What does it mean to lead a sedentary lifestyle? What is a sedentary lifestyle? Will people's sedentary lifestyle continue?
Domestication results
and sedentary lifestyle albedoadmin
"Our Earth"
Fertility distribution intervals
Among modern foragers, female pregnancy occurs once every 3-4 years, due to the long period of breastfeeding characteristic of such communities. Duration does not mean that children are weaned at 3-4 years, but that feeding will last as long as the child needs it, even in cases of several times an hour (Shostak, 1981). This feeding stimulates the secretion of hormones that suppress ovulation (Henry, 1989). Henry points out that "the adaptive significance of such a mechanism is obvious in the context of nomadic foragers, because one child who needs to be cared for for 3-4 years creates serious problems for the mother, but a second or third during this interval will create an unresolved problem for her and will jeopardize her health...”
There are many more reasons why feeding lasts 3-4 years among foragers. Their diet is rich in proteins, also low in carbohydrates, and lacks soft foods that are easy for babies to digest. In fact, Marjorie Szostak noted that among the Bushmen, modern foragers of the Kalahari Desert, food is coarse and difficult to digest: “To survive in such conditions, a child must be over 2 years of age, preferably much older” (1981). After six months of nursing, the mother has no food that can be found and prepared for the baby in addition to her own milk. Among the Bushmen, infants over 6 months old are given solid, already chewed or crushed food, complementary foods, which begin the transition to solid food.
The length of time between pregnancies serves to maintain long-term energy balance in women during their reproductive years. In many foraging societies, increased caloric intake during nursing requires mobility, and this style of feeding (high protein, low carbohydrate) can leave the mother's energy balance low. In cases where food supply is limited, the period of pregnancy and lactation can become a net drain of energy, leading to a sharp reduction in fertility. Under such circumstances, this gives the woman more time to restore her fertility. Thus, the period when she is neither pregnant nor lactating becomes necessary to build her energy balance for future reproduction.
Decline in food quality
The West has long viewed agriculture as a step forward from gathering, a sign of human progress. Although, however, the first farmers did not eat as well as the gatherers.
Jared Diamond (1987) wrote: “When farmers focus on high-carbohydrate crops such as potatoes or rice, the mix of wild plants and animals in the hunter/gatherer diet provides more protein and a better balance of other nutrients. One study noted that Bushmen consumed an average of 2,140 calories and 93 grams of protein per day, well above the recommended daily intake for people their size. It is almost impossible that Bushmen, eating 75 species of wild plants, could starve to death, as happened to thousands of Irish farmers and their families in 1840.”
In skeletal studies we come to the same point of view. The skeletons, found in Greece and Turkey and dating back to the late Paleolithic, averaged 5 feet 9 inches in height for men and 5 feet 5 inches for women. With the adoption of agriculture, the average height fell - about 5,000 years ago, the average height of a man was 5 feet 3 inches, and a woman about 5 feet. Even modern Greeks and Turks are not, on average, as tall as their Paleolithic ancestors.
Increased danger
Roughly speaking, agriculture probably first appeared in ancient southwest Asia, and perhaps elsewhere, to increase food supply to support an expanding population under severe resource stress. Over time, however, as dependence on domesticated crops increased, so did the overall insecurity of the food supply system. Why?
Increase in the number of diseases
The increase in the number of diseases is especially associated with the evolution of domesticated plants, for which there were several reasons. First, before sedentary life, human waste was disposed of outside the residential area. As the number of people living nearby in relatively permanent settlements increased, waste disposal became increasingly problematic. The large amount of feces has led to the emergence of diseases, and insects, some of which are carriers of diseases, feed on animal and plant waste.
Secondly, a large number of people living nearby serves as a reservoir for pathogens. Once the population becomes large enough, the likelihood of disease transmission increases. By the time one person recovers from the disease, another may reach the infectious stage and infect the first one again. Consequently, the disease will never leave the settlement. The speed with which colds, flu, or chickenpox spread among schoolchildren perfectly illustrates the interaction of dense populations and disease.
