I. Introduction

Let's start at the very beginning...

What? Hunting and Gathering -> Agriculture

Hunter-gatherers lived in mobile groups of about 25 people and obtained their food solely through hunting animals and foraging for fruits and other plant products. Because these groups were highly mobile and continuously gathered their resources (leaving out the possibility of keeping personal property), their socio-political organization was egalitarian. Leadership depended on the situation and was thus only ephemeral.

Archeologists and anthropologists have proposed a variety of explanations for the human transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture. Some attribute the origins of agriculture to the warming and stabilization of the Earth's climate at the end of the Pleistocene period about 10,000 years ago. Others claim that human population growth prompted people to find alternative methods of subsistance. No matter what the reason for the initial transformation, the result was a drastic change in terms of population size, mobility, socio-political organization, and culture. Before we explore the effects of the agricultural transition, let's examine the practice of agriculture itself.

II. What is agriculture?

III. What are the benefits of agriculture?

• Increased Productivity- More food can be produced per unit land area than by hunting and gathering, and therefore, larger human populations can be supported.

IV. What are the costs of agriculture?

• Decreased Efficiency- The food produced per unit of energy invested declines with agriculture because people must provide the proper ecosystem for the cultivated species.