Chapter 4 Chapter 3 Humans - Food Producers
Paleolithic people became human because they learned to speak, make tools and use fire.These feats make them far superior to the other animals around them; but they are still very close to them in this fundamental respect which will be described below.They still live by catching small animals, like wild animals that hunt other animals; they still live by gathering food, like countless creatures that depend entirely on the handouts of nature.Since they are dependent on nature, they are not dominated by nature.In order to hunt animals, find wild fruit land or fishing and hunting grounds, they have to live a mobile life; because the food that can be supplied in one place is limited, they have to move in small groups.It has been estimated that only one or two food-gatherers can be supported per square mile even in fertile regions with warm winters; A food gatherer needs to have a territory of 20 to 30 square miles.
As stated in the previous chapter, human attachment to nature has left its mark on every aspect of human society.However, when humans made the epoch-making new discovery that they could support themselves not only by collecting food, but also by cultivating plants, this dependence was greatly weakened.As a result, a brand new world unfolded in front of human beings, greatly broadening the horizons of human beings; from then on, human beings bid farewell to the Paleolithic Age and entered the Neolithic Age.
Neolithic humans differed from their Paleolithic predecessors in two ways.People in the Neolithic Age no longer used the beating method, but the grinding method to make stone tools; most or all of their food sources were cultivated plants and animals, rather than hunting or gathering.Of these two changes, the latter is much more important.It is not intentional to belittle the importance of Neolithic tools, which are sharper and more durable than Paleolithic tools; important inventions such as the plow and the wheel at the end of the Neolithic Age are due to various cutters made of ground stones processing, it is extremely convenient to use.However, compared with the transformation of human beings from food gatherers to food producers, the skill of grinding the hammered stone ax so that the body is smooth and bright, and the blade is sharp, has to be relegated to an insignificant position.
This shift did not come from a sudden inspiration, from some prehistoric Archimedes who figured out what agriculture was and shouted "I've found it" and it came.Indeed, methods of making plants grow were generally known long before the Agricultural Revolution, just as the earth was known to be round long before Columbus sailed.It has been verified that modern Yuanjie people know nothing about agriculture, but they are very familiar with the characteristics and growth conditions of local plants.They know that: a seed sprouts, a plant grows, and when water and sunlight are given, the plant flourishes; that a plant grows well in one kind of soil, but not in another.The acquisition of this kind of knowledge is inevitable and natural for modern primitive people.Quite simply, because their survival depends on actual knowledge of the flora and fauna around them.We have no reason to doubt, but there is plenty of evidence to believe that prehistoric humans acquired knowledge of plants and animals in an environment similar to that of modern hominids.
If the basic principles of plant growth were known thousands of years before the agricultural revolution, why did they delay putting them into practice so long?One reason is that there is a lack of incentive to do so.Contrary to what we usually assume, primitive people who lived by catching small animals did not normally live a life of starvation.They never increase their population beyond what their food sources will allow.Instead, they resort to abortion, cessation of breastfeeding, and the killing of newborn babies to keep their own population numbers low for the months of the year when food sources are scarce.Thus, hunter-gatherer societies could comfortably live in a state of balance between supply and demand for thousands of years without developing a drive for radical change.Under normal circumstances, primitive man not only has plenty of food, but also a lot of free time.As long as enough animals were hunted and enough plant fruits were collected, they would not have any motivation for further work.An authoritative person said, "A large amount of data shows that hunter-gatherers not only have sufficient food, but also enjoy a lot of free time, and in fact, enjoy more than modern industrial workers, agricultural workers, and even professors of archeology." Much more".Under such circumstances, the question that arises is naturally no longer why humans have lived a life of fishing, hunting and gathering for a long time, but why they no longer live this kind of life.
Another reason humans have delayed the switch to agriculture for so long is that there are fewer plants that can be cultivated and fewer animals that can be domesticated.Throughout history, humans have been able to domesticate only a few hundred species of plants, and only a few dozen species of animals, that happen to have certain essential properties.For a plant to be cultivated must have the potential to be highly productive, preferably adaptable to a wide variety of environments; without these qualities, it will be cultivated with little success.Prehistoric Indians in the United States today cultivated amaranthus, swamp elderberry, lamb shank, and sunflower, but the yields of these plants were very low and did not have a significant impact on the Indian way of life.Similarly, animals suitable for domestication must be able to lose their instinct to run away when they see people, be able to reproduce under human feeding, and be willing to eat the food provided by humans.The peoples of Europe, Asia, and Africa were very lucky to find various animals that could provide meat, milk, wool, and be used as pack animals.The American Indians did not acquire similar animals, so their development was greatly hindered, and they had to compete with semi-domesticated animals such as llamas, alpacas, and llamas, which are native to the Andes and belong to the artiodactyla Camelidae. deal with.
by the above.Thus it is inconceivable that agriculture should take place without some change which disturbs the balance which allows hunter-gather societies to exist in comfort and comfort; The region where the plant is cultivated.That's exactly what happened.As noted in the previous chapter, the end of the Pleistocene was a period of dramatic climate change that disrupted the long-standing balance between humans and nature.Humans, then, adapt to the situation.Use what you have learned about plant growth to produce food.
Humans have a long history of extensively experimenting with the domestication of various animals and plants in various regions of the world.At this time, in a few areas with superior natural conditions, the production of domesticated animals and plants has been increased, and their proportion in food sources has been greatly increased, so that the life of primitive communes mainly centered on cultivated plants and animal husbandry. .This is what is meant by the term Agricultural Revolution as opposed to pure domestication.It was from these few centers of the agricultural revolution that food production spread as a new way of life to much of the globe.
We already know with certainty that the Middle East and Central America were independent centers of the Agricultural Revolution; recent research suggests that northern China was also such a center.Although there is no definitive evidence, we speculate that there may have been other such centers of agriculture in Southeast Asia, West Africa, and the Andes.As far as the Middle East and Central America are concerned, both regions have certain unique features that seem to account for their pioneering role in the agricultural revolution.This is why they both have a large and varied variety of flora and fauna.
Modern wheat, oats, and rye, as well as modern goats, sheep, cattle, and pigs, all originated in the Middle East.Similarly, the two small republics of Costa Rica and El Salvador in Central America, although their area is only 1% of the United States, can be rich in plant varieties as much as those produced in the United States and Canada.The reason for the great variety of species in Mesoamerica is that in a very small area, the distribution of altitude, temperature and rainfall is very different and extremely diverse, resulting in a wide variety of plant growth environments.Therefore, in Central America, dozens of varieties of plants can be successfully cultivated, the most important of which are corn, amaranth, broad beans and pumpkins.
