This Fleeting World

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Acceleration: The Agrarian Era 27 Malay Archipelago. Communities probably farmed root crops early in many coastal regions in the tropics, although most traces of such communities would have been submerged as sea levels rose at the end of the last ice age. In Mesoamerica (the region including Mexico and much of the peninsula to its south) people probably domesticated squash Topics for Further Study Andean States Egypt, Ancient Harappan State and Indus Civilization Mesoamerica Mesopotamia as early as 7000 bce, but clearer evidence of systematic agriculture does not appear before 5000 bce. In the Andes region the earliest evidence of agriculture appears after about 3000 bce. From these and perhaps a few other regions in which agriculture appeared quite independently, agricultural technologies and ways of life eventually spread to most of the world. At present we lack a fully satisfactory explanation for the origins of agriculture. Any explanation must account for the curious fact that, after 200,000 years or more during which all humans lived as foragers, agricultural lifeways appeared within just a few thousand years in parts of the world that had no significant contact with each other. The realization that agriculture arose quite independently in different parts of the world has undermined the once-fashionable view that agriculture was a brilliant invention that diffused from a single center as soon as people understood its benefits. That view was also undermined after researchers realized that foragers who know about agriculture have often preferred to remain foragers. Perhaps foragers resisted change because the health and nutritional levels of the first farmers were often lower than those of neighboring foragers, whereas their stress levels were often higher. If agriculture depressed living standards, then an explanation of the origins of agriculture must rely more on “push” than on “pull” factors. Rather than taking up agriculture willingly, we must assume that many early agriculturalists were forced to take it up. Affluent Foragers The outlines of an explanation for the agricultural revolution are now available, even if many details remain to be tested in particular instances. The origins of agriculture have been studied most thoroughly in Mesopotamia and in Mesoamerica. In both areas the first agricultural villages appeared after many centuries during which foragers intensified their exploitation
28 This Fleeting World of particular favored resources, adapting their tools and techniques with increasing precision and efficiency to local environments. This was the first step toward agriculture. When taken far enough, such techniques can turn conventional foragers into “affluent foragers.” Affluent foragers extract more resources from a given area than do traditional foragers. Eventually they may extract enough resources to become semisedentary, living in one place for much of the year. This development is particularly likely where prey resources such as fish or wild grains are unusually abundant. The appearance of such communities in many parts of the world toward the end of the last ice age tempts us to link such changes with the erratic global warming that began eighteen thousand to sixteen thousand years ago. In both temperate and tropical zones warmer climates may have created local “gardens of Eden”—regions of exceptional abundance—where highly nutritious plants such as wild wheats that had once been scarce Black Sea Hacilar Mediterranean Sea Merimda Anatolia Catalhoyuk Cyprus Nile R. Nile Delta Hassan Cemi Tepesi Cayonu Abu Hureyra Mesopotamia Ain Ghazal Netiv Hagdud Jericho Tigris R. N Zawi Chemi Shanidar Caspian Sea Jarmo Ganj Dareh Ali Kosh Euph rates R. Persian Gulf Red Sea S A H A R A Nabta Playa Bir Kiseiba Wadi Kubbaniya 0 400 mi 0 400 km Berkshire Publishing Agrarian Eria 3.375 in. x 4 in. 8.05.04
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Praise for This Fleeting World Davi
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This Fleeting World • A Short His
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Copyright © 2008 by Berkshire Publ
Page 10 and 11: Contents Preface ix Publisher’s N
Page 12 and 13: Preface This Fleeting World: A Teac
Page 14 and 15: Preface xi That is why we are so en
Page 16 and 17: Preface xiii That is not to say eve
Page 18 and 19: Preface xv influence and consequenc
Page 20 and 21: Introduction As Henry Ford is suppo
Page 22 and 23: Introduction xix me clarify my own
Page 24 and 25: Prequel xxi we can tell a story tha
Page 26 and 27: Prequel xxiii sion known as a “su
Page 28 and 29: Prequel xxv more successfully, pass
Page 30 and 31: Prequel xxvii the appearance of a l
Page 32: This Fleeting World • A Short His
Page 35 and 36: This Fleeting World • Key Events
Page 37 and 38: This Fleeting World interpretations
Page 39 and 40: This Fleeting World or Homo erectus
Page 41 and 42: This Fleeting World environments, l
Page 43 and 44: 10 This Fleeting World Low producti
Page 45 and 46: 12 This Fleeting World other specie
Page 47 and 48: 14 This Fleeting World Thought Expe
Page 49 and 50: 16 This Fleeting World eras of huma
Page 53 and 54: 20 This Fleeting World less comfort
Page 55 and 56: 22 This Fleeting World some of the
Page 57 and 58: 24 This Fleeting World civilization
Page 59: 26 This Fleeting World • Key Even
Page 63 and 64: 30 This Fleeting World communities
Page 65 and 66: 32 This Fleeting World General Char
Page 67 and 68: 34 This Fleeting World The “Secon
Page 69 and 70: 36 This Fleeting World other world
Page 71 and 72: 38 This Fleeting World important in
Page 73 and 74: 40 This Fleeting World expectations
Page 75 and 76: 42 This Fleeting World complexity a
Page 77 and 78: 44 This Fleeting World Topics for F
Page 81 and 82: 48 This Fleeting World
Page 83 and 84: 50 This Fleeting World Worth Debati
Page 85 and 86: 52 This Fleeting World A sixteenth-
Page 89 and 90: 56 This Fleeting World Spanish ship
Page 91 and 92: Our World: The Modern Era The moder
Page 93 and 94: 60 This Fleeting World Worth Debati
Page 95 and 96: 62 This Fleeting World communities
Page 97 and 98: 64 This Fleeting World men more con
Page 99 and 100: 66 This Fleeting World the modern e
Page 101 and 102: 68 This Fleeting World of new ideas
Page 103 and 104: 70 This Fleeting World and track st
Page 105 and 106: 72 This Fleeting World industrializ
Page 107 and 108: 74 This Fleeting World By 1900 many
Page 109 and 110: 76 This Fleeting World Modern indus
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78 This Fleeting World comparisons
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80 This Fleeting World production,
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82 This Fleeting World Key Events i
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84 This Fleeting World and politica
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86 This Fleeting World of the econo
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88 This Fleeting World and radio be
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90 This Fleeting World relationship
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92 This Fleeting World revolution i
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94 This Fleeting World Davies, R. W
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96 This Fleeting World Taagepera, R
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98 This Fleeting World Problems of
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100 This Fleeting World of the firs
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102 This Fleeting World imply easy
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104 This Fleeting World adopted her
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Index A Abbasid caliphate, 47 Achae
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108 Index E Easter Island, 38 Econo
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110 Index Mesopotamia (southwest As
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112 Index Trade agrarian era, 37, 4
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Berkshire Encyclopedia of World His
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Patterns of Global Terrorism 1985-2
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