Patterns of Subsistence
Part III
Neolithic

The New Stone Age; prehistoric period
beginning about 10,000 years ago in
which peoples possessed stone-based
technologies and depended on
domesticated plants and/or animals.
Neolithic Transition

Sometimes referred to as Neolithic
revolution.

The profound culture change beginning
about 10,000 years ago and associated
with the early domestication of plants and
animals, and settlement in permanent
villages.
Transition to Food Production

Began about 11,000 to 9,000 years ago

Probably the result of increased
management of wild food resources.

Resulted in the development of permanent
settlements as people practiced
horticulture using simple hand tools.
Domesticates in the Archaeological
Record
Horticulture

Cultivation of crops carried out with simple
hand tools such as digging sticks or hoes.

Slash-and-burn cultivation
– Also known as swidden farming.
– An extensive form of horticulture in which the
natural vegetation is cut, the slash is
subsequently burned, and crops are then
planted among the ashes.
Slash-and-Burn Cultivation


Reburning an old,
overgrown slash-andburn plot in the Amazon
forest in Venezuela in
preparation for new
planting.
Although it looks
destructive, if properly
carried out, slash-andburn cultivation is an
ecologically sound way of
growing crops in the
tropics.
Agriculture

The cultivation of food plants in soil
prepared and maintained for crop
production.

Involves using technologies other than
hand tools, such as irrigation, fertilizers,
and the wooden or metal plow pulled by
harnessed draft animals.
Characteristics of Agricultural
Societies
One of the most significant correlates of plant
cultivation was the development of fixed
settlements, in which farming families reside
together near their cultivated fields.
 At first, social relations were egalitarian and
hardly different from those that prevailed among
food foragers.
 As settlements grew and large numbers of
people had to share important resources such as
land and water, society became more elaborately
organized.

Pastoralism

Subsistence that relies on raising herds of
domesticated animals, such as cattle,
sheep, and goats.

Pastoralists are usually nomadic.
Pastoral Nomads

In the Zagros
Mountains region of
Iran, pastoral nomads
follow seasonal
pastures, migrating
with their flocks over
rugged terrain that
includes perilously
steep snowy passes
and fast ice-cold
rivers.
Locations of Major Early
Civilizations


Civilizations of Central and South America developed
independently of those in Africa and Eurasia.
Chinese civilization may have developed independently
of those in Mesopotamia, the Egyptian Valley, and the
Indus Valley.
Peasant

A rural cultivator whose surpluses are
transferred to a dominant group of rulers
that uses the surpluses both to underwrite
its own standard of living and to distribute
the remainder to groups in society that do
not farm but must be fed for their specific
goods and services in turn.
Development of Cities

Cities developed as intensified agricultural
techniques created a surplus.

Individuals were free to specialize full-time
in other activities.