Thirdly, sedentary people cannot simply escape from the disease; on the contrary, if one of the foragers gets sick, the rest can leave for a while, reducing the likelihood of the disease spreading.
Fourth, agricultural nutrition may reduce disease resistance.
Finally, population growth has provided ample opportunities for microbial development. In fact, there is good evidence that the clearing of land for farming in sub-Saharan Africa has created an ideal breeding ground for malaria-carrying mosquitoes, leading to a sharp increase in malaria cases.
Environmental degradation
With the development of agriculture, people began to actively influence the environment. Deforestation, soil deterioration, clogging of streams, and the death of many wild species - all this accompanies domestication. In the valley of the lower Tigris and Euphrates, the irrigation waters used by early farmers carried large amounts of soluble salts, poisoning its soil, thereby rendering it unusable to this day.
Increased work
Increasing domestication requires much more labor than foraging. People must clear the land, plant seeds, take care of young shoots, protect them from pests, collect them, process the seeds, store them, select seeds for the next sowing; in addition, people must care for and protect domesticated animals, select herds, shear sheep, milk goats, and so on
Domestication results
and sedentary lifestyle albedoadmin
Sedentism and domestication, together and separately, transformed human life in ways that still influence our lives today.
"Our Earth"
Sedentism and domestication represent not only technological changes, but also changes in worldview. Land is no longer a free commodity available to everyone, with resources randomly scattered throughout its territory - it has become a special territory, owned by someone or a group of people, on which people grow plants and livestock. Thus, a sedentary lifestyle and high levels of resource extraction lead to property ownership that was rare in previous forager societies. Burial sites, heavy goods, permanent housing, grain processing equipment, and fields and livestock tied people to their place of residence. Human influence on the environment has become stronger and more noticeable since the transition to sedentism and the growth of agriculture; people began to increasingly change the surrounding area - building terraces and walls to protect against floods.
Fertility, sedentary lifestyle and food system
The most dramatic consequences of sedentism are changes in female fertility and population growth. A number of different effects combined to increase the population.
I love history very much, and this event in the development of human society could not help but interest me. I will be happy to share my knowledge about what is settled life, and I’ll tell you about the consequences that were caused by lifestyle changes.
What does the term "settled life" mean?
This term implies transition of nomadic peoples to living in one place or within a small area. Indeed, the ancient tribes were very dependent on where their prey moved, and this was a completely natural phenomenon. However, over time, man moved to production of the required product, which means there is no need to move after the herds. This was accompanied by the construction of houses, housekeeping, which required the creation of things necessary in everyday life. Simply put, the tribe developed a certain territory, while considering it its own, and therefore was forced to protect it from uninvited guests.
Consequences of the transition to sedentarism
The transition to this way of life and the domestication of animals radically changed people's lives, and we still feel some of the consequences today. Settlement is not only a change in lifestyle, but also significant changes in the human worldview. In fact, land began to be valued, ceasing to be common property, which led to the beginnings of property. At the same time, everything acquired seemed to tie a person to one place of residence, which could not help but affect the environment- plowing fields, building defensive structures and much more.
In general, among the many consequences of the transition to sedentarism, the most striking examples can be identified:
- increase in birth rate- as a consequence of increased fertility;
- drop in food quality- according to research, the transition from animal to plant foods has led to a decrease in the average height of humanity;
- increase in morbidity- as a rule, the higher the population density, the higher this indicator;
- negative impact on the environment- contamination of soils, rivers, deforestation, and so on;
- increase in load- maintaining a household requires more labor than just hunting or gathering.
One of the paradoxes of the transition to a sedentary way of life is the fact that with increasing productivity, the population increased and the dependence on agricultural crops. As a result, this began to pose a certain problem: in the case of poor food supply, the load on all spheres of life increases.
SEDENTIAL LIFESTYLE
SEDIENT LIFESTYLE is a way of life of an animal whose entire life cycle takes place within its individual area (biocenosis). Wed. Nomadic lifestyle.
Ecological encyclopedic dictionary. - Chisinau: Main editorial office of the Moldavian Soviet Encyclopedia. I.I. Dedu. 1989.
