The Ancient Period, Before 600 BCE: Content Summary 1.2: Causes and Effects of the Neolithic Revolution

Human food insecurity increased as populations grew, environments changed, and the climate fluctuated at the start of the Holocene epoch. (1.2.A)

Human food insecurity increased as populations grew, environments changed, and the climate fluctuated at the start of the Holocene epoch. (1.2.A)

As a reaction to food insecurity, humans increasingly cultivated plants and domesticated animals to survive. (1.2.A)

Farming developed first in the Fertile Crescent of Mesopotamia, where gatherers of wild barley, rye, and wheat began to cultivate these cereals. (1.2.A)

These communities increasingly discovered that “slashing and burning” the vegetation of exhausted fields rejuvenated those fields for future planting. (1.2.A)

Animal domestication also became the basis of pastoralism, especially in grasslands and areas not suitable for farming. Pastoralists were nomadic, and they exchanged animal products for the food and materials produced in farming communities. (1.2.A)

Sedentary lifestyles in villages and permanent houses expanded life expectancy, and populations grew in size and density. (1.2.B)

Sedentary lifestyles in villages and permanent houses expanded life expectancy, and populations grew in size and density. (1.2.B)

As groups became more sedentary, they also became less egalitarian and more hierarchical, and people responsible for the management and allocation of food resources had the greatest social importance. (1.2.B)

As groups became more sedentary, they also became less egalitarian and more hierarchical, and people responsible for the management and allocation of food resources had the greatest social importance. (1.2.B)

As groups became more sedentary, they also became less egalitarian and more hierarchical, and people responsible for the management and allocation of food resources had the greatest social importance. (1.2.B)

Technological innovations and human selection of specific seeds and animals impacted the environment through deforestation and the loss of biodiversity. (1.2.B)

Technological innovations and human selection of specific seeds and animals impacted the environment through deforestation and the loss of biodiversity. (1.2.B)

Seven Neolithic farming communities, all cultivating different crops, arose independently outside the Fertile Crescent: Sudanic Africa (sorghum), West Africa (yams), East Asia (millet and soybean), Southeast Asia (rice), Papua New Guinea (bananas), Mesoamerica (maize), and the Andes (potatoes). (1.2.C)

As farming spread from seven nodal points, populations inevitably expanded. (1.2.C)