Neolithic Revolution

737 Words2 Pages

The transition in the diet and the process of obtaining food changed drastically when the Neolithic period began. Many anthropologists know this transition as the Neolithic Revolution (Bocquet-Appel 2011:560). During the Neolithic revolution, the population of the homo sapiens increase drastically and along with this increase of people came the increase of advantages and disadvantages.
Population increase was due to the life of the farmer and the food producer. When the transition to farming happened, life was more suitable for more children. When people were constantly on the move, having multiple young children was not ideal. Young children had to be carried and dealing with three young children who could not walk would result in a hard mobile life of the mother and possibly the death of the young child. When people began to farm, more villages were built. In the village, people could keep an eye on many young children. Fertility rates increased due to multiple children in a short time frame. Population increased also due to child labor being a necessity and a want. Adding to the population gave way to the children learning the ways of the domestication of plants and animals so that everyone had a job to do in the villages, which allowed the village to thrive. Farming then transitioned into food production that allowed the people to control their crops and produce their own food. The move to the life of the farmer and producer brought advantages however there was an increase in the disadvantages.
Elaborating more on population, the reproductive fitness of the people around this time increased. Although there was a large increase of malnourishment and mortality rates, the population still increased. It was still balanced.
Alas...

... middle of paper ...

...-gathers was better. There were not many issues with the diet of the pre-Neolithic people. They had better distribution of their body muscle and work. They all had tasks that worked the entire body, from moving place to place, to their specific jobs. The Neolithic people had a job that one small group of people did, weather it was basket weaving or tending to the produce.
Either way, more strain was applied to a certain part of the body rather fully exercising the entire body. This has been proven due to the wear and tear of the remains left behind of the Neolithic people. As stated before, disease was probably the main disadvantage of the agricultural revolution because of the fatal effects of the illnesses that occurred in this time period. Also as stated before, the dietary intake of the Neolithic people was not equally healthy as the life of the hunter-gather.

Open Document