See what “SETTENTED LIFESTYLE” is in other dictionaries:
Noun, number of synonyms: 1 settled (2) Dictionary of synonyms ASIS. V.N. Trishin. 2013… Dictionary of synonyms
Adj., number of synonyms: 1 planted on the ground (1) ASIS Dictionary of Synonyms. V.N. Trishin. 2013… Dictionary of synonyms
Philosophical sociological. a category that covers the totality of typical types of life activity of an individual, a social group, and society as a whole, which is taken in unity with living conditions. Provides the opportunity to comprehensively, in interconnection... ... Philosophical Encyclopedia
The way of life of an animal whose life cycle takes place in various biotopes. As a rule, animals move from breeding grounds to wintering grounds. Organisms leading a nomadic lifestyle are close in ecological and ethological status to... ... Ecological dictionary
SETTLED, oh, oh; unit Permanently residing in one place (of a people, tribe); associated with such residence; opposite nomadic. Sedentary population. O. lifestyle. | noun settled life, and, female The Pale of Settlement (in Tsarist Russia: territory beyond... ... Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary
Aya, oh. Constantly living in one place. O oh tribes. Oh population. // Associated with life in one, permanent place. O. lifestyle. Oh, cattle breeding. Oh life. ◁ Settled, adv. Live o. Settlement (see) ... Encyclopedic Dictionary
settled- oh, oh. see also settled, sedentary a) Permanently living in one place. O oh tribes. Oh population. b) ott. Associated with life in one, permanent place. Ose/long lifestyle. Oh brutish... Dictionary of many expressions
Settlement- a sedentary lifestyle associated with living in one place in settlements of various types. Some of them are predominantly the focus of the rural agricultural population, others, larger urban ones; the latter usually perform... Human ecology
This family includes small and medium-sized birds: the smallest have a length of only slightly more than 100 mm and a weight only slightly exceeding 10 g, while large species reach 400 mm in length and weigh more than 200 g. Beak... ... Biological encyclopedia
For the term "Peregrine Falcon" see other meanings. Peregrine falcon ... Wikipedia
Books
- Palestine before the ancient Jews, Anati Emmanuel. The book is dedicated to the cultural heritage of the peoples who lived three hundred thousand years ago on a small piece of land called Palestine. The author talks about the unique Natufian culture, in…
- Palestine before the ancient Jews, Emmanuel Anati. The book is dedicated to the cultural heritage of the peoples who lived three hundred thousand years ago on a small piece of land called Palestine. The author talks about the unique Natufian culture, in…
SEDIENT LIFESTYLE is a way of life of an animal whose entire life cycle takes place within its individual area (biocenosis). Wed. Nomadic lifestyle.
Image I- manners
Dictionary of synonyms
Image- image, plural image, m. Same as icon.
Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary
Image— Artistic generalization; phenomena, types, characters in painting, literature, music, on stage, etc.
Abstract, allegorical, archaic, colorless, pale, great,……..
Dictionary of epithets
sedentary adj.— 1. Constantly living in the same place. 2. Associated with permanent residence in one place.
Explanatory Dictionary by Efremova
During Life Adv. Razg. — 1.
When was anyone still alive?
Explanatory Dictionary by Efremova
Settled- and SEDENTED, sedentary, sedentary. Living in one, permanent place; opposite nomadic. Sedentary tribes.
Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary
Image— — a picture of reality and/or its individual aspects (including the subject himself), tied to specific conditions, circumstances, time and/or timeless, evolving……..
Political dictionary
Image of the Enemy- an ideological and psychological stereotype that allows one to build political behavior in conditions of a lack of reliable information about a political opponent or environment. At……..
Political dictionary
Group Lifestyle- - special forms of communication, a special type of contacts that develop between people. Within a certain lifestyle, interests, values, and needs acquire special significance.
Political dictionary
Long Lived Assets- components
buildings that have relatively long
useful life, such as foundation and frame.