It took many centuries for various plants to adapt to various environments from their original origins, and then to form a variety of plant varieties in a certain area.The advanced agriculture formed in this way has the great advantage of high productivity and "guaranteed human survival".In such an area, if a crop cannot survive due to climate reasons, other crops that have different requirements on climate and geography can grow, so that dense populations have a reliable source of food and human civilization becomes possible.
One point should be emphasized: the transition from the earliest plant cultivation to the agricultural revolution is a gradual and long process, which is called the "primitive agriculture" stage.In the Middle East, this period lasted from about 9500 BC to 7500 BC.In the American continent, this phase appears to be longer.The Tehuacan Valley in Mexico was one of the first centers of plant cultivation in the American continent, where primitive agriculture began around 7000 BC.It is estimated that after 2000, the local Indians obtained only 10% of their food source from plant cultivation mainly based on corn; by 3000 BC, it only accounted for one third of the food source.It wasn't until around 1500 BC that the yield of corn was greatly increased due to the hybridization of corn and other plants, and it became the main part of the local people's food source, thus completing the transition from primitive agriculture to single farming.
From these two well-established agricultural origins—perhaps there were others, though it is not yet certain—the new way of life gradually spread throughout the globe.Two features of primitive agriculture facilitated this process of diffusion.One characteristic is that in the primitive agricultural stage, the cultivation of plants was intermittent, and places were often changed.After a piece of land has been reclaimed and planted for several years, it has to be abandoned and let it be in a state of natural growth for eight years, ten years, or even a longer period of time to restore the fertility of the soil.The extensive nature of agriculture makes the relationship between the abandoned land and the land being planted always be 5-10:1 at any time.This, together with the constant increase of population, created the necessity of constantly entering new regions to increase the area under cultivation.So, overpopulation is a closely related factor of expansion.Agriculture with a greater variety of plants expanded and made food sources more reliable, and populations increased accordingly.When population growth exceeds the limits of what the level of agricultural productivity can support, a natural solution is to emigrate elsewhere.Thus, there was a continuum of development "out of" the original agricultural settlements and into less populated areas populated by food gatherers.It was in this way that agriculture spread from its origins in all directions.
This doesn't mean that farming has finally spread across the globe.Where agriculture arose earlier, where it came later, and where there was no agriculture at all was determined entirely by an enormous variety of local environments.In the deserts of Asia and Africa and in the arctic regions, agriculture was simply not possible for obvious reasons.In Africa, parts of North and South America, and all of Australia, agriculture is also lacking because of the ignorance and unfavorable natural environment caused by isolation.In other areas, such as central and western Europe, the emergence of agriculture was delayed much later because dense forests were an almost insurmountable obstacle before the Iron Age and without cheap and effective tools.When the stone ax was replaced by the iron ax, the territory of plant cultivation was greatly expanded, not only from the Mediterranean coastal areas to the interior of Europe, but also from the Indus Valley to.The Ganges River Basin extends from the Yellow River Basin to the Yangtze River Basin, from the African savannah to the tropical rainforest.Finally, another reason why agriculture has been so long delayed in some regions is that the flora and fauna there are so rich that they have provided man with more food than primitive agriculture could have provided.For example: In the American Southwest, only the selective cultivation of the corn, beans, and melons that abound in Mesoamerica over a considerable period of time has made it possible to make their yields equal to all the acorns and small animals in abundance there. .This explains why Indians in the American Southwest continued to live as food gatherers for so long despite living near early centers of agriculture.
The details of the spread of agriculture among the regions are not well understood.Only the spread from the Middle East to Europe is best known.This spread took place along several routes.One route faces north, through Turkey to the Ukrainian plains, and from there across Eastern Europe to the Baltic Sea and Scandinavia.The other route went west, across the Strait of Gibraltar to the Balkans, then along the Danube River into Central Europe, and finally to the Atlantic Ocean.A third route also went west, across the Aegean islands to Greece, from Greece to Italy, southern France, Spain, and along the Atlantic coast to the British Isles.also.From the Middle East to the east, across the Iranian Plateau to the Indus River Basin; from the Middle East to the northeast, along the coast of the Caspian Sea and into the Central Asian Plain; these two transmission routes are also unanimously recognized by everyone.
Except for these routes, due to the lack of evidence provided by archaeological excavations, the situation in other aspects can only be speculated.Wheat and barley in China were introduced from the Middle East around 1300 BC.But recent research suggests that native Chinese plants were domesticated long before then and have been cultivated for 3,000 years.It is entirely possible to prove that China is one of the earliest independent agricultural birthplaces, because the loess plain in northern China is semi-dry and sparsely covered with a layer of grass. Even if there are only wooden sticks used for excavation in ancient times, Plant cultivation is also possible.Therefore, native plants in China such as millet, sorghum, rice, soybean, hemp and mulberry have been cultivated as dryland crops as early as 5000 BC.This also explains why wheat and barley, which appeared last, were also cultivated as dryland crops in China, instead of being planted in paddy fields as they were in the Middle East, where they originated.
What happened to African agriculture is still not very clear.Some maintain that agriculture in Africa developed independently around 5000 B.C. near the upper Niger River in West Africa.Some people agree with this view, but think that the date should be pushed back greatly, around 1500 BC.However, most people believe that African agriculture was introduced from the Middle East to the Nile River Valley around 4000 BC, spread to the black people in Sudan around 3000 BC, and then spread to the steppes south of the Sahara Desert.The spread to the steppes was particularly evident when Berbers and Arabs drove blacks south and west.
Egg facsimile of an Egyptian fresco from the tomb of Menena (painted about 1415 AD): The crops of the owner of two lands.
For many centuries, agriculture was confined to the vast savannahs and could not travel south through tropical rainforest areas.This is partly because millet and sorghum, which are commonly grown in savannahs, do not grow well in rainforest areas.At the beginning of AD these obstacles were overcome by two major developments, the appearance of ironware and the species Musa and Asiatic yam on the African continent.The former came to Africa from its native Middle East; the latter apparently came from Southeast Asia.Both plants also thrived in rainforest areas, so their introduction, along with iron, was responsible for the rapid spread of agriculture to the southern part of the continent.
