Assignment

The Neolithic Revolution

Our first forum will deal with the Neolithic Revolution, the transition from food extraction to food production. We will discuss the social, cultural and ecological implications of this significant transition in the way humans lived, acted and viewed the world.

Major transitions in the human race are not restricted to the past. In the 20th century, we saw three key transitions, the atom, the gene and the byte. The atom refers to the atomic bomb and nuclear energy; the gene to the discovery of DNA and the human genome project; and the byte - the development of computing and the emergence of the Internet,

The previous paragraph should highlight the kinds of changes we all have experienced in a very short period. The Neolithic Revolution took a lot longer but is one of the foundational transitions which get us to here.

Submitted for your consideration. The Neolithic Revolution changed a significant part of the way human groups existed in the world. We went from nomadic groups, where we moved from place to place in search of readily available food to sedentary where the group remained in the same place throughout the year. Our focus of discussion is how did sedentary life change, in a general sense, our culture. How did we perceive the world around us? How did it change our society? How did we now have to relate to each other? Finally, how did the local environment change? Remember everyone is living in close proximity and there is no concept of the germ theory of disease and there were not the "conveniences" of garbage disposal and sanitary sewers. Finally, how did animals and plants change from beneficial to harmful? (Hint: think a Bambi when you are hunting to the same cute animal when you are farming).