Economic dictionary
American Society of Certified Life and Certified Financial Underwriters- Year
founded: 1927. Headquarters
apartment: Bryn Mop (Bryn Mawr),
Pennsylvania (PA), USA. Members: persons holding the title of Chartered
insurance underwriter……..
Economic dictionary
Life Insurance Underwriter— In life insurance: usually a life insurance agent. In a narrower sense, this term means a risk assessor.
Economic dictionary
Association of Life Insurance Operations Management Bureaus- Year
founded: 1924. Headquarters
apartment: Atlanta,
State of Georgia (GA), USA. Members:
life and health insurers in the USA and Canada. Associated members: insurers……..
Economic dictionary
Brand / Trademark: Image And Brand Values— Trading
brand (
brand) is “the name
term,
sign, symbol or design, or
combinations that exist to identify goods or services of a certain……..
Economic dictionary
Compensation for Harm Caused to the Life or Health of a Citizen in the Execution of Contractual or Other Obligations- harm caused to life or health
a citizen in the performance of contractual obligations, as well as in the performance of military service, police service and……..
Economic dictionary
Renewable Term Life Insurance— A term life insurance policy that offers the policyholder the right to renew the policy within a specified period (often one year) for a specified period of time………
Economic dictionary
Group Life Insurance— In life insurance: an insurance program intended for group members. It is most widely used for insurance of a group of employees, but can also be used........
Economic dictionary
Group Life Insurance, Credit— In life insurance: insurance
Credit life insurance coverage that protects interests
creditor (
bank, credit
union,
organizations,……..
Economic dictionary
Full Member of the Institute of Life Insurance Operations Management— A qualification title awarded to persons who have successfully passed established exams (in 10 disciplines) in life and health insurance, as well as finance, marketing,……..
Economic dictionary
Dynamic Lifestyle of an Entrepreneur— — a lifestyle determined by fierce competition among entrepreneurs, as well as between entrepreneurs and employees.
Economic dictionary
Certified Life Insurance Underwriter— The title of a highly qualified specialist, which is awarded by the American College to individuals who successfully complete the course of study and pass exams in a number of disciplines,……..
Economic dictionary
Life Insurance Contract- an agreement between the policyholder and the insurer stipulating
life insurance obligations.
In D.s.zh. the age limits for insurance of persons are fixed,
size……..
Economic dictionary
Life Insurance Contract— Agreement between the policyholder and the insurer regulating their mutual
obligations in accordance with the terms and conditions of this type of life insurance set out……..
Economic dictionary
Life Insurance Contract Convertible- an agreement that makes it possible to change the form of insurance liability or some
insurance conditions with simultaneous
changes in the conditions and amounts of payment of insurance premiums.
Economic dictionary
Law on the Right to Privacy— RIGHT TO PRIVACY ACTFederal legislation that came into force on
acceptance
Law on non-interference in personal finances. case of 1978, guaranteeing
customer right……..
Economic dictionary
Privacy Laws— PRIVACY LAWS State and federal laws prohibiting violation
privacy rights and restrictions on access……..
Economic dictionary
Settled- oh, oh. Constantly living in one place. Oh tribes. Oh population. // Associated with life in one, permanent place. O. lifestyle. Oh cattle breeding. Oh life.
◁……..
Kuznetsov's Explanatory Dictionary
Cost of Living Index- an index characterizing changes in prices for consumer goods and tariffs for services in relation to a fixed set of goods and services included in the consumer........
Economic dictionary
Cost-of-living Index— prices for a set of goods and services selected to reflect changes in the cost of a typical consumer basket over time.
Economic dictionary
Living Standard Index— index characterizing
change in the level of real income of the population, its certain groups, determined taking into account changes in both the cash income of the population and……..
Economic dictionary
View Wikipedia article for SEDENTIAL LIFESTYLE
Translate SEDENTIAL LIFESTYLE into language:
Domestication results
and sedentary lifestyle albedoadmin
"Our Earth"
Sedentism and domestication represent not only technological changes, but also changes in worldview.
