The Agricultural Revolution
1 During a relatively warm climatic period between 8000 and 6000 ʙ.ᴄ.ᴇ., humans on the fringes of
Mesopotamia began to shift from a hunting-gathering existence and started to control the animals and plants
they would eat, thus initiating the Agricultural (or Neolithic) Revolution. That it was a revolution there can
be no dispute. It transformed the way human beings lived and shattered a tradition over two million years
old. However, why the Agricultural Revolution occurred at this precise time is still largely a matter of
conjecture. Why, for instance, did it not occur during one of the earlier interglacial periods (intervals of
relatively warm climate that occurred periodically between ice ages over millions of years) when,
presumably, the same conditions prevailed? It is difficult to find any uniformly satisfying answers. We
know that agriculture developed more or less simultaneously in many different parts of the globe, so it is
unlikely that it resulted from any single cause, such as climatic change or population growth, although both
have been offered as explanations. We also know that the move to agriculture was not always permanently
successful. In some places it was tried for a while and then abandoned. It is even possible that certain plants
and animals were domesticated more than once and by different peoples.
2 Most modern explanations of the origins of agriculture tend to emphasize the role of
microenvironments and long-standing human-plant and human-animal relationships. Such factors as
changing climatic conditions, the presence of animals and plants that offered good potential for
domestication, and the cultural and technological levels of achievement of the human populations present
undoubtedly played important roles in the development of agriculture.
3 The key to understanding agriculture is the process known as domestication. Domestication was the
essential technological breakthrough that allowed human beings to escape the age-old system of hunting and
gathering and to control the production of food, rather than being at the mercy of what sustenance the terrain
might offer at any given moment.
4 Domestication can be defined as a primitive form of genetic engineering in which certain plants and
animals are brought under human control, their objectionable characteristics eliminated, their favorable
ones enhanced, and in the case of animals, inducing them to reproduce in captivity. If wild animals cannot
be induced to breed in captivity, they cannot be domesticated. Modern domesticated cattle, sheep, and pigs,
for example, look only remotely like their leaner, meaner, and faster-moving ancestors. Domestication is
best viewed as the creation of an artificial environment in which the chosen plants or animals come to exist
exclusively . Left alone, domesticated species either die or revert to their original wild forms. Because herds,
farms, orchards, and gardens are permanent, static entities, once they came into being, the old hunting-
gathering forms of social organization had to be replaced.
5 ■ Hunter-gatherers place a low value on possessions and a high value on mobility. ■ Always on the
move, they carry only a few tools and weapons with them. Agriculture reverses this way of life. ■ It cannot
be practiced without a commitment to permanence and the accumulation of large amounts of material
goods. ■ Homes, villages, and storage facilities must be constructed; fields cleared, divided, and fenced;
herds built up and maintained; and tools fabricated. Constant effort is required to maintain all of these. Once
settled, farmers may not move again for generations. Pastoralists (animal herders) are equally committed to
their flocks and herds.
6 For practical purposes, hunting-gathering bands always remained small, in the range of 30 to 50 people.
Larger groups would have been difficult to sustain in most environments; smaller groups could not
reproduce themselves. Agriculture, by contrast, knew no limits as far as population growth was concerned.
Thus, where hunting-gathering bands restricted their numbers, agricultural communities tended to expand
them. People could be put to work in the fields or gardens at an early age and at harvest time, when it was
essential to maximize the number of people who could be mobilized. Overpopulation was solved by
emigrating and opening up new land for cultivation. By about 6000 ʙ.ᴄ.ᴇ., villages with populations in the
thousands were common throughout the Middle East.
The word “ uniformly ” in the passage is closest in meaning to
✓ consistently
logically
permanently
truly
Paragraph 1 supports which of the following statements about the hunting-gathering way of life?
✓ Humans practiced it for more than two million years.
It was most successful during relatively warm periods.
It was first replaced by agriculture during an ice age.
It made significant population growth impossible.
According to paragraph 2, all of the following have been proposed as contributing to the Agricultural Revolution
EXCEPT
✓ cultural diversity within human populations
human relationships with plants and animals
changing environmental conditions
availability of plants and animals suitable for domestication
In saying that domestication is best seen as the creation of an environment in which the chosen plants or
animals exist “ exclusively ,” the author means that the chosen organisms
keep other organisms out of their domesticated environment
✓ can live only in the domesticated environment
live their whole lives in the domesticated environment
spend their lives in a single domesticated environment
According to paragraph 4, all of the following are true statements about the domestication of plants and animals
EXCEPT:
Domestication encourages characteristics in plants and animals that humans prefer.
Domestication can result in plants and animals that look somewhat different from their ancestors.
✓ Plants and animals can no longer reproduce with their wild counterparts after domestication.
The success of animal domestication depends on the animals' ability to reproduce in captivity.
According to paragraph 5, why do hunter-gatherers place a low value on possessions?
Few goods other than tools or weapons can be of use to them.
They lack the resources to build storage facilities.
✓ They move often and can carry only small loads of necessary goods.
They have a limited ability to defend their possessions against other groups.
What is the purpose of paragraph 5 in the passage?
✓ To show that the adoption of agriculture required a change in the way people lived
To emphasize the various challenges of the agricultural way of life
To describe the steps involved in growing food and domesticating animals
To suggest that humans have a natural commitment to permanence
According to paragraph 6, which of the following was true of agricultural communities in the Middle East?
They became overpopulated when they grew to more than 50 members.
They experienced their highest population levels at harvest time.
✓ When they became too crowded, some of their inhabitants moved to new areas.
Many of them had become overpopulated by about 6000 ʙ.ᴄ.ᴇ.
This is because finding enough food requires them to search through a sufficiently large territory.
Where would the sentence best fit? Click on a square [■] to add the sentence to the passage.
Agriculture replaced hunting and gathering between 8000 and 6000 ʙ.ᴄ.ᴇ.
Glacial periods that followed the agricultural revolution forced agricultural peoples in some parts of the
world to go back to hunting and gathering.
✓ Domestication allowed people to control their food production by bringing certain plants and
animals under control and enhancing their characteristics to benefit humans.
✓ In contrast to hunting and gathering, the agricultural way of life favored population expansion
because there was field work for many people, especially at harvest time.
Hunting and gathering groups lacked a system of social organization sufficient to exploit the food and other
resources that the environment could provide.
✓ The agricultural way of life required permanence and the accumulation of material goods, so
humans who adopted agriculture abandoned hunting and gathering.
Although various explanations have been proposed for the beginning of the agricultural revolution,
scientists agree that the best explanation is climate change.
