ts became more arid. The regions surrounding the oases became havens for plant and animal life. Humans took advantage of the concentrated life, and, through experimentation with native plants, agriculture was begun.
Concurrent with this spontaneous experimentation with plants was the Neolithic Revolution. This Neolithic Revolution occurred when people began to congregate to form villages and hamlets. The population increased because the food supply increased. The food supply grew in response to the use of stone tools and the beginnings of agriculture. The cultivation of plants meant a more constant supply of food. The increase in food supply and stability of food sources enabled the population of the village to grow. Both the increase in population and the need for permanent food processing and storage facilities encouraged the population to settle in a particular region. The increased size and stability of the village forced new political and social organizational structures on the village, which further encouraged permanence. For all of these reasons, the development of agriculture was fostered. Childe's fundamental contribution to archeology was the hypothesis that agriculture was a new system through which people could relate to their immediate environment.
The second major school of thought on the beginnings of agriculture, begun by Ivan Vavilov, is known as materialism. The materialists viewed population growth and the need for a new system of food production as causes: the population was growing; therefore the people needed a new form of food production to maintain the new population level. The root causes of the introduction of a new food production system were not important to this group of theorists. They were more concerned with finding the dates when plant domestication began and the place where agricultural methods were first employed.
Vavilov and his followers listed eight great hearths of...