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Course: World history?>?Unit 1
Lesson 2: The Neolithic Revolution and the birth of agriculture- The Neolithic Revolution and early agriculture
- The dawn of agriculture
- The spread of agriculture
- Where did agriculture come from?
- Early civilizations
- Social, political, and environmental characteristics of early civilizations
- Why did human societies get more complex?
- Neolithic Revolution and the birth of agriculture
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Neolithic Revolution and the birth of agriculture
Problem
Read the passages below and answer the question.
Passage 1
The Agricultural Revolution certainly enlarged the sum total of food at the disposal of humankind, but the extra food did not translate into a better diet or more leisure. Rather, it translated into population explosions and pampered elites. The average farmer worked harder than the average forager, and got a worse diet in return.
From: Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens (New York: Harper, 2015), 72.
Passage 2
Note: The author of this passage considered civilized life a direct result of agriculture.
Civilized life is secure life. At the most basic level this means security from the sudden destruction that village communities might suffer. Civilized life gives the feeling of permanence. It offers regularity, stability, order, even routine. Plans can be made. Expectations can be realized. People can be expected to act predictably, according to the rules.
The first cities were able to attain stability with walls that shielded the inhabitants from nomads and armies, with the first codes of law that defined human relationships, with police and officials that enforced the laws, and with institutions that functioned beyond the lives of their particular members. City life offered considerably more permanence and security than village life.
From: Kevin Reilly, The West and the World: A History of Civilization (New York: Harper Collins, 1989).
Taken together, the two passages above best support which of the following conclusions?