Land is no longer a free commodity available to everyone, with resources randomly scattered throughout its territory - it has become a special territory, owned by someone or a group of people, on which people grow plants and livestock. Thus, a sedentary lifestyle and high levels of resource extraction lead to property ownership that was rare in previous forager societies. Burial sites, heavy goods, permanent housing, grain processing equipment, and fields and livestock tied people to their place of residence. Human influence on the environment has become stronger and more noticeable since the transition to sedentism and the growth of agriculture; people began to increasingly change the surrounding area - building terraces and walls to protect against floods.
Fertility distribution intervals
Among modern foragers, female pregnancy occurs once every 3-4 years, due to the long period of breastfeeding characteristic of such communities. Duration does not mean that children are weaned at 3-4 years, but that feeding will last as long as the child needs it, even in cases of several times an hour (Shostak, 1981). This feeding stimulates the secretion of hormones that suppress ovulation (Henry, 1989). Henry points out that "the adaptive significance of such a mechanism is obvious in the context of nomadic foragers, because one child who needs to be cared for for 3-4 years creates serious problems for the mother, but a second or third during this interval will create an unresolved problem for her and will jeopardize her health...”
There are many more reasons why feeding lasts 3-4 years among foragers. Their diet is rich in proteins, also low in carbohydrates, and lacks soft foods that are easy for babies to digest. In fact, Marjorie Szostak noted that among the Bushmen, modern foragers of the Kalahari Desert, food is coarse and difficult to digest: “To survive in such conditions, a child must be over 2 years of age, preferably much older” (1981). After six months of nursing, the mother has no food that can be found and prepared for the baby in addition to her own milk. Among the Bushmen, infants over 6 months old are given solid, already chewed or crushed food, complementary foods, which begin the transition to solid food.
The length of time between pregnancies serves to maintain long-term energy balance in women during their reproductive years. In many foraging societies, increased caloric intake during nursing requires mobility, and this style of feeding (high protein, low carbohydrate) can leave the mother's energy balance low. In cases where food supply is limited, the period of pregnancy and lactation can become a net drain of energy, leading to a sharp reduction in fertility. Under such circumstances, this gives the woman more time to restore her fertility. Thus, the period when she is neither pregnant nor lactating becomes necessary to build her energy balance for future reproduction.
Decline in food quality
The West has long viewed agriculture as a step forward from gathering, a sign of human progress. Although, however, the first farmers did not eat as well as the gatherers.
Jared Diamond (1987) wrote: “When farmers focus on high-carbohydrate crops such as potatoes or rice, the mix of wild plants and animals in the hunter/gatherer diet provides more protein and a better balance of other nutrients.
One study noted that Bushmen consumed an average of 2,140 calories and 93 grams of protein per day, well above the recommended daily intake for people their size. It is almost impossible that Bushmen, eating 75 species of wild plants, could starve to death, as happened to thousands of Irish farmers and their families in 1840.”
In skeletal studies we come to the same point of view. The skeletons, found in Greece and Turkey and dating back to the late Paleolithic, averaged 5 feet 9 inches in height for men and 5 feet 5 inches for women. With the adoption of agriculture, the average height fell - about 5,000 years ago, the average height of a man was 5 feet 3 inches, and a woman about 5 feet. Even modern Greeks and Turks are not, on average, as tall as their Paleolithic ancestors.
Increased danger
Roughly speaking, agriculture probably first appeared in ancient southwest Asia, and perhaps elsewhere, to increase food supply to support an expanding population under severe resource stress. Over time, however, as dependence on domesticated crops increased, so did the overall insecurity of the food supply system. Why?
Increase in the number of diseases
The increase in the number of diseases is especially associated with the evolution of domesticated plants, for which there were several reasons. First, before sedentary life, human waste was disposed of outside the residential area. As the number of people living nearby in relatively permanent settlements increased, waste disposal became increasingly problematic. The large amount of feces has led to the emergence of diseases, and insects, some of which are carriers of diseases, feed on animal and plant waste.
Secondly, a large number of people living nearby serves as a reservoir for pathogens. Once the population becomes large enough, the likelihood of disease transmission increases. By the time one person recovers from the disease, another may reach the infectious stage and infect the first one again. Consequently, the disease will never leave the settlement. The speed with which colds, flu, or chickenpox spread among schoolchildren perfectly illustrates the interaction of dense populations and disease.
