The domestication of plants and animals was an astonishing development in history. But the fact that humans did this independently in multiple regions of the Earth is perhaps even more unbelievable. Yet it's true. Humans developed agriculture in many regions, including China, the Fertile Crescent, and Mesoamerica. Agricultural development in these areas had many similarities and many differences.
The plants and animals in China, the Fertile Crescent, and Mesoamerica were all domesticated between 9000 BCE and 3000 BCE. The Fertile Crescent is considered the foundation of agriculture. Some of the earliest forms of domestication happened there. Wheat, for example, was first domesticated between 9000 BCE and 8000 BCE. Meanwhile, around the world, other important plants and animals were independently domesticated, like rice and chickens in China and corn in Mesoamerica
Another interesting characteristic shared by all three examples of agricultural domestication was the motivation behind doing so. In China, the Fertile Crescent, and Mesoamerica, people worked to domesticate plants and animals (in these instances, rice, chickens, wheat, and corn) in order to raise enough food for their growing populations. Through domestication and farming, people around the world
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Wheat was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent, and then this domesticated wheat spread to other areas. But historians think that chickens were likely domesticated in several places in Asia around the same period of time. They also think that rice may have been independently domesticated in multiple locations (Fuller, Qin, and Harvey). Mesoamerica is also unique because there were no large mammals for people to domesticate. In the Fertile Crescent, people domesticated cattle to help plow fields, but this was not possible in Mesoamerica. People there had to rely solely on human power to maintain their farms (Van der
The first similarity between the regions of America and Africa was the spread of new crops. In America, crops such as bananas and sugarcane had found their way to the region and became heavily cultivated. Evenmore so, livestock had spread like wildfire through the americas, particularly domesticated animals such as cows, sheep, and pigs, and this was due to the fact that the Americas were largely free of natural predators. Similarly, Africa had received crops such as corn and maize had reached the
Agriculture plays an enormous part in having a functioning society. The farming fields in the
Agriculture was very important for the Aztec empire to flourish. The Aztecs had a variety of methods of doing agriculture. One of the first methods of agriculture was known to be rainfall cultivation. Rainfall cultivation was a major factor to them in there early stage of the Empire. Rainfall helped the Aztecs to grow crops where ever they wanted and the quality of the dirt or terrain did not matter. Another method that led to the success of Aztec agriculture was the construction of canal systems. The canal systems and dams helped the Aztecs to harvest on regular basis. The canal systems helped them irrigate their large fields in the valley. The last method the Aztecs implemented was the chinampas. Chinampas were areas of the land raised and were made up of mud from the lake. The land had very rich soil that the Aztecs used to grow a lot of crops all throughout the year. The main crops the Aztecs grew were maize, fruits, beans, tomatoes, and avocados. Out of all the different cr...
In conclusion, corn has come a long way since its first domestication. It began as a prized possession to the Natives as they worshipped corn goddesses and had steady rituals allowing them to receive the corn and give thanks for the corn. The views for the United States seem to be produce as much as possible – and profit from it. China and Hungary aim to produce corn as well but limit themselves to unmodified corn. Although all the groups previously mentioned have/had their own way of viewing corn, one thing is for certain: corn is a popular plant and is presently essential to our lives.
...s. These lands were “usually in less desirable locations and discouraged any successful transition to agriculture”.24
In 1865 the frontier line generally followed the western limits of the states bordering the Mississippi River, bulging outward to include the eastern sections of Kansas and Nebraska. Beyond this thin edge of pioneer farms, lay the prairie and sagebrush lands that stretched to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Then, for nearly 1,600 kilometers, loomed the huge bulk of mountain ranges, many rich in silver, gold and other metals. On the far side, plains and deserts were part of this region; here laid the "Last Frontier"--- the "Great Plains". "For a long time, the region had been called the Great American Dessert, a barrier to cross on the way to the Pacific, unfit for human habitation and therefore, to white Americans, the perfect refuge for Indians." (Tindall 857) Apart from the settled districts in California and scattered outposts, the vast inland region was populated by Native Americans: among them the Great Plains tribes -- Sioux and Blackfoot, Pawnee and Cheyenne -- and the Indian cultures of the Southwest, including Apache, Navajo, and Hopi. Soon these Indians were pushed away from their "safe haven". "They lost an estimated 86 million acres of their 130 million acres."(Tindall 873) The reason to this is because the white man went westward to expand.
Agriculture—it’s something that not very many people know much about. However, it is important for us to survive. Almost everything in our everyday lives is agriculture-related, from the food you eat to the clothes you wear.
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...
People had to work for other farmers if they did not have farms of their own (Ganzel, 2003). They didn't have enough money for a farmland
Also the area in Mesopotamia didn’t get enough water supply to water their crops, so irrigation was needed from the river. Since there wasn’t much to farm, the early Mesopotamians took help of wooden plows that helped them soften the soil before they farmed living crops such as apples, onions, grapes, turnip, wheat and barley. Also most farmers in Mesopotamia had to make tools out of clay, stone and timber. Farmers also raised fruits and vegetable and barn yard animals. People on the Tigris and Euphrates learned how to raise plants and animal about 10,000 years ago.
The story of maize domestication is not only an interesting topic to us today, but an impressive realization on how hard it was for people living thousands of years ago to find food for themselves. The people living in modern day Mexico eight thousand, seven hundred years ago found a crop that was not much more than a stick with small pods that could be pried off for a small reward of nutrients. However, with that plant they created one of the most useful foods today because of thousands of years of artificial breeding and domestication. Maize is an extremely useful crop that is easy to grow, and gives giant harvests thanks to the experimentation and instinct of our ancestors, and the act of artificial selection over the passage of time.
Cipolla calls it the first great economic revolution (Cipolla 18). The development of agriculture leads 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.
Farming has been an occupation since 8,500 B.C. On that year in the Fertile Crescent farming first began when people grew plants instead of picking them in the wild. Then nearly 5,000 years later oxen, horses, pigs, and dogs were domesticated. During the middle ages, the nobles divide their land into three fields. The reasoning for this was to plant two and leave one to recover. This was the start of crop rotation which is a big part of farming today. Burning down forest and then moving to another area is a farming technique used by the Mayans called Slash and burn. Mayan farmers also were able to drain swampy areas to farm them buy building canals. In 1701 Jethro Tull invented the seed drill and a horse drawn how that tilled the land. In Denmark they would plant turnips in the previously unplanted field. The turnips help restore the nutrients in the ground thus crop rotation is born. In England people began moving there fields closer to each other for a more efficient way of planting. Later in the 18th century selective breeding was introduce which made bigger, stronger, and more milk producing livestock. In the mid 1800’s a steam plough was invented. By the 1950 tractors, milking machines, and combines were used by almost farmers. The latest f...
Agriculture has been around for about 11,000 years. Around 9.500 BC, the first signs of crops began to show up around the coastlines of the Mediterranean. Emmer and einkorn wheat were the first crops that started to show up in this area, with barley, peas, lentils, chick peas, and flax following shortly. For the most part, everyone was a nomad and just travelled along with where a herd went. This went on until around 7.000 BC, and then the first signs of sowing and harvesting appeared in Mesopotamia. In the first ...
The first people that started to depend on farming for food were in Israel and Jordan in about 80000 B.C.. Farming became popular because people no longer had to rely on just searching for food to get their food. In about 3000 B.C. Countries such as Egypt and Mesopotamia started to develop large scale irrigation systems and oxen drawn plows. In about 500 B.C. the Romans started to realize that the soil needed certain nutrients in order to bare plants. They also realized that if they left the soil for a year with no plants, these important nutrients would replenish. So they started to leave half of a field fallow (unplanted). They then discovered that they could use legumes, or pulses to restore these vital nutrients, such as nitrogen, to the soil and this started the process known as rotating crops. They would plant half the field one year with a legume...