The bringing
about of the Agrarian Revolution changed the lives of man completely. One no
longer had to go round looking for food but could stay at one place to produce
food. This brought about a sedentary lifestyle for them, and was good in the
sense that the shifting way of life was history. Thus, they could concentrate
on developing the way of growing food the most efficient way. The source of
food was more stable compared to the past when they went around to gather food
or hunt for wild animals. Psychologically, they also felt better as the efforts
they put in to cultivate for their own food is right before their very eyes
and as long as their took care to grow them well, there would be no problems
of food shortage, unlike when you have to search for food in the wild. You would
not be sure that the efforts would be paid off.
The amount of land need to support a same number of people is much more less, compared to the gathering way, as land use was not intensified previously. It is also physically more demanding to go around everyday, walking across vast areas to search for the same amount when you can just tend a specific area of land, growing crops to yield the same results. Since they no longer had to move around, their means of housing became more of a permanent residential structure unlike the previous way of life. Their houses built were sturdier and weather-resistant as they would be staying for a long period of time and thus more effort would be put into the construction. This brought about the fact that shelter was no more a worry to them. As a result of the more abundance of food and shelter, population increased at a faster rate than before. But, at this point of time, it posed no more threat to the food supply. On the other hand, it might even help to boost the production as more hands means less work per person done at that time. Since the population increased at a much faster pace than before, food production increased and the people had more food. Food is one of the basic necessities of life, and when the food supply did not pose a threat to man anymore, man's standard of living would increase. Hence, though the Agrarian Revolution was mainly focused on the bringing about of agriculture, improving the situation of facing the threat of food shortage, it had also refined further the way of life of man himself.
Back to Top
Causes
Impact
on Man, Part 2