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Social effects of technology in society
Social effects of technology in society
Social effects of technology
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Many events have been regarded as the biggest mistake in the history of mankind, however, the most unexpected mistake might be the adoption of agriculture. Today, we live completely different lives from the hunter-gatherers of the past. If mankind hadn’t begun the domestication and cultivation of plants and animals over 10,000 years ago, would the human condition be better or worse than it is now? It would be awfully hard to answer the question when compare now to 10,000 years ago. However, the answer becomes clearer when you look back at history when agriculture first came into practice. Progressivism is the idea human advancements always benefits the human condition. Although, since the introduction of agriculture, human condition has declined while populations skyrocketed. At first glance, agriculture appears like the ultimate solution to man’s greatest problem, population growth. As humans dominated the earth, their populations were limited by the availability of food. When people first began to farm, food became more obtainable, populations grew, and cities …show more content…
To mainstream archaeologist, the rise in population meant there was also a rise in human condition. Logically, this claim made sense, and it remained unchallenged for years. However, the claim was just an idea with very little backing to it. Eventually archaeologists began to dismantle the claim, and found evidence in support of a new idea. Agriculture devastated the human condition. This new claim completely opposed the older one. Agricultural advances were seen in a different light, no longer was it viewed as the most crucial point in human evolution, but as the worst mistake mankind has ever made.
There are numerous amounts of evidence that supports the claim that agriculture was in fact an immense mistake. “The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race”,
Agriculture plays an enormous part in having a functioning society. The farming fields in the
Hunting and gathering is probably a preferable lifestyle compared to a farmer, but it seems a bit over the top to blame absolutely every problem in our society on agriculture. It’s a common argument, but Jared Diamond's theory does seem to be quite an over-simplification. For example, he argues that inequality between sexes could be caused by agricultural because women were made beasts of burden and given greater pressure to work on the fields. However, the root cause of that isn’t agriculture, it’s sexism and stereotyping, because without an outdated sexist mindset no one would treat women differently in the agricultural department, and it is an oversimplification to ignore this. Furthermore, because of farming and globalization people now are given even more opportunity for a diverse diet. Although early farmers had access to only one or a few crops versus hunter-gatherers who had an entire forest of varied food, people nowadays have many more options than both hunter-gatherers and early farmers combined. A grocery store has ten times as many diverse and varying food items as a forest does, providing food from all corners of the world not just a single location or country, allowing people to create a perfectly balanced diet if they so choose. In conclusion, I agree with Jared Diamond's thesis on certain grounds, but I mostly disagree that the introduction of agriculture was the “worst mistake in human
12,000 years ago, the discovery of agriculture triggered such a change in society and the way in which people lived that we now call this important era in time the “Neolithic Revolution.” Traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyles were cast away in favor of more permanent settlements and a reliable food supply. Agriculture helped form cities and civilizations, and because crops and animals could now be farmed to meet growing demand, populations skyrocketed from around five million people 10,000 years ago, to more the more than seven billion people that walk this earth today.1
Agriculture has been around for hundreds of years. With its negative effects on humanity, agriculture has greatly affected the environment. Many archeologists believe that adoption of Agriculture was not an improvement but a disaster for humans in many ways. Jared Diamond, the author of the article called “The worst mistake in the history of the human race” argues that hunter-gatherers were better off than the farmers. In a way agriculture is believed to cause many problems for humans such as sexual inequality, deep class division, changed their diet which later led to poor health and diseases.
“The discovery of agriculture was the first big step toward a civilized life.” (Arthur Keith)
Jared Diamond makes the argument that when humans decided 10,000 years ago to no longer be hunter-gatherers and made the decision to become sedentary and start domesticating their animals and crops, the result is that the human race has experienced a steady downfall. Diamond makes the point that “with agriculture came the gross social and sexual inequality, the disease and despotism that curse our existence,” (Diamond). While the present system certainly is far from being perfected, Diamond’s various complaints and solutions certainly would not be of much use in the present time either.
Before the land of what we no class Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, and other countries in the middle east grains, such as wheat and wild barley, could be seen growing in the wild without human hand to cultivate and nurture it (Authors 2007). Over time, humans began to recognize the benefit of the plants and began the first signs of human agriculture. The skill of farming took time and trial and error, but along the way, humans began to settle down to tend to their crops. Though the first crops were nothing more than seed s thrown about without rhyme or reason to the process we know today such as fields having, rows and sorting out the seeds to create a higher yield each harvest (Authors 2007). Because of the trial and error process, agriculture of plants did not take place of a short period but took many, many years to evolve to what we know today as agriculture; the new fa...
Agriculture is the science and practice of producing crops and livestock. The primary aim of agriculture is to use the land to produce more abundantly to feed and clothe the world at the same time protecting it from deterioration or misuse. Humans had to improve agriculture as they became more dependent on food, creating a solitary evolutionary connection between plants and animals (Campbell and Reece, 2001). In this day and age, so many people have forgotten the authentic premises of survival. It is easy for some to believe that the grocery stores produce food and clothing is produced by shopping centers. These inaccurate presumptions are being made due to the lack of knowledge of how agriculture truly works. There are also significant differences in the levels of understanding between rural and urban communities.