Thirdly, sedentary people cannot simply escape from the disease; on the contrary, if one of the foragers gets sick, the rest can leave for a while, reducing the likelihood of the disease spreading.
Fourth, agricultural nutrition may reduce disease resistance.
Finally, population growth has provided ample opportunities for microbial development.
In fact, there is good evidence that the clearing of land for farming in sub-Saharan Africa has created an ideal breeding ground for malaria-carrying mosquitoes, leading to a sharp increase in malaria cases.
Environmental degradation
With the development of agriculture, people began to actively influence the environment. Deforestation, soil deterioration, clogging of streams, and the death of many wild species - all this accompanies domestication. In the valley of the lower Tigris and Euphrates, the irrigation waters used by early farmers carried large amounts of soluble salts, poisoning its soil, thereby rendering it unusable to this day.
Increased work
Increasing domestication requires much more labor than foraging. People must clear the land, plant seeds, take care of young shoots, protect them from pests, collect them, process the seeds, store them, select seeds for the next sowing; in addition, people must care for and protect domesticated animals, select herds, shear sheep, milk goats, and so on
Domestication results
and sedentary lifestyle albedoadmin
Sedentism and domestication, together and separately, transformed human life in ways that still influence our lives today.
"Our Earth"
Sedentism and domestication represent not only technological changes, but also changes in worldview. Land is no longer a free commodity available to everyone, with resources randomly scattered throughout its territory - it has become a special territory, owned by someone or a group of people, on which people grow plants and livestock. Thus, a sedentary lifestyle and high levels of resource extraction lead to property ownership that was rare in previous forager societies. Burial sites, heavy goods, permanent housing, grain processing equipment, and fields and livestock tied people to their place of residence. Human influence on the environment has become stronger and more noticeable since the transition to sedentism and the growth of agriculture; people began to increasingly change the surrounding area - building terraces and walls to protect against floods.
Fertility, sedentary lifestyle and food system
The most dramatic consequences of sedentism are changes in female fertility and population growth. A number of different effects combined to increase the population.
123Next ⇒
The reason for a person’s transition to a sedentary life
Nikolay Naumkin
The reason for a person's transition to a sedentary life.
I was prompted to take up the coverage of this topic by what seems to me to be a false understanding of historical science about the processes that led people to a settled life and the emergence of agriculture and animal husbandry. Currently, it is believed that the main reason for the transition of people to a sedentary life was the development of ancient society to such a level at which people began to understand that food production was more promising than hunting and gathering. Some authors even call this period the first intellectual revolution of the Stone Age, which allowed our ancestors to rise to a higher level of development. Yes, of course, at first glance it seems that this is so, because during a sedentary life, people had to invent more and more new necessary tools and devices for farming or animal husbandry. From scratch, come up with ways to preserve and process the harvest and build long-term housing. But scientists do not give an answer to the most important question, what made ancient people radically change their lives. But this is the most important question that needs to be answered, because only then will it become clear why people began to live in one place and took up agriculture and animal husbandry? To understand the root cause that prompted people to change their lives, it is necessary to go back to the very distant past, when Homo sapiens began to use the first tools. People of that time were still not much different from wild animals, therefore, as an example of the beginning of the use of tools by ancient man, we can cite modern Chimpanzees, who are also still at this initial stage of development. As is known, Chimpanzees use smooth stones rolled in water to break strong nut shells, and they carry suitable tools found on the shore of a reservoir over considerable distances to the place of their use. Usually this is a larger stone that serves as an anvil and a smaller pebble that they use as a hammer. Sometimes a third stone is used to serve as a support to securely hold the anvil in the ground. It is clear that in this case, the monkeys’ use of stone tools resulted from the inability to crack the strong shells of nuts with their teeth. Apparently, the first people began to use tools in the same way, looking for suitable stones created by nature itself. The first people lived, most likely also like Chimpanzees, in small family groups, in a certain territory and did not yet lead