Earliest Domestication Earliest domesticated crop was squash o After that were maize potatoes and manioc Early Farming to the State Food production led to o Early farming communities In the Middle East Jericho Natufien culture In Mesoamerica Oaxaca Maintained that hunting and gathering lifestyle while become sedentary Things begin to get drier and they couldn t maintain the hunting gathering lifestyle so they began domesticating plants and animals Domestication of plants began first People were semi nomadic and would stay in seasonal camps o In those locations they domesticated plants o After time people became sedentary in those camps o Led to higher food yields o And larger populations No longer stayed in small nomadic groups o Greater management needs Political units 10 000 years ago cultural behaviors turned to domestication and sedentism Explaining Early Cultural Change Why did humans shift from foraging to sedentary and farming lifestyles Why did people make this change o Sedentism was attractive Plants and animals becomes available locally o Middle East had large area with Stable advantageous climate High diversity of species o Conclusion people would rather be sedentary than be nomadic This theory did NOT happen in the Americas Why would people want to change their lifestyles Where the textbook is potentially wrong after 100s of 1000 of years o Presence absence of domesticable animals and plants Animals plants in the Americas Speed of divergent trajectories o Geography and spread of food production East west vs north south EXCEPT North America is oriented East West America spread North South Mountains and climate barriers Mountains are not really a barrier to humans BUT Geography has some role He is probably correct with latitude It s easier to move things East West than it is to move things North South Domestication and Sedentism Disadvantages CHART in book o Benefits Discoveries and inventions More complex societies Urban life Trade and markets Intellectual development More reliable crop yields o Costs Harder work Greater stress More disease These things really didn t have a large impact about why people were making these changes Disadvantages to know o 1 Population change Large population increase More mouths to feed o 2 Shift in the diet Farmers rely on small number of food types It is harder to get same nutritional value with farming as with hunter gathering o 3 Insecure food supply Greater susceptibility to disasters Fire locus drought o 4 Increase in disease Greater concentrations of people lead to more disease o 5 Environmental degradation Agriculture changes the environment soil to make it more productive o 6 Increase in labor Longer work day for farmers More intensive and harder labor Advantages to know o 1 Farmers need less land than a hunter gatherer They need less territory They need less area to produce greater amounts of food than hunter gatherers do o 2 Farmers have a more predictable food source Hunter gatherers don t always know where their food is going to come from Farmers are in control of their food production o 3 Farming is less damaging to the body Less violent deaths not from disease They had great nutrition but they were constantly faced with predators Longer life spans from 25 26 to 80ish o 4 Sedentism means new opportunities for social complexity people networks More chances to socialize and interact with other People are constantly creating complex social Before sedentism people really only knew 20 30 people well now we know 100s Explaining Neolithic Changes Three important factors o 1 Environment Reacting to environmental change The end of the last Ice Age Great variety of choices of plants and animals Humans begin exploiting that change o 2 Population pressure Supporting larger numbers People start having more babies Which led to more mouths and more food o 3 Human sociability Greater social organization We seems to need and crave greater social Domestication and sedentism allowed for that to networks occur Cultural Origins How did things change o Third Rise of sedentism and domestication Old world Natufians Sedentism first New world Archaic cultures Domestication first o Fourth Rise of Civilization and Agriculture Agriculture mass production of food Allowing for other parts of society to not have to be involved in food production Rise of Civilization Social and Cultural Change The origins of civilization 1 Shifting from Egalitarian mostly equals o No large social differences o To Ranked Societies Inherited social differences Chiefdoms Single leader a chief Inherited position You are born into a chief family 7000 years ago Middle East First evidence of ranked societies 4000 years ago Mesoamerica o Seven locations Rise of Civilization Middle East 7000 years ago Nile Valley 5000 6000 years ago Indus Valley from the Middle East China 4000 years ago Peru Andean Mountains 3500 years ago Mesoamerica 4500 5000 years ago Reaction of domestication of plants coming 3200 years ago South Eastern United States 3000 years ago 2 Shifting from Ranked Societies o Inherited social differences o To State Societies Complex social and political organization Government and Social divisions Dates 5500 years ago Middle East 2500 years ago Mesoamerica Golf of Mexico Development of Social classes Social differences based on economics and power Social Stratification Unequal access to power wealth and or prestige People are born into their social class Social pyramid Specialists Making a living doing something other than producing food Middle Class Many be apart of the government o Or artisans Archeological Markers for Social Complexity Monumental Architecture o Architectural constructions of a great than human scale o About community o Shared and built by the community A lot of people are involved in the construction Artifacts o Sets of artifacts indicating particular social activities o Find things that represent wealth and are associated with certain individuals the people at the top of the social pyramid o Also find things that were used as everyday items These items represent what people did their Burials tools o Features associated with the internment of bodies o People get buried with the things they own Settlement Patterns o The distribution of sites and people across the landscape o Tells a lot about the community and society o How people changed their landscape Terracing Attributes of Early States 1 Regional Territory o Associated with a particular