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Friday, August 13, 2010

Origin of Agriculture

The beginning of 'agro' or 'agriculture' marks the beginning of 'civilized' or 'sedentary' society. Climate change and increase in population during the Holocene Era (10,000 BC onwards) led to the evolution of agriculture. During the Bronze Age (9000 BC onwards), domestication of plants and animals transformed the profession of the early homo sapiens from hunting and gathering to selective hunting, herding and finally to settled agriculture. Eventually the agricultural practices enabled people to establish permanent settlements and expand urban based societies. Cultivation marks the transition from nomadic pre-historic societies to the settled neolithic lifestyle some time around 7000 BC.

As per the modern definition of agriculture which would be" an aggregate of large scale intensive cultivation of land, mono-cropping, organized irrigation, and use of a specialized labor force", the title "inventors of agriculture" would go to the Sumerians, starting ca. 5,500 BC.

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