The development of agriculture on the American continent is made clearer by recent findings by American archaeologists.Around 7000 BC, the cultivation of maize began in the depressions in the semi-desert of the central plateau of Mexico.In the following thousands of years, two new varieties of maize were obtained through hybridization; one variety adapted to the semi-arid Mexican plateau, and the other adapted to the humid tropical coastal zone.At the same time, other plants such as two different varieties of squash, gourds, broadleaf beans, red peppers, amaranth and avocado were also cultivated.From its central origins in Mesoamerica, agriculture spread south and north.Maize was introduced to southwestern America around 3000 BC, but the introduction of maize did not have much impact before 750 AD, because corn was still in a primitive state at that time, and food gathering had better economic effect.Similarly, the Indians in eastern North America did not make agriculture their main source of livelihood until about 800 A.D., because they successfully cultivated several new varieties of corn, broad beans and pumpkins, and carried out large-scale planting on this basis. .Agriculture started in Mesoamerica and spread south to Peru around 750 BC.However, there are also varieties of maize and beans not of Mesoamerican origin in Peru, which have been descended from very ancient times; this shows that the inhabitants of the Andes may have cultivated the original plants as early as the inhabitants of the Mexican plateau. up.
Agriculture can only spread widely around the world if it can be adapted to various environments.This impels people to cultivate various plants that can adapt to various environments.At first, wheat and barley were the most common crops in the Middle East, but as farmers moved north, they found that they did not grow as well as rye.Rye was originally a weed that was inadvertently mixed with wheat and barley when sown.Thus, in Central Europe, rye began to replace wheat and barley.As the farmers moved further north, something similar happened again; oats did better than rye, and oats began to become the staple crop.
Likewise, the spread of agriculture to sub-Saharan Africa led to the cultivation of locally grown millet and rice, and to the Mediterranean coast led to the cultivation of the olive tree, which became the most important source of cooking oil one.Agriculture in the Iranian plateau and northwestern India was essentially a Middle Eastern type of agriculture.There is, however, a dividing line running from south to north through central India, which is the transition zone between two quite different climatic zones, and in this transition zone, correspondingly different kinds of plants are distributed.This place happens to belong to the monsoon world, with heavy monsoon rainfall, long-term high temperature, and dense forests.Seed plants in the Middle East, which require full sun, do not thrive here and are replaced by yams, taro, bananas, and rice, the most important of which.Finally, the main product throughout North and South America is maize; however, there are also fava beans and squash in North America, and in South America the sweet cassava and potato, both of the "Irish" variety.
Generally speaking, the final result of the agricultural spread described above was the formation of three major cereal plant areas: the rice area of East and Southeast Asia; the maize area of the Americas; Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia and from Central Asia to the Indus and Yellow River basins wheat fields in this area.In the thousands of years from the agricultural revolution to the industrial revolution, these three major cereal plant regions have played a very important role in human history, just like coal, iron, and copper after the industrial revolution.
The spread of agriculture includes not only a variety of crops, but also a corresponding variety of cultivation techniques and the resulting variety of ways of life.The 14th generation of Neolithic agriculture that started in the Middle East was a kind of animal husbandry (cattle, sheep, goats and pigs) and grain cultivation.Mixed farming combining wheat and barley).With the spread of animal and plant domestication techniques, various technologies adapted to the new environment have been developed; the most important of these are "slash-and-burn" agriculture, which is suitable for forest areas, and the nomadic life of pastoralists, which is suitable for semi-arid areas. prairie.
Originally, not only agriculture in the tropical forest zone was carried out by slash-and-burn farming, but also agriculture in the temperate zone.But now, this approach is mainly limited to the former.200 million people are still farming some 14 million square kilometers of land using this time-tested technology.The basic characteristics of this kind of agriculture are: first plant one or two seasons of crops on the land, and then let the land fallow for a long period of time to restore soil fertility;A piece of land is primarily grown with one crop, such as rice or maize; however, it is common practice to intersperse other crops, such as legumes, melons and tubers, with the main crop.Therefore, a piece of land can produce one or several kinds of food throughout the year.This is a kind of intensive farming, so the productivity is correspondingly high.In many places two or three acres of land are tilled to produce enough grain to feed a large family for a year.The main disadvantage of this type of agriculture is the need for large areas of arable land, since at any one time the commune must have a large amount of land lying fallow, far in excess of the land being cultivated.This in turn means that the population density of these places must be low, usually no more than ten people per square mile, so people are always scattered in farmhouses or small villages, which usually have a population of 100 to 50 people.
The nomadic life of the shepherd is the opposite of the agriculture in the forest zone, and is adapted to the vast steppe.Today, nomadic life not only dominates the grasslands south of the Sahara in Africa, but also prevails in many other vast grasslands and deserts from the Sahara to northeastern China.There was not enough water in these areas to support rain-fed or human-irrigated agriculture, so people there could not grow plants and had to rely on domesticated animals as their main source of livelihood.The rise of animal husbandry was relatively late, and it gradually developed when horses and camels were domesticated and the transportation problems in the open fields were solved.From 1500 to 1000 BC was the stage of the rise of animal husbandry, and at this stage, various forms developed.In some areas, herders live on only one animal, such as camels in the Arabian Peninsula, and cattle in southwestern Africa; in some areas, they live on a variety of animals, such as animals raised in Central Asia There are horses, cows, camels, sheep and goats, as these animals are well adapted to the local climatic conditions and pastures.No matter what form it takes, a nomadic life requires a large area of pasture, so today, the number of nomadic groups rarely exceeds 200 people, and is often less than 100 people; therefore, the population density is generally one to five people per square kilometer.
The changes that occurred in the adaptation of agriculture and animal husbandry to the local environment in the process of spreading have profound significance for later history.Regardless of slash-and-burn agriculture or nomadic animal husbandry, in terms of unit land area, its productivity is far inferior to the permanent irrigated agriculture that was later developed in the Euphrates and Tigris, Nile, Indus and Yellow River basins.The reason why great civilizations can arise, and why they can dominate the world until today, is because these great river basins and other areas with better natural conditions provided the necessary material and human resources.These fertile centers of civilization were irresistible magnets for the poorer nomadic tribes of the central Eurasian steppes.Thus far, the history of Eurasia has largely been the history of the relationship between the nomadic tribes of the Eurasian interior and the surrounding civilizations of the major river basins.Before turning to later chapters to discuss this period of history, let us examine the various effects of the Agricultural Revolution on various aspects of human life.
The most visible effect of the Agricultural Revolution was the new way of life of settlement.Humans are now able to settle.In fact, in order to care for newly domesticated plants and animals, it is necessary to do otherwise.Therefore, the Neolithic village replaced the Paleolithic wandering group and became the most basic economic and cultural unit of human beings.In fact, it formed the basis of a form of life that dominated until the end of the eighteenth century.This form of life still exists in many economically underdeveloped areas of the world even today.
