Origins of agriculture
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What is agriculture?
Agriculture is the active production of useful plants or animals within ecosystems created by humans. It involves disrupting terrestrial habitats to increase the quantity of desired plants and animals for food, technology, medicine, and other uses.
The first agriculture developed around 11,700 years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age, as temperatures warmed and ecosystems reorganized. Agriculture has no single origin; plants and animals were independently domesticated in different places and at different times.
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When did humans first start practicing agriculture?
Agriculture began independently in different places and times, with the earliest developments occurring around the end of the last Ice Age approximately 11,700 years ago. This period saw rising temperatures, melting glaciers, and reorganized ecosystems, especially in temperate regions.
The transition to agriculture, termed the agricultural or Neolithic revolution, involved cultivating wild plants and herding wild animals, leading to their domestication. This revolution first occurred in the Fertile Crescent's hilly areas between ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. By 8000 bp agricultural communities started to flourish in China. These developments led to more stable settlements, increased populations, and more complex social structures.
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What were some of the first plants and animals humans farmed?
Agriculture began independently in different regions around 11,700 years ago, marking a transition from hunting and gathering to settled farming communities. The earliest animal to be domesticated was the dog, found in archaeological sites worldwide by the end of the last glacial period.
In Southwest Asia, goats and sheep were herded, while wheat, lentils, rye, and barley were cultivated. East Asia saw the domestication of foxtail and broomcorn millets, hemp, Chinese cabbage, rice, water buffalo, swine, and chickens. In the Americas, squash was domesticated in southern Mexico and northern Peru.
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Why did people shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture?
The shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture occurred around 11,700 years ago, marking the end of the last Ice Age. This transition wasn't due to scarcity but rather a response to climate change, which brought new opportunities as ecosystems reorganized. Agriculture offered a more predictable food supply, reducing the need to travel for resources and allowing for more stable settlements and increased populations. The development of agriculture involved the intensification of resource extraction, with communities encouraging useful plants and animals. This led to innovations like durable houses and heavy tools, though pottery wasn't always directly linked to agriculture's rise.
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How did agriculture change the way people lived?
The development of agriculture brought momentous changes to human life. Agriculture, along with animal herding and metallurgy, allowed for larger, settled communities and more complex social and political structures. The cultivation of land led to a food surplus, enabling some people to pursue other activities like craftsmanship, trade, or governance. This division of labor occurred in concentrated environments, leading to the rise of cities, trade, government, and armies. Social hierarchies and, later, distinct economic and social classes emerged.
However, this transition wasn't always straightforward, as interactions between hunters, herders, and agriculturalists varied from resistance to assimilation. In some regions, sedentary communities developed without agriculture, relying on wild resources.
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What are some important regions in the world where agriculture began?
Agriculture emerged independently in various regions worldwide around the end of the last Ice Age. The Fertile Crescent in the Middle East is considered the origin of settled agricultural communities, with evidence dating back to the early 9th millennium BCE. In China, farming communities appeared before 8000 bp, domesticating crops like foxtail and broomcorn millets in the north and rice in the Yangtze River basin. Mesoamerica saw the domestication of crops like corn, squash, and beans, with evidence of corn cultivation dating back 10,000 years ago. In South America, the highlands of south-central Chile saw the collection of potatoes as early as 11,000 bp.
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Origins of agriculture, the active production of useful plants or animals in ecosystems that have been created by people. Agriculture has often been conceptualized narrowly, in terms of specific combinations of activities and organismsâwet-rice production in Asia, wheat farming in Europe, cattle ranching in the Americas, and the likeâbut a more holistic perspective holds that humans are environmental engineers who disrupt terrestrial habitats in specific ways. Anthropogenic disruptions such as clearing vegetation or tilling the soil cause a variety of localized changes; common effects include an increase in the amount of light reaching ground level and a reduction in the competition among organisms. As a result, an area may produce more of the plants or animals that people desire for food, technology, medicine, and other uses.
Over time, some plants and animals have become domesticated, or dependent on these and other human interventions for their long-term propagation or survival. Domestication is a biological process in which, under human selection, organisms develop characteristics that increase their utility, as when plants provide larger seeds, fruit, or tubers than their wild progenitors. Known as cultigens, domesticated plants come from a wide range of families (groups of closely related genera that share a common ancestor; see genus). The grass (Poaceae), bean (Fabaceae), and nightshade or potato (Solanaceae) families have produced a disproportionately large number of cultigens because they have characteristics that are particularly amenable to domestication.
Domesticated animals tend to have developed from species that are social in the wild and that, like plants, could be bred to increase the traits that are advantageous for people. Most domesticated animals are more docile than their wild counterparts, and they often produce more meat, wool, or milk as well. They have been used for traction, transport, pest control, assistance, and companionship and as a form of wealth. Species with abundant domesticated varieties, or breeds, include the dog (Canis lupus familiaris), cat (Felis catus), cattle (Bos species), sheep (Ovis species), goat (Capra species), swine (Sus species), horse (Equus caballus), chicken (Gallus gallus), and duck and goose (family Anatidae).
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Because it is a cultural phenomenon, agriculture has varied considerably across time and space. Domesticated plants and animals have been (and continue to be) raised at scales ranging from the household to massive commercial operations. This article recognizes the wide range of activities that encompass food production and emphasizes the cultural factors leading to the creation of domesticated organisms. It discusses some of the research techniques used to discern the origins of agriculture as well as the general trajectory of agricultural development in the ancient societies of Southwest Asia, the Americas, East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and Europe. For specific techniques of habitat alteration and plant propagation, see horticulture. For techniques of animal propagation, see livestock farming; poultry farming.