The Neolithic Revolution

THE NEOLITHIC PERIOD

"We have not make the revolution, the Revolution has made us"

Georg Büchner

The Neolithic Revolution, also called the Agricultural Revolution, is the great step that humanity took 12 000 years ago and that meant the development of culture, religion, work and politic issues. The Neolithic Revolution was the transition of nomad hunters and gatherers to an organized group of farmers dedicated to the agriculture and domestication of animals. So we can say, this was the necessary advance the human race took, that brought the superiority over all the rest of animals.

Between the 8000 and 5000 B.C, the human beings who populated Africa and Middle East adopted new ways to produce food. Leaving behind the old techniques of hunting and gathering, that required a lot of energy, time and the constant moving of people. So after the end of the Ice Age, a great migration of animals occur, forcing people to move also. Then people feel the need of harvesting, that was a great technique to obtain easy food and new technologies were developed to make harvesting easier and to plant. This is how the agriculture began, specially in the Middle East thanks to the Oases.

Beside the agriculture that brought significant changes, there's another important advance in the Neolithic Revolution. I'm talking about the domestication of animals. Meanwhile people left the old habit of moving from one place to another to find animals to eat, they found more profitable to raise animals. There was people dedicated in regulate the size, the temperament, the diet and life spam of the animals so they can sell to other person. The animals most used and commercialized were the ones who gave milk like goats or cows, because this kind of animals contributed with a balanced diet and they didn't have to be sacrificed in order to obtain food. Other animals were used to agriculture, they helped with the ploughing and the towing. Also animals were used beside a direct source of food, to provide leather or wool for clothing.

With the Neolithic Revolution, huge associations of people with similar culture and economic interest began to emerge. And a social Revolution occurred. Before the Neolithic Age, small groups of people traveled around the continents searching for food and they didn't have a stablished home or community. But after the Neolithic Age, people moved to certain territories with more an more people. So it was necessary to make juridical laws and moral laws in order to maintain the order. And here is where the politic and the culture is developed and improved, leaving room for development.

In my opinion the Agricultural Revolution or Neolithic Revolution, is the begging of the civilizations and cultures. All the changes involved in that time, are the ones that make the actual societies emerge.

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