It is often easy to romanticize Neolithic village life.Obviously, doing so would go astray.In order to produce food and some handicrafts, everyone, including men, women, and children, must work, and must work hard.Productivity was low because knowledge of soil, seeds, fertilizers, and crop rotation was acquired slowly and laboriously.Although people have worked hard, the weather is not fair. Sometimes it rains for a long time, sometimes it doesn't rain, and sometimes the plague is rampant, so famine is a frequent visitor.Sedentary life made the disposal of excrement and garbage a difficult problem, and infectious diseases often hit those villages again and again.Although dogs like to eat feces and play a role in cleaning the environment, people run away from their residences to relieve themselves out of traditional shyness, but these are not enough to prevent various diseases caused by germs entering through the mouth.Owing to inadequate food sources, the usual diet is very incomplete, and malnutrition is the most common occurrence.Under these circumstances, it may be estimated that human life was then very short; but a high birth rate tended to increase the population of the villages everywhere, so that the balance between the supply and demand of food was always achieved by famine, epidemics, or emigration. recover.
But Neolithic village life was not all shadowy, full of misery and misery.This is an era of rapid technological progress, much faster than the Paleolithic period of the first two or three million years.The fundamental reason is not so much that Neolithic people had more leisure time than Paleolithic people-a common assumption that is now very doubtful, but that the sedentary way of life enabled people to have more leisure time. Rich living materials.A hunter who lives a wandering life.Their standard of living was severely limited by what they could carry with them; Neolithic villagers could enjoy a solid house, its furniture, utensils, tools, and decorations of all kinds.In such an environment, Neolithic villagers learned to make pottery from raw clay.At first, nature just imitated the baskets, gourds and other containers before the agricultural era. Gradually, they mastered the characteristics of pottery materials and the technology of making pottery, and were able to make vessels that were completely different from the containers of the past.By the end of the Neolithic period, the inhabitants of the Near East were building kilns or furnaces.Kilns and furnaces fire hotter fires, which allow them to be used for glazing pottery.The glazed surface seals the pottery, preventing liquids from seeping or evaporating.In this way, farmers had a variety of vessels that could be used not only to store grain, but also to cook food and store liquids such as oil and beer.
Similar advances have been made in textiles.People in the Late Paleolithic Age may have been able to twist and spin wool from sheep, goats, dogs or other animals in the wild mountains into thick threads, and then weave the thick threads into belts, headbands and even coarse blankets.In fact, they may have been able to make rough models of vessels out of clay.However, it was only in the Neolithic Age that humans were able to develop textile technology as they developed pottery technology.People in the Neolithic Age used newly cultivated plant fibers such as flax, cotton, and hemp to weave on gradually developed spindles and looms.Neolithic people also learned to build relatively strong and spacious houses.The materials used to build houses vary from place to place.The Iroquois of upstate New York lived in large houses that could accommodate dozens of families, known as "longhouse people," built of bark and wood.In the Middle East, the walls of dwellings are made of adobe; while in Europe the most common building material is split saplings, thickly covered with clay and livestock dung; roofs may generally be thatched of.Inside these dwellings were fixed beds; the beds might also be covered with a cloth coverlet.There are also modern style dressers with at least two shelves and various closets or storage areas.There is usually a fire in the center of the room for lighting and heating.The house has no chimney, just a hole in the roof or a slit under the eaves to allow the smoke to escape.
Sedentary life also made it possible for tribal political organizations to replace the separate groups of nomadic peoples.A tribe consists of the inhabitants of several villages in an area. Each tribe has a unique language and customs that distinguish them from each other.Some tribes, generally those in a primitive economic state, are so underdeveloped and wholly amorphous that they are almost at the level of hunting groups.Other tribes already had powerful leaders, primitive nobles and commoners.But the line between them is blurred.The class exclusivity characteristic of later civilizations was not at all there.
Remains of a Neolithic temple discovered in Malta.
Usually, the basic social unit that constitutes a Neolithic village is a large family consisting of several couples and their children.This kind of extended family is better suited to deal with the various problems encountered in the process of making ends meet, so it is more common than independent monogamous families.This kind of extended family also adopted outside wanderers; it can function more effectively when encountering "busy" and requiring many hands to clear forests, harvest crops or herd livestock.This kind of extended family can also effectively use a large area of land, often leaving some members at home to do housework and take care of nearby fields, and send other members to manage distant vegetable gardens or orchards or graze livestock for a long time.
Economic equality and social status are the obvious features of the Neolithic village community.Every family has the skills and tools necessary to produce the things it needs to live; and, just as importantly, every family has the right to use the basic natural resources essential to sustain life.This is fully guaranteed, since all farmland, pastures, and other natural resources are owned by the village community, which is formed automatically by the families.Therefore, in a tribal society, there are neither landowners nor landless cultivators.An American anthropologist said, "In an Indian village, it is impossible for one end of the village to be hungry and poor...while the rest of the village is rich."...
It is precisely because of this egalitarianism that both Neolithic tribal societies and today's tribal societies are inherently hindered in their productivity.The output of products only needs to meet the limited traditional needs of each family, and there is no incentive to produce surplus products.In other words, labor is just an episode in life, with various contents and limited time.There is clearly no such thing as an eight-hour day, five-day week.A typical tribesman worked fewer hours per year than a modern man, and it was a joy to work for him.The fundamental reason is that he, as a member of society, labors or engages in production activities as a husband, father, brother, or village member.Work for him is not a misfortune that must be endured in order to earn a living; on the contrary, it is an accompaniment of kinship and village ties.A man helps his brother with his farm work, not because he might give him a basket of sweet potatoes, but out of kinship.
A new life for the cultivators of the land also meant new gods—new religions began to emerge.The gods and witchcraft worshiped by hunters in the past are out of date now.Farmers began to need and imagine new gods to protect their fields, livestock, and homes.They have usually vaguely imagined a creator behind all these gods.Most importantly, however, there was worship of the goddess of the land, the goddess of fertility, Mother Earth, almost everywhere.They believed that the harvest of crops, the prosperity of livestock, and the fertility of women were all due to the goddess of fertility; life and health, the annual cycle of life and death, ultimately depended on her.As a result, the worship of the fertility goddess grew in popularity.This is evidenced by the many clay statues found today that exaggerate female features—hanging breasts, thick thighs.This type of statue is not only found in the whole of Europe.Even as far east as India, it is also found from time to time; it fully reflects the spread of agriculture in the Middle East, where it originated.
