Standing with Stones

ORIGINAL ARTICLE AT SOCYBERTY.COM

The Neolithic Revolution represents the greatest turning point in the history of civilisation, and shaped the future of mankind. In this article we’ll take a look at how and why it happened.
(This article stands as an introduction to a series the author is writing called Lost Civilisations).

The Neolithic Revolution was the first and most important in a series of agricultural revolutions, shaping the future of all modern civilisation by bringing groups of people together to live in large communities, sharing tasks and labour, and producing enough food-stock for all, year-round. It also led to the beginnings of technology, art, culture, trade, and government. In short, it marked our emergence as the most advanced species on earth. But, how and why did it happen?

Until around 10,000BC – 9,00BC, most human societies consisted of small, nomadic communities of hunter-gatherers, usually totalling around 20 to 30 related individuals. However, some settlements were established in the Middle East as long as 20,000 years ago, but it would be thousands of years before the idea would spread from isolated centres to encompass entire regions. The first of these are believed to have been Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Southern China, and Central America.

It’s been assumed the main reasons for the emergence of permanent settlements were: the dramatic change in climate the earth experienced at the end of the preceding Ice Age, increasing human migration, and a change in food availability (the latter two probably being the result of the fore-mentioned climate change). However, this is an area of debate, with some arguing that settlement initially occurred prior to the beginnings of agriculture, with farming being a logical next-stage in the process. This has led to other suggestions as to the reason for early settlement, such as a revolutionary change in human psychology, resulting in mother-Goddess worshiping societies – famous for the creation of the large-breasted, pot-bellied mother-Goddess statues found in various locations around the world.

“Jack Harlan, examining the causes for the Neolithic Revolution, suggests 6 principal reasons which can be summarized to 3 principal categories:

1. Domestication for religious reasons
2. Domestication by crowding and as a consequence of stress
3. Domestication resulting from discovery, based upon the perceptions of food gatherers”

Whatever the cause, as societies developed and became sedentary, as apposed to nomadic, the level of disease and sickness increased, and the mortality rate also grew. This was probably the result of poor personal hygiene and inadequate sanitation, as well as the domestication of animals that took place during this period – animals which would have carried various illnesses and infections. This period would have been the first time humans had lived in such close proximity to other families to whom they were unrelated, so it’s natural to suppose a period of time would be needed to enable people to build immunity to any new germs present in their environment.

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