wheat (einkorn, which contains 57% more protein than current domestic wheat) in an hour
In Mexico, an 11-day supply of “wild corn” (teosinte) could be gathered in 3.5 hours
In Wisconsin, Ojibwa Indians could fill their canoes with wild rice in a few hours.

40. Seed Culture in the Old World continued…
IX. As seed cultures moved from highlands to valleys
Irrigation developed
Tillage systems developed
Selection of varieties improved
Four species of beans
navy, kidney, lima, and peanuts
XI. Squash first developed for edible seeds

41. Ancestral Wheat and Barley

42. Seed Culture in the New World
I. Earliest seed culture practiced in Tehuacan Valley- Southern Mexico
A. Corn, beans, squash,
pumpkins, peppers, avocados
B. Semi-arid area surrounded
by foothills and mountains
with increasing level of
precipitation
II. Corn was difficult to domesticate and there were no herd animals to domesticate.
III. Crops dictated cultural evolution?

43. Seed Culture in the New World continued…
IV. Some people believe that the cultural gap between peoples of two hemispheres was due to adaptability of native plants and animals.
V. Maize-bean-squash complex
A. Corn-tall, first claim to moisture and sun
B. Bean vines – climbed up corn stalks, N-fixing
C. Squash – on ground, minimized weed growth

44. Origin of Vegeculture
I. Vegeculture probably began in the tropics, most commonly in lowland areas.
II. Early fisherman probably practiced first agriculture.
A. Using plant substances to stun fish
B. Fishing permitted a settled life.
C. Settled life favored agriculture

45. Origin of Vegeculture continued…
III. Early vegetables were rich in starch
A. Sweet potato and yam
B. Taro
IV.Growing areas were incompletely cleared and burned forests: Swiddens (temporary agricultural plots cut from primary and secondary forests)
V. Early crops may not have been grown for food: most probably for fiber and ceremonial purposes.

46. For Interest’s sake…. Women in Agriculture
The Human Past – Student Study Guide Website – Go to Chapter 5 “The World Transformed”