Of course, myths also appeared at this time to explain the origin of the main crops on which the peoples depended.The following "Tale of the Corn" among the Wabanaki people of Maine, USA, is an example:
Neolithic man's general view of life, his conception of what should be and what is, that is, his worldview, was no less important than his religious beliefs.Their worldview is static, largely due to their isolated village life.They see the future as a mirror image of the recent past.他们从来没想到过，要按某种原则来改变社会，也没想到，要象今天的学校非常自豪地宣称的那样，训练他们的孩子去适应一个不断变化的世界。在他们眼里，世界过去没发生过变化，将来也还是如此。因此，他们只是培养自己的孩子做他们所做过的一切，就象他们的父亲和祖父先前培养他们时那样。关于这一点，有个名叫克拉欣格·瑟德的温内巴戈人（北美洲印第安人）向我们提供了一些很有启发性的证据。他虽然生活在我们时代，但却出生于一个仍处于新石器时代的部落环境。他在自传中写道，“父亲往往还是守着过去的老习惯，把温内巴戈人的风俗习惯教给我们。他一清早就把我们叫醒，让我们围着火堆坐下，然后开始同我们谈话。…女孩们单独受教育。现在谈谈父亲和我说过的一些话……。”克拉欣格·瑟德在详尽地描述了父亲按照传统用上述方式对他进行教育的情况后，最后写道：
农业革命导致又一次人口爆炸，其规模可与随人类形成而出现的人口爆炸相比。在旧石器时代，正在进化中的人类不断改进工具，使生产率提高，从而使人口相应增加。约100 万年以前，猿人的人口数还只有125000，可到了距金1000O年时，以狩猎为生的人类的人口数已上升到532万，约增长42倍（见第二章第四节）。现在，随着农业革命的到来，一定地区的食物供应量比过去更多更可靠，因此，人口数的增长也比过去更迅速。在距今10000年至2000年的8000年中，人类的人口数从532万直线上升到13300万，与旧石器时代100万年中的人口增长数相比，约增长25倍（见图2“世界人口的增长”）。
人口的增长不是普遍的，而是有选择性的。正如前文所述，在技术革新中领先的各民族，其人口的增长也遥遥领先。因而，就象从前的人类胜过并取代了他们的原始祖先那样，现在的农人胜过并取代了狩猎者。“胜过”并“取代”的确切过程可能如下：由于实行组放型农业，各村庄很快受到了逐步增长的人口压力。于是，过剩的人口散布到周围新的地区，在那里开垦土地，建立起新的村庄。他们和当地居民的关系因当地环境而异。如果这些地区有一些边沿地带不适宜农业移民们开发，那么当地人就可以把这些地方当作避难所，使自己生存下来。非洲的情况就是这样，那里曾广为分布的俾格米人和布希曼人被分别挤到了茂密的丛林地带和荒凉的沙漠地区。北美洲的情况也是如此，那里曾广为分布的操绶绶尼语的印第安食物采集者受普韦布洛农人们的排挤，而不得不离乡背井。（见图4“狩猎者的后撤”和图5“农人的扩张”）。
农业移民和当地人之间还有另一种类型的关系，即共生关系。迄今仍在刚果森林区盛行的情形便是这方面的一个例子。那里过渔猎生活的俾格米人向耕种土地的黑人提供肉类、蜂蜜和其他森林产物，再从黑人那里接受作为报等的谷类和铁制武器。因而，这两个种族能够和平共处，并保持各自的特点。
农业移民和当地食物采集者之间最常见的关系是相互通婚，彼此逐渐融合。当人口压力又逐步形成时，新的混血儿居民便又向新的地方迁移，进而又与那里的当地人通婚，逐渐融合。农业技术和农作物就这样被传播到很远很远的地方，而在农业最后到达的那些地方出现的人，则成为其种族类型与最早的创始者完全不同的人。因之，尽管小麦、牛、轮子和犁发源于中东，然而把这些东西带入中国北部的移民却是纯粹的蒙古种人。农业由中东向西传入欧洲，由大草原传入非洲南部时，发生了与上述情形类似的迁移和异族通婚。今天存在于赞比亚南部的黑人与布希曼人的混血儿就是对后者的一个证明。
一伙又一次的迁移使农业传播到全球各地。迁移的最后结果是，1O000 年以前组成全体人类的狩猎者，到公元100O年时，减少到仅占人口的1%。职业的转变转而又导致种族的变动。全球种族分布图表明，10000年以前，高加索种人、蒙古种人、黑人、布希曼人、俾格米人和澳大利亚种人这六个种族之间大致是平衡的。（见图3“全球种族分布。'）但到公元1O00年时，这一平衡遭到了剧烈的变动，此变动有利于从事农业的蒙古种人、高加索种人和黑人，而不利于仍过渔猎采集生活的布希曼人和俾格米人。澳大利亚种人之所以能维持原状，只是由于他们居住在与世隔绝的岛屿上，还没有被任何从事农业的人发现。这些岛屿直到18世纪时才被欧洲的探险者发现。当这一发现迟迟地但终于来临时，岛屿上不幸的土著居民遭到了更加悲惨的结局。
农业革命对种族的影响在非洲撒哈拉沙漠以南地区和东亚表现得最为明显。东亚地区的蒙古种人牺牲散居各地的俾格米人和澳大利亚种人的利益来向四面八方扩张，从而为他们今天在人口数量上占居压倒其他所有种族的优势奠定了基础。同样，非洲的黑人享有农业和铁制工具给他们带来的种种好处，他们冲出原来居住的大草原，穿过雨林地带，扩张到非洲南部。于是，非洲的黑人、布希曼人和俾格米人到公元前4000年还一直保持的相当合理的种族平衡，到公元1000年时，从根本上遭到了有利于黑人的破坏。从整体上综观全球，农业革命对种族的影响是，给束了长达数千年的种族平衡，建立起一直持续到今天的蒙古种人、高加索种人和黑人的优势。
Egg facsimile of an Egyptian fresco from the tomb of Menena (painted about 1415 AD): The crops of the owner of two lands.
For many centuries, agriculture was confined to the vast savannahs and could not travel south through tropical rainforest areas.This is partly because millet and sorghum, which are commonly grown in savannahs, do not grow well in rainforest areas.At the beginning of AD these obstacles were overcome by two major developments, the appearance of ironware and the species Musa and Asiatic yam on the African continent.The former came to Africa from its native Middle East; the latter apparently came from Southeast Asia.Both plants also thrived in rainforest areas, so their introduction, along with iron, was responsible for the rapid spread of agriculture to the southern part of the continent.
