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Why Was Agriculture So Important?
Why Was Agriculture So Important?
The invention of farming was not just about tastier food. Farming unlocked powerful forces that transformed history.
As this video progresses, key ideas will be introduced to invoke discussion.
Think about the following questions as you watch the video
Where did farming start?
How did overpopulation lead to farming?
How did climate change lead to farming?
What does sedentary mean?
Why did sedentary people like the Natufians begin farming?
: [Music]
: In today's world, with 7 billion humans to feed, foraging couldn't come near to
: providing enough food. Farming is absolutely essential to the survival of the modern world.
: [Music]
: At the moment, it looks as if farming really began about 11,000 years ago
: in the highlands east of the Mediterranean that we know as the Fertile Crescent. And here they
: grew wheat. It may also have grown appeared at about the same time in the Nile Valley
: slightly further south. Then from about 8,000 years ago, we have evidence of rice growing
: in China. And at about the same time, we have evidence of the growing of taro and yams in
: the highlands of Papua, New Guinea. Though it took several thousand years for agriculture
: to really flourish here. Then, from about 5,000 to 4,000 years ago, agriculture pops
: up in several different parts of the world. In West Africa, farmers start growing sorghum and millet.
: And farming also appears in the Americas, right across the Atlantic. In Mesoamerica, where
: they're growing maize and squash. And also in the Andes, where potatoes are a very important crop.
: From these core regions, agriculture then spreads to neighboring regions. But there's a real puzzle
: here--because none of the core regions seem to have been connected. So what was really going on?
: [Music]
: There seemed to be two main reasons One factor is overpopulation The other is
: climate change. And these factors operated in many different parts of the world. Let's take
: over population first. During the Paleolithic Era, if populations grew too much you could generally
: solve the problem by migrating into a new region. But after the settlement of the Americas from
: about 15,000 years ago, there were no large areas left to migrate into. So, from now on if populations
: began to grow you had to try to get more resources from a given area. In other words, you had to farm.
: Now, that's the first factor. The second, climate change is subtler. Most of the Paleolithic Era
: was dominated by the ice ages. And during the ice ages, for the most part climates were so cold
: and so unpredictable, that farming was more or less impossible. Then--from about 18,000 years ago, global
: climates began to change. They began to get warmer. Glaciers began to retreat. Sea levels began to rise.
: And, in area after area, you began to get warmer and wetter climates. Then, from about 12,000 years ago
: climates became warmer and wetter--and we entered the interglacial period that we're still living in today.
: Now, as a result of global climate change, humans and animals
: and plants everywhere in the world had to start changing their behaviors.
: [Music]
: In some areas, such as the Fertile Crescent, east of the Mediterranean, as climates changed
: resources became more abundant. There were more plants and more animals. And in these
: began to settle down because they found
: they could live in one place for most of the year without traveling around. And they began
: to form villages. They became sedentary In the Fertile Crescent, archaeologists refer to the
: people who settled in these villages as Natufians, and they've excavated many of their villages.
: As they settled down, their behaviors changed. And in particular, populations began to grow. We're not
: sure why, but one reason may be that if you're a villager, you don't have to carry children around.
: So there's less pressure to reduce the number of children. In any case, populations grew and
: that posed a problem. Within a few generations, they found they didn't have enough resources to
: feed everyone. In what had once seemed an area of abundance. So what are they to do?
: Well, perhaps they could go back to foraging. The problem was, they'd probably forgotten
: many of the old techniques of foraging. And besides, neighbors probably occupied those
: lands now. So, what can they do? Well, they can start tending their crops and animals more carefully.
: They can start providing the plants they like with extra water. They can start clearing
: away weeds. They can start penning particular animals in enclosures. In fact, they can
: start farming. Now, something like what happened o the Natufians seems to have happened in many
: other areas. Agriculture is not just a matter of tastier fruit or fatter cows.
: Agriculture unlocked forces much more powerful than that--and they would transform human history.