The blessing and curse of the Agricultural Revolution is advocated with its augmentation and dissemination. Taking the stipulative definition of “blessing” and “curse” from the original premise, one can only superimpose the layman’s terms of “negative” and “positive”. Upon examination of the two classifications within the Neolithic Period and ancient Mesopotamian civilization one can confirm the premise. Therefore, the agriculture revolution was a blessing and a curse for humanity. Human society began to emerge in the Neolithic Period or the New Stone Age. This new age began around 9,000 B.C.E. by the development of agriculture in the region surrounding the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and what is commonly referred to as “The Fertile Crescent” located in West Asia.1 The very development of agriculture had benefited humans by no longer having to move about in search of wild game and plants. Unencumbered by nomadic life humans found little need to limit family size and possessions and settled in a single location for many years. One negative aspect of this settling is that the population increased so much so that wild food sources were no longer sufficient to support large groups. Forced to survive by any means necessary they discovered using seeds of the most productive plants and clearing weeds enhanced their yield.2 This also lead humans to develop a wider array of tools far superior to the tools previously used in the Paleolithic Period or Old Stone Age. The spread of the Agricultural Revolution in the Neolithic Period also cultivated positive aspects by creating connections with other cultures and societies. Through these connections they exchanged knowledge, goods, and ideas on herding and farming.3 Another major positive aspec...
In Genesis 1:29, God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.” From the beginning God has given us food for life. Plants, meats, trees, and fruits are offered to us as a means of sustenance from the very same God who made them long ago.
The culture of hunter/gatherer society was the least damaging to the environment in the long term before humans developed agriculture. There are several reasons for this. First, human population was much smaller in comparison to what it became during the agrarian age. Second, hunter/gatherer societies tended to be largely nomadic, which allowed the environment time to recover and regenerate whatever natural resources were used. Third, humans simply did not have the technologies to further exploit the environment. Human population was much smaller during the time of hunter/gatherer societies due to high rates of infant morality, infectious diseases, and social morality - infanticide, geronticide, and warfare (Southwick 128). Fewer people mean fewer demands on the environment. With growth in human population, the grasses and animal populations humans used for sustenance did not have time to recover, which turned into humans using the earth's natural resources in an unsustainable manner (class discussion 02.14.03). Humans living in agrarian society do not necessarily use the environment's resources in an unsustainable manner, but the greater the population density, the more land will be needed to support that population in a sustainable manner. As resources become more and more scarce, field owners will be less willing to let land lay fallow (class discussion 02.21.03). Humans then found a "tech fix" with the development of agriculture and the domestication of animals. Cipolla calls it the first great economic revolution (Cipolla 18). The development of agriculture lead to the development of communities, city-states, civilizations, and other settlements. The social structure that formed around agriculture brought about the possibility of specialization within a society, since not everyone had to hunt and gather all the time. Instead of living in an ecologically sustainable manner like the hunter/gatherers, people started living in an economic manner (Southwick 128). Specialization enabled the development of social institutions such as religion and government, and agriculture necessitated the development of irrigation.
The Ancient world was in demand of technology as it saw a rise in complications to the world generation after generation. One very important form of rise in technology was in agriculture. The Agricultural Revolution saw a number of inventions in Medieval Europe. It saw the introduction of tools like the Heavy plough, the harrow and the mills to name a few. They also came up with new techniques in farming. These inventions and changes had a huge impact on Medieval Europe. It lead to more jobs and also more produce which eventually lead to more income.
The growth of the world’s population has led to a growth in animal agriculture, because as population grows, the need for food does as well. Animal agriculture is the use of animal farms to produce animal products that are then consumed by the general public. As agribusiness expands, issues such as the need for farm insurance and animal rights have received more awareness. Modern day industrialism is being applied to animal agriculture in developed nations such as the United States and Canada. Farm Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on research in agribusiness and improving the economy through agriculture, claims that “the North American livestock industry is expected to
To understand why is agriculture important in the world of today, then first of all we must know what agriculture is? Agriculture is the basic material production of society, the use of land for agriculture and livestock, mining plants and animals as raw materials and labor to produce mainly food and some raw materials for industry. Agriculture is a major industry, covering many disciplines: planting, breeding and processing of agricultural products; in the broadest sense, also including forestry and fisheries. Agriculture is an important economic sector in the economy of many countries, especially in the past century , when the industry has not yet developed. Since the dawn of history, agriculture has been one of the importance means of producing
The backbone of a stable nation, socially and politically, is agriculture. Agriculture is the largest sector that provides a nation with food and employment. Agriculture is currently being affected by climate change and at the same time it is also a contributor to climate change. The drastic elevations in climate change started from the mid to late 20th century and they have been increasing since then (Boisvenue & Running 2006). Climate change is affecting agriculture by interfering with the efficiency of crop production. Agriculture is facing droughts, flooding, sea level elevations, natural disasters, and health hazards for employees. All of these exponents lead to crop failure that creates famines and food prices to rise. On the other side, agriculture is also contributing to climate change through their output of greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprints. These are caused by the activities that agriculture engages with such as breeding of livestock, ploughing of fields, deforestation, and the use of pesticides and other agrochemicals. Climate change affects countries differently, mainly due to their ability to adapt and their geographical location. Canada and Russia benefit from the changes in climate while Sudan and Bangladesh are affected negatively, struggling to adapt. Agriculture and climate change are interrelated processes that exist mutually making it harder to reduce one without affecting the other.