The development of agriculture on the American continent is made clearer by recent findings by American archaeologists.Around 7000 BC, the cultivation of maize began in the depressions in the semi-desert of the central plateau of Mexico.In the following thousands of years, two new varieties of maize were obtained through hybridization; one variety adapted to the semi-arid Mexican plateau, and the other adapted to the humid tropical coastal zone.At the same time, other plants such as two different varieties of squash, gourds, broadleaf beans, red peppers, amaranth and avocado were also cultivated.From its central origins in Mesoamerica, agriculture spread south and north.Maize was introduced to southwestern America around 3000 BC, but the introduction of maize did not have much impact before 750 AD, because corn was still in a primitive state at that time, and food gathering had better economic effect.Similarly, the Indians in eastern North America did not make agriculture their main source of livelihood until about 800 A.D., because they successfully cultivated several new varieties of corn, broad beans and pumpkins, and carried out large-scale planting on this basis. .Agriculture started in Mesoamerica and spread south to Peru around 750 BC.However, there are also varieties of maize and beans not of Mesoamerican origin in Peru, which have been descended from very ancient times; this shows that the inhabitants of the Andes may have cultivated the original plants as early as the inhabitants of the Mexican plateau. up.
Agriculture can only spread widely around the world if it can be adapted to various environments.This impels people to cultivate various plants that can adapt to various environments.At first, wheat and barley were the most common crops in the Middle East, but as farmers moved north, they found that they did not grow as well as rye.Rye was originally a weed that was inadvertently mixed with wheat and barley when sown.Thus, in Central Europe, rye began to replace wheat and barley.As the farmers moved further north, something similar happened again; oats did better than rye, and oats began to become the staple crop.
Likewise, the spread of agriculture to sub-Saharan Africa led to the cultivation of locally grown millet and rice, and to the Mediterranean coast led to the cultivation of the olive tree, which became the most important source of cooking oil one.Agriculture in the Iranian plateau and northwestern India was essentially a Middle Eastern type of agriculture.There is, however, a dividing line running from south to north through central India, which is the transition zone between two quite different climatic zones, and in this transition zone, correspondingly different kinds of plants are distributed.This place happens to belong to the monsoon world, with heavy monsoon rainfall, long-term high temperature, and dense forests.Seed plants in the Middle East, which require full sun, do not thrive here and are replaced by yams, taro, bananas, and rice, the most important of which.Finally, the main product throughout North and South America is maize; however, there are also fava beans and squash in North America, and in South America the sweet cassava and potato, both of the "Irish" variety.
Generally speaking, the final result of the agricultural spread described above was the formation of three major cereal plant areas: the rice area of East and Southeast Asia; the maize area of the Americas; Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia and from Central Asia to the Indus and Yellow River basins wheat fields in this area.In the thousands of years from the agricultural revolution to the industrial revolution, these three major cereal plant regions have played a very important role in human history, just like coal, iron, and copper after the industrial revolution.
The spread of agriculture includes not only a variety of crops, but also a corresponding variety of cultivation techniques and the resulting variety of ways of life.The 14th generation of Neolithic agriculture that started in the Middle East was a kind of animal husbandry (cattle, sheep, goats and pigs) and grain cultivation.Mixed farming combining wheat and barley).With the spread of animal and plant domestication techniques, various technologies adapted to the new environment have been developed; the most important of these are "slash-and-burn" agriculture, which is suitable for forest areas, and the nomadic life of pastoralists, which is suitable for semi-arid areas. prairie.
Originally, not only agriculture in the tropical forest zone was carried out by slash-and-burn farming, but also agriculture in the temperate zone.But now, this approach is mainly limited to the former.200 million people are still farming some 14 million square kilometers of land using this time-tested technology.The basic characteristics of this kind of agriculture are: first plant one or two seasons of crops on the land, and then let the land fallow for a long period of time to restore soil fertility;A piece of land is primarily grown with one crop, such as rice or maize; however, it is common practice to intersperse other crops, such as legumes, melons and tubers, with the main crop.Therefore, a piece of land can produce one or several kinds of food throughout the year.This is a kind of intensive farming, so the productivity is correspondingly high.In many places two or three acres of land are tilled to produce enough grain to feed a large family for a year.The main disadvantage of this type of agriculture is the need for large areas of arable land, since at any one time the commune must have a large amount of land lying fallow, far in excess of the land being cultivated.This in turn means that the population density of these places must be low, usually no more than ten people per square mile, so people are always scattered in farmhouses or small villages, which usually have a population of 100 to 50 people.
The nomadic life of the shepherd is the opposite of the agriculture in the forest zone, and is adapted to the vast steppe.Today, nomadic life not only dominates the grasslands south of the Sahara in Africa, but also prevails in many other vast grasslands and deserts from the Sahara to northeastern China.There was not enough water in these areas to support rain-fed or human-irrigated agriculture, so people there could not grow plants and had to rely on domesticated animals as their main source of livelihood.The rise of animal husbandry was relatively late, and it gradually developed when horses and camels were domesticated and the transportation problems in the open fields were solved.From 1500 to 1000 BC was the stage of the rise of animal husbandry, and at this stage, various forms developed.In some areas, herders live on only one animal, such as camels in the Arabian Peninsula, and cattle in southwestern Africa; in some areas, they live on a variety of animals, such as animals raised in Central Asia There are horses, cows, camels, sheep and goats, as these animals are well adapted to the local climatic conditions and pastures.No matter what form it takes, a nomadic life requires a large area of pasture, so today, the number of nomadic groups rarely exceeds 200 people, and is often less than 100 people; therefore, the population density is generally one to five people per square kilometer.
The changes that occurred in the adaptation of agriculture and animal husbandry to the local environment in the process of spreading have profound significance for later history.Regardless of slash-and-burn agriculture or nomadic animal husbandry, in terms of unit land area, its productivity is far inferior to the permanent irrigated agriculture that was later developed in the Euphrates and Tigris, Nile, Indus and Yellow River basins.The reason why great civilizations can arise, and why they can dominate the world until today, is because these great river basins and other areas with better natural conditions provided the necessary material and human resources.These fertile centers of civilization were irresistible magnets for the poorer nomadic tribes of the central Eurasian steppes.Thus far, the history of Eurasia has largely been the history of the relationship between the nomadic tribes of the Eurasian interior and the surrounding civilizations of the major river basins.Before turning to later chapters to discuss this period of history, let us examine the various effects of the Agricultural Revolution on various aspects of human life.
