2 ms·
Agriculture enabled the centralization of human populations, allowing for specializations and advances in crafting more durable goods (clothing, weapons, metal
by pm90 5y ago
Agriculture enabled the centralization of human populations, allowing for specializations and advances in crafting more durable goods (clothing, weapons, metal working etc.) which could then be traded, increasing the wealth of your settlement. Obviously you need to grow food to feed your populace before you can expand... and agriculture was the best way to do that.
It would be interesting to know though, if trade networks enabled the easy transfer of know-how and technology, so a settlement might make use of that to increase their productivity and such.
- AlotOfReading 5y agoMany modern archaeologists don't draw a direct line between agriculture and sedentarism. It's mainly a feature studies in the middle east, and in particular southern mesopotamian societies. Excavations in these areas were influential in early narratives about the neolithic, but the idea that it's the only way urbanism occurs has become pretty archaic as our understanding of the rest of the world improves. For example, we now know that all the innovations you mention predate urban settlements. Beyond that, the "why" of early urbanism is still fundamentally unclear. Some people, myself included, argue that there's no singular concrete reason that's universally applicable. Others take that a bit farther (e.g. Michael E. Smith) and argue that we need to invoke high level concepts of feedback loops and scaling laws to explain them. Regardless, there isn't a settled explanation in the literature.