Writing Feedback / Farming start: 11,000y ago. Was the Neolithic Revolution a positive or negative impact on humanity? [2]

The agricultural, civilized society we live in today did not always exist. People only started farming about 11,000 years ago, in the event known as the Neolithic Revolution. During the Neolithic Revolution, which happened at different times across the globe, people abandoned their nomadic lifestyles of wandering and hunting animals for food while living in temporary hide shelters. Instead, they started planting crops and domesticating animals as food sources. This led to permanent settlement which eventually led to cities and civilizations. Overall, people were better off after the Neolithic Revolution than they were before it.

During the Paleolithic Age, people were nomadic hunter-gatherers. This meant that they would follow their prey in order to hunt and would also gather berries and other edible plants. Thus, they could not build any permanent settlements and so relied on temporary shelters such as tents (Document 3). When not hunting or gathering, both men and women would do entertain, visit other camps, or do chores. The rest of the time was spent on leisure (Document 5). After the Neolithic Revolution came the Neolithic Age. In the Neolithic Age, people planted crops and domesticated animals as food sources (Document 1). This meant that people could now live in houses in permanent settlements as they no longer had to follow or find new food sources. Both Paleolithic and Neolithic people utilized tools, which were suited to the lifestyles of each age's people.

After the Neolithic Revolution, people's lives were superior to those who lived before the Neolithic Revolution. Before the Neolithic Revolution, people's food source was not consistent as hunting could be unpredictable. Paleolithic men, who were responsible could spend more than a month not hunting (Document 5). After the Neolithic Revolution, people had a more or less reliable food source that can be harvested year after year. Prior to the Neolithic Revolution, everyone was involved in the production of food. Afterwards, some people were able to be not involved in food production at all. Instead, they made tools and other goods that farmers needed. This difference in the objects people had, which wasn't possible in hunting-gathering times, created trade, which created more specialization of labour, which in turn created more trade (Document 10). Other people not involved in the production of food worked beyond creating goods, instead they created knowledge in areas such as art, architecture, writing, and government, the foundations of civilization itself. Finally, with cities appearing after the Neolithic Revolution came a sense of stability in peoples' lives. Unlike living a nomadic life, people in cities lived in permanent houses and had a daily routine. Cities also had government that created laws regarding human interaction and had officials to enforce those laws, adding to the sense of stability and security (Document 11).

Before the Neolithic Revolution, people lived nomadic lifestyles and had no permanent settlements. Afterwards, people learned to farm and domesticate animals, allowing them to build permanent settlements and cities. With the Neolithic Revolution came reliable food sources, specialization of labour, and sense of order, security, and routineness. The Neolithic Revolution gave people a better quality of living than in the Paleolithic Age and enabled humanity to achieve great accomplishments in art, writing, culture, government, and science.