The most visible effect of the Agricultural Revolution was the new way of life of settlement.Humans are now able to settle.In fact, in order to care for newly domesticated plants and animals, it is necessary to do otherwise.Therefore, the Neolithic village replaced the Paleolithic wandering group and became the most basic economic and cultural unit of human beings.In fact, it formed the basis of a form of life that dominated until the end of the eighteenth century.This form of life still exists in many economically underdeveloped areas of the world even today.
It is often easy to romanticize Neolithic village life.Obviously, doing so would go astray.In order to produce food and some handicrafts, everyone, including men, women, and children, must work, and must work hard.Productivity was low because knowledge of soil, seeds, fertilizers, and crop rotation was acquired slowly and laboriously.Although people have worked hard, the weather is not fair. Sometimes it rains for a long time, sometimes it doesn't rain, and sometimes the plague is rampant, so famine is a frequent visitor.Sedentary life made the disposal of excrement and garbage a difficult problem, and infectious diseases often hit those villages again and again.Although dogs like to eat feces and play a role in cleaning the environment, people run away from their residences to relieve themselves out of traditional shyness, but these are not enough to prevent various diseases caused by germs entering through the mouth.Owing to inadequate food sources, the usual diet is very incomplete, and malnutrition is the most common occurrence.Under these circumstances, it may be estimated that human life was then very short; but a high birth rate tended to increase the population of the villages everywhere, so that the balance between the supply and demand of food was always achieved by famine, epidemics, or emigration. recover.
But Neolithic village life was not all shadowy, full of misery and misery.This is an era of rapid technological progress, much faster than the Paleolithic period of the first two or three million years.The fundamental reason is not so much that Neolithic people had more leisure time than Paleolithic people-a common assumption that is now very doubtful, but that the sedentary way of life enabled people to have more leisure time. Rich living materials.A hunter who lives a wandering life.Their standard of living was severely limited by what they could carry with them; Neolithic villagers could enjoy a solid house, its furniture, utensils, tools, and decorations of all kinds.In such an environment, Neolithic villagers learned to make pottery from raw clay.At first, nature just imitated the baskets, gourds and other containers before the agricultural era. Gradually, they mastered the characteristics of pottery materials and the technology of making pottery, and were able to make vessels that were completely different from the containers of the past.By the end of the Neolithic period, the inhabitants of the Near East were building kilns or furnaces.Kilns and furnaces fire hotter fires, which allow them to be used for glazing pottery.The glazed surface seals the pottery, preventing liquids from seeping or evaporating.In this way, farmers had a variety of vessels that could be used not only to store grain, but also to cook food and store liquids such as oil and beer.
Similar advances have been made in textiles.People in the Late Paleolithic Age may have been able to twist and spin wool from sheep, goats, dogs or other animals in the wild mountains into thick threads, and then weave the thick threads into belts, headbands and even coarse blankets.In fact, they may have been able to make rough models of vessels out of clay.However, it was only in the Neolithic Age that humans were able to develop textile technology as they developed pottery technology.People in the Neolithic Age used newly cultivated plant fibers such as flax, cotton, and hemp to weave on gradually developed spindles and looms.Neolithic people also learned to build relatively strong and spacious houses.The materials used to build houses vary from place to place.The Iroquois of upstate New York lived in large houses that could accommodate dozens of families, known as "longhouse people," built of bark and wood.In the Middle East, the walls of dwellings are made of adobe; while in Europe the most common building material is split saplings, thickly covered with clay and livestock dung; roofs may generally be thatched of.Inside these dwellings were fixed beds; the beds might also be covered with a cloth coverlet.There are also modern style dressers with at least two shelves and various closets or storage areas.There is usually a fire in the center of the room for lighting and heating.The house has no chimney, just a hole in the roof or a slit under the eaves to allow the smoke to escape.
Sedentary life also made it possible for tribal political organizations to replace the separate groups of nomadic peoples.A tribe consists of the inhabitants of several villages in an area. Each tribe has a unique language and customs that distinguish them from each other.Some tribes, generally those in a primitive economic state, are so underdeveloped and wholly amorphous that they are almost at the level of hunting groups.Other tribes already had powerful leaders, primitive nobles and commoners.But the line between them is blurred.The class exclusivity characteristic of later civilizations was not at all there.
Remains of a Neolithic temple discovered in Malta.
Usually, the basic social unit that constitutes a Neolithic village is a large family consisting of several couples and their children.This kind of extended family is better suited to deal with the various problems encountered in the process of making ends meet, so it is more common than independent monogamous families.This kind of extended family also adopted outside wanderers; it can function more effectively when encountering "busy" and requiring many hands to clear forests, harvest crops or herd livestock.This kind of extended family can also effectively use a large area of land, often leaving some members at home to do housework and take care of nearby fields, and send other members to manage distant vegetable gardens or orchards or graze livestock for a long time.
Economic equality and social status are the obvious features of the Neolithic village community.Every family has the skills and tools necessary to produce the things it needs to live; and, just as importantly, every family has the right to use the basic natural resources essential to sustain life.This is fully guaranteed, since all farmland, pastures, and other natural resources are owned by the village community, which is formed automatically by the families.Therefore, in a tribal society, there are neither landowners nor landless cultivators.An American anthropologist said, "In an Indian village, it is impossible for one end of the village to be hungry and poor...while the rest of the village is rich."...
It is precisely because of this egalitarianism that both Neolithic tribal societies and today's tribal societies are inherently hindered in their productivity.The output of products only needs to meet the limited traditional needs of each family, and there is no incentive to produce surplus products.In other words, labor is just an episode in life, with various contents and limited time.There is clearly no such thing as an eight-hour day, five-day week.A typical tribesman worked fewer hours per year than a modern man, and it was a joy to work for him.The fundamental reason is that he, as a member of society, labors or engages in production activities as a husband, father, brother, or village member.Work for him is not a misfortune that must be endured in order to earn a living; on the contrary, it is an accompaniment of kinship and village ties.A man helps his brother with his farm work, not because he might give him a basket of sweet potatoes, but out of kinship.
