shift from hunting and gathering to systematic agriculture
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The shift from a hunting and gathering economy to the production of food by systematic agriculture is considered, by some historians, to be the greatest event in pre-history. This shift of hunting and gathering to actually producing food through agriculture gave early human beings greater control over their environment which allowed them to give up their nomadic way of life and begin living in settled communities. Food surpluses made it possible for people to do other things besides farming. The change to systematic agriculture also had consequences for the relationship between men and women.
Systematic agriculture supposedly began as far back as 8000 B.C. It is believed that it began in four different areas, the Near East, southern Asia, western Africa, and Middle America. In all four of these different regions, the peoples cultivated all different types of grains native to their area. Agriculture revolution required a favorable environment and initially the upland areas above the Fertile Crescent were more conducive to systematic farming than the river valleys. These regions received the necessary rainfall and were home to wild grains as well as wild animals - such as pigs, cows, goats, and sheep that were eventually domesticated for human use...