Pros And Cons Of The Neolithic Revolution

The Neolithic Revolution is a very conserversial topic. Some people think its the worst descion humans ever made, but on the other hand some think it has many more pros than cons and in the end had a positive outcome. For example, Jared Dimond, the author of “The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race,” felt very strongly that the Neolithic Revolution was a very awful descion. Jared Dimond stated, “With agriculture came the gross social and sexual inequality, the disease and despotism, that curse our existence,”(paragraph 1). Overall, he believes that since agriculture forced many people to live an a area together for a long amount of time they were practically forced to make a government system which then led to all different types of inequality that we still face today. On the flip side, the author of, “Beginnings: The Foraging Era,”

thought that the Neolithic Revolution was a very good choice and had many positives outcomes. One of the positives was that there was much more resources available. For example on page 40 the author stated, “farming communities had much more resources available.” Also, throughout the article the author explained that having a government was a good desionon because it started justice and order. All in all, both authors have a different point of view on the Neolithic Revolution.

Although both authors make a worthy argument, the article promoting agriculture, “Beginnings: The Foraging Era,” makes a better overall argument and leads many people to believe agriculture was better than hunting and gathering.

For example, the author explained that crops provide reliable food supply which led to population growth. Due to population growth life became much more complex for the farmers. They had many more bodies around which inevitably led to societies beacomming more complex as well. This all led to esablishing governments and also leaders which today we know as king and queens. This was the begging of social justice and order. On the flip side, hunting and gathering did not have a government which means they ddi not have as much justice and order. Overall, from what the articles say hunter and gathering lived a survival method life. They hunted their food on a day to day basis and never new when their next meal would be, but farmers always had food ready to go due to the fact that they grew it months in advance. In a nutshell, “Beginings: The foraging Era,” makes an overall much more compelling

argument.

Once again many people have different point of views about the Neolithic Revolution. Some say creating government was bad and some say it was good. Some say domesticated animals was a bad choice and once again some people think it was good, but if you really look closely at the pros and cons of both arguments you will see that agriculture has many more pros. One of the major ones was establishing gorerment. Without a system of government how would have anything have gotten done? There would have been very little rules and practically no order or structure. Especially with the increases in population you need leaders to rule and keep everyone in order. Another key pro was that there was division of labor. This system separated everyone into different jobs accorfig to what they were most skilled in. Not only was this a big step of equality, but also was a huge part of how trade increased. For exsapmple, say your specialty was weaving baskets, you could then trade your baskets for tools, food or whatever resources you needed. In addition, agriculture also let people stay in the same area for much longer than hunter and gatherings were able to. Since they lived in the same place for a log time their lives were more complex and established. They had a better system, rules and overall way of living. Agriculture led to many things that we still use today such as government, specialized jobs and domestication of animals. In a nutshell, agriculture was a huge step in human history.