A new life for the cultivators of the land also meant new gods—new religions began to emerge.The gods and witchcraft worshiped by hunters in the past are out of date now.Farmers began to need and imagine new gods to protect their fields, livestock, and homes.They have usually vaguely imagined a creator behind all these gods.Most importantly, however, there was worship of the goddess of the land, the goddess of fertility, Mother Earth, almost everywhere.They believed that the harvest of crops, the prosperity of livestock, and the fertility of women were all due to the goddess of fertility; life and health, the annual cycle of life and death, ultimately depended on her.As a result, the worship of the fertility goddess grew in popularity.This is evidenced by the many clay statues found today that exaggerate female features—hanging breasts, thick thighs.This type of statue is not only found in the whole of Europe.Even as far east as India, it is also found from time to time; it fully reflects the spread of agriculture in the Middle East, where it originated.
Of course, myths also appeared at this time to explain the origin of the main crops on which the peoples depended.The following "Tale of the Corn" among the Wabanaki people of Maine, USA, is an example:
Neolithic man's general view of life, his conception of what should be and what is, that is, his worldview, was no less important than his religious beliefs.Their worldview is static, largely due to their isolated village life.They see the future as a mirror image of the recent past.他们从来没想到过，要按某种原则来改变社会，也没想到，要象今天的学校非常自豪地宣称的那样，训练他们的孩子去适应一个不断变化的世界。在他们眼里，世界过去没发生过变化，将来也还是如此。因此，他们只是培养自己的孩子做他们所做过的一切，就象他们的父亲和祖父先前培养他们时那样。关于这一点，有个名叫克拉欣格·瑟德的温内巴戈人（北美洲印第安人）向我们提供了一些很有启发性的证据。他虽然生活在我们时代，但却出生于一个仍处于新石器时代的部落环境。他在自传中写道，“父亲往往还是守着过去的老习惯，把温内巴戈人的风俗习惯教给我们。他一清早就把我们叫醒，让我们围着火堆坐下，然后开始同我们谈话。…女孩们单独受教育。现在谈谈父亲和我说过的一些话……。”克拉欣格·瑟德在详尽地描述了父亲按照传统用上述方式对他进行教育的情况后，最后写道：
农业革命导致又一次人口爆炸，其规模可与随人类形成而出现的人口爆炸相比。在旧石器时代，正在进化中的人类不断改进工具，使生产率提高，从而使人口相应增加。约100 万年以前，猿人的人口数还只有125000，可到了距金1000O年时，以狩猎为生的人类的人口数已上升到532万，约增长42倍（见第二章第四节）。现在，随着农业革命的到来，一定地区的食物供应量比过去更多更可靠，因此，人口数的增长也比过去更迅速。在距今10000年至2000年的8000年中，人类的人口数从532万直线上升到13300万，与旧石器时代100万年中的人口增长数相比，约增长25倍（见图2“世界人口的增长”）。
人口的增长不是普遍的，而是有选择性的。正如前文所述，在技术革新中领先的各民族，其人口的增长也遥遥领先。因而，就象从前的人类胜过并取代了他们的原始祖先那样，现在的农人胜过并取代了狩猎者。“胜过”并“取代”的确切过程可能如下：由于实行组放型农业，各村庄很快受到了逐步增长的人口压力。于是，过剩的人口散布到周围新的地区，在那里开垦土地，建立起新的村庄。他们和当地居民的关系因当地环境而异。如果这些地区有一些边沿地带不适宜农业移民们开发，那么当地人就可以把这些地方当作避难所，使自己生存下来。非洲的情况就是这样，那里曾广为分布的俾格米人和布希曼人被分别挤到了茂密的丛林地带和荒凉的沙漠地区。北美洲的情况也是如此，那里曾广为分布的操绶绶尼语的印第安食物采集者受普韦布洛农人们的排挤，而不得不离乡背井。（见图4“狩猎者的后撤”和图5“农人的扩张”）。
农业移民和当地人之间还有另一种类型的关系，即共生关系。迄今仍在刚果森林区盛行的情形便是这方面的一个例子。那里过渔猎生活的俾格米人向耕种土地的黑人提供肉类、蜂蜜和其他森林产物，再从黑人那里接受作为报等的谷类和铁制武器。因而，这两个种族能够和平共处，并保持各自的特点。
农业移民和当地食物采集者之间最常见的关系是相互通婚，彼此逐渐融合。当人口压力又逐步形成时，新的混血儿居民便又向新的地方迁移，进而又与那里的当地人通婚，逐渐融合。农业技术和农作物就这样被传播到很远很远的地方，而在农业最后到达的那些地方出现的人，则成为其种族类型与最早的创始者完全不同的人。因之，尽管小麦、牛、轮子和犁发源于中东，然而把这些东西带入中国北部的移民却是纯粹的蒙古种人。农业由中东向西传入欧洲，由大草原传入非洲南部时，发生了与上述情形类似的迁移和异族通婚。今天存在于赞比亚南部的黑人与布希曼人的混血儿就是对后者的一个证明。
一伙又一次的迁移使农业传播到全球各地。迁移的最后结果是，1O000 年以前组成全体人类的狩猎者，到公元100O年时，减少到仅占人口的1%。职业的转变转而又导致种族的变动。全球种族分布图表明，10000年以前，高加索种人、蒙古种人、黑人、布希曼人、俾格米人和澳大利亚种人这六个种族之间大致是平衡的。（见图3“全球种族分布。'）但到公元1O00年时，这一平衡遭到了剧烈的变动，此变动有利于从事农业的蒙古种人、高加索种人和黑人，而不利于仍过渔猎采集生活的布希曼人和俾格米人。澳大利亚种人之所以能维持原状，只是由于他们居住在与世隔绝的岛屿上，还没有被任何从事农业的人发现。这些岛屿直到18世纪时才被欧洲的探险者发现。当这一发现迟迟地但终于来临时，岛屿上不幸的土著居民遭到了更加悲惨的结局。
农业革命对种族的影响在非洲撒哈拉沙漠以南地区和东亚表现得最为明显。东亚地区的蒙古种人牺牲散居各地的俾格米人和澳大利亚种人的利益来向四面八方扩张，从而为他们今天在人口数量上占居压倒其他所有种族的优势奠定了基础。同样，非洲的黑人享有农业和铁制工具给他们带来的种种好处，他们冲出原来居住的大草原，穿过雨林地带，扩张到非洲南部。于是，非洲的黑人、布希曼人和俾格米人到公元前4000年还一直保持的相当合理的种族平衡，到公元1000年时，从根本上遭到了有利于黑人的破坏。从整体上综观全球，农业革命对种族的影响是，给束了长达数千年的种族平衡，建立起一直持续到今天的蒙古种人、高加索种人和黑人的优势。