Evolution of Agriculture

Theories on the evolution of agriculture are numerous and contradictory. These theories fall into two main categories. The materialist theories have Marxist economic theory as the reason for agricultural development, and the environmentalist theories assume a change in the environment caused the beginnings of agriculture. Both of these groups of theorists agree on the probable time frame for the beginnings of agricultural evolution as the ending of the pleistocene era. Different theories place the area of the genesis of agriculture at various sites around the world. Most theories have agriculture's origins at more than one site. This paper will present some of the theories and hypotheses about the origins of agriculture. The debate is continuing as more archeological and biological data is accumulated. There is no consensus in the field of archeology at this time to define the origins of agriculture. Different archeological sites with evidence of early agriculture support assorted hypotheses.

The modern debate on the origins of agriculture began between two theorists: Sir V. Gordon Childe, a British anthropologist, and Ivan Vavilov, a Soviet botanist. These two theorists were both Marxists but came to dissimilar conclusions about the start of agriculture's evolution. They both believed the Marxist doctrine that cultures changed because of economic revolutions which brought about changes in the means and modes of production. The causes of the economic revolutio

Related Essays

Theories on the Evolution of Agriculture Theories on the evolution of agriculture are numerous and contradictory. These theories fall into two main categories. The materialist .... (2320 9 )

Environmental Anthropology .... In addition to the above example of the evolution of agriculture as a direct result of the environmental pressure of increasing human population density .... (4210 17 )

Leaf-cutting ants .... Nature, 398, pp. 701-704. Mueller, UG, Rehner, SA, & Schultz, TR (1998). The evolution of agriculture in ants. Science, 281, pp. 2034-2038. (2871 11 )

Evolution of the Theory of Value .... Theory of Value The Physiocrats, who preceded Smith in the evolution of economic .... 3. Capital moves out of agriculture into manufacturing, following a fall in .... (3350 13 )

EVOLUTION OF THE THEORY OF VALUE .... Theory of Value The Physiocrats, who preceded Smith in the evolution of economic .... 3. Capital moves out of agriculture into manufacturing, following a fall in .... (3350 13 )

n these types of areas. Wild game and wild plants were gathered for a major portion of the people's diet. In areas of marginal productivity, a more secure subsistence strategy dictated the need for domestic production of resources. The domestication of plants and animals provided for a more certain existence. In addition, food resources which were domesticated were easier to store and stockpile against times of scarce production. The flexibility of each area to take advantage of the wild and domestic resources available meant that, in the fertile areas with good rainfall and cultivatable soil, agriculture was practiced as a more secure means of production than the previously practiced hunter-gatherer strategies. In these areas, a more developed, economically interdependent, denser population is found. As a population becomes more settled and begins to cultivate an area for subsistence agriculture, the environment will slowly become degraded. This process is not immediate. Evidence suggests that, even in fragile marginal areas, people continue to use a variety of food production techniques after farming and herding have been initiated. A gradual decline in the level of wild food produced and an increase in the popul

Category: Science - E