WHY DID HUMANTIY TRANSITION FROM HUNTER GATHERING TO AGRICULTURE?

that is the breadcrumb we try to pick up on and collect to make the bread in class 1.

class notes

• prof notes that farming made people lazy - agriculture led to surplus, this gave people more things to do other than farming. leading to people indulging in questioning, influencing because survival was not the only thing on their minds anymore. leaders, priests, creative people are some of the roles that popped up.

• villages became cities, towns.

• storage of knowledge,

• eventually leading to modernity

• pivotal step was Agri

• why it was stupid - hunter gathering is a easy life than Agri, Agri is a full time job.

• in the book sapiens - the quote is something to ponder about.

"we did not domesticate wheat. wheat domesticated us."

• labor and land needed more and more
• hunter gatherers were taller than farmer, protein and foods.
• gatherers lived more than the farmers as well.

sources and evidences -

• archeological sites like Göbekli Tepe, Çatalhöyük and Jericho are neolithic sites which are still being explored and provide a insider look at the traditions and belief system of the time.
• anthropology - study of different cultures
• psychology / neuroscience
• primatology- gorilla, chimps, bonobos, as close relatives of humans

POSSIBLE THEORIES

1. idea of coercion - evidence in gorillas doing it. argument- alpha male big in gorilla space. but humans have big brains to cooperate with each other against one big human. unity and cooperation is unique. fight or flight. rebel.

2. war - easy to defend yourself and surviving in an area more - chimpanzees fighting - humans are violent and afraid of each other. whenever we get a chance we build defenses and fight. argument - bonobos are peaceful. no evidence to prove naturally violent tendency of humans.

3. respect for elders - abandonment of elders, biological markup to protect elders. argument - circular idea of life prevalent.

4. religion - settle to celebrate and practice a belief system

different theories argued by different people, but consensus falls on RELIGION.

• we have the need for religion but not everyone have the ability to produce religion.
• some people have visions and dreams make it presentable to their followers and that spreads religion. you need faith and constant reverence to commit to build such things.
• people used psychedelics - shifting neural system to perceive the world in different ways, or when you're hungry or meditate for a long time. delusion, hallucinations, NDE believed to be true.

central turkey - 11000 years old IN, Göbekli Tepe, T SHAPED PILLARS representing humans. hunting animals carving - under the motion of hunting - on the pillars. apparently humans did not perceive themselves to be different from animals and nature. carvings could be views as a form of tribute and forgiveness, or a ceremony to channelize inner animalistic tendencies of human before going to hunt or a way of paying respect to animals to appease them and asking for protection.

• Representation of humans. aligned to practice a ritual, shamans leading it. shamans being charismatic. attract followers. eventually leading to them becoming gods and then it becoming a temple houses built around such shrines later also found. humans and their yearning to know THE WHY.
• These sites also served a purpose for hunter gatherers meet up to celebrate, gather and look for mates.
• there are also theories about aliens or extraterritorial entities building these structures because of its sophisticated design.

why is a temple structured the way it is?

cosmological significance - specific time of the year triggering certain events- sun hitting a place - this was seen as a way to connect to the outer world, look for that WHY?! for them this was science.

in Jericho, found Natufian culture - levant - west Asia.

• sedentary hunter gatherers.
• hunted gazelles (meatier animals in comparison with other animals) - whose teeth color were different in different seasons because of their diet, summer and winters, hence proving hunter gatherers did not move much from one place to other.
• crop seeds found, some gardened, indicative of not large scale, commercial farming
• cult of the skull - worshipped animals and ancestors, skulls were covered with clay as a way to preserve it and hanged on the walls as a form of worship and protection.
• tower of Jericho - big walls and tall height indicative that maybe they went to war and as a way to defend themselves.
• after which they made the hypothesis that no it is a cosmological religious place where on the long day of the year, tower gets hit with sunrays and the tower causes the village to be shadowed and hence there being darkness to feel closer to the sky, again to feel like the stars could be controlled and the cycle can be broken even if it was once a year invoking a magical feeling.
• Çatalhöyük- turkey, far from Göbekli Tepe.
• 7500 BCE - at its peak, 8000 people lived there.
• its BIGGGG
• they did not have a place of worship or govt. indicative by the fact that all houses look similar, no indication of established hierarchy
• seemed like an egalitarian society.
• living room of houses as a temple in each house. seemed to be worlds first religious civilization.
• sophisticated - everything can be explained through religion. their lifestyle revolved around it
• paintings found in most house.
• these painting looked like 2 headless humans bowing at a bird with spread wings - peoples body eaten by vultures - sky burials - and then the bones taken back home and buried under their house
• second painting of human beings around two animals and mocking them to hunt them or dancing and paying tribute to the animals before the hunt, we only think of the meat but your soul is going to be re-born
• sculpture of mother goddess or fertility goddess
• bull sign of vitality as a man.

my thoughts and takeaways:

i think this class taught me a way to question the default information thats been in my head for a long time. like static, boring piece of information. i know the what and where but i never thought about why and how of such basic things we learn in our childhoods. prof argues that farming and domestication could be seen as a way to limit humanity, even though it did lead to flourishing societies. however, it acted as a very narrow, territorial, selfish and insecure way of living. i think it created a facade of being in control. we all know that you cannot control nature, however humans have also always been fearful of that and what is one way of evading that fear? creating a safe space, a false idea of being in control.