Agriculture

Primitive men probably invented agriculture in the same way they had made their previous advancements: by a combination of accident and intent. Nomadic humans, returning to the same region each year for its wild cereals, probably tinkered with what they found. Perhaps they tried awkwardly to ensure that next year’s harvest would be as generous by clearing away weeds or diverting rainfall on a hillside into the field they from which they fed.

They must have noticed that, occasionally, some of the stalks of grain carried non-shattering seeds, which meant that the ears of grain did not scatter the seeds on the ground no matter how long it took for someone to reap them. Meanwhile, typical wild cereals spilled their seeds at some point, making them difficult to recover and eat. Naturally, this non-shattering trait was admired by nomadic groups. Likely they came to understand how advantageous it would be if, the following year, all the seeds were non-shattering. The problem was that non-shattering seeds would not reproduce on their own and would only occur as periodic mutations in any field of wild cereals. Our ancestors must have begun to experiment with the possibilities, perhaps planting seeds before they left the area, or carrying some with them to plant the next year.

Maybe they noticed that plants grew more abundantly near places that their animal herds left droppings. Surely this would have inspired attempts to leave great mounds of fertilizer in one place to ensure next year’s harvest. In this way, domestication may have directly spurred the next leap forward for mankind.

However it came about, eventually, sometime after the end of the last glacial period, agriculture appeared in human societies. At first, it was extremely primitive: digging furrows and planting seeds by hand. Dragging a tree root to plow a field would have been an early improvement. Eventually, men learned to use animals to pull plows carved from wood or made from stone. Cereals such as wheat, barley, rice and corn were among the first plants to be domesticated this way*. Soon men learned to sow and reap many different crops and to tend to orchards of fruit-bearing trees.

With this discovery, Man took a great step away from the ranks of animals. He became truly a master of his environment, controlling both flora and fauna wherever he roamed. When the possibility of surviving by agriculture in a single place, rather than suffering the travails of nomadic life, presented itself to men across the world some ten thousand years ago, many grasped the opportunity. They formed villages and adapted their survival strategies to a more sedentary life. Populations exploded once again. Nomads and farmers came into conflict. These ancient confrontations between agriculture and the nomadic ways are reflected in the book of Genesis when Abel the herdsman is killed by Cain the farmer.

*Domestication of wheat and barley and the fermentation of both for the making of beer occur so closely in the timeline of man as to be almost indistinguishable events.