How The Neolithic Revolution Shaped History

How the Neolithic Revolution Shaped History

The Neolithic revolution was a very important event in history because the change from hunting and gathering, to farming and domesticating animals, allowed early humans to have specialization, develop surpluses, and construct permanent settlements. Without the need of gathering food all day, early humans could work on other things, such as government, organized religion, writing, arts, jobs, and architecture. These things are the basic characteristics of nearly every ancient, or modern civilization. Also, food surpluses were developed because farming and domestication were better ways of acquiring food.

The Neolithic revolution was a very important event in history because it allowed specialization to occur. With specialization, early humans became much more diverse, with people working on different things and jobs. For example, in A

For example, in Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, Jared Diamond says, “In short, plant and animal domestication meant much more food and hence much denser human populations. The resulting food surpluses, and (in some areas) the animal-based means of transporting those surpluses, were a prerequisite for the development of settled, politically centralized, socially stratified, economically complex, technologically innovative societies.” This is saying that food surpluses ultimately led to larger populations, trade, and innovative societies. Food surpluses relieved humans of hunting and gathering all day, and allowed their civilization grow because of the extra food. Populations started growing because life expectancy increased and nearly everybody had enough food to survive. People no longer had to worry about food supply, and started to work on other things. Eventually, this led to specialization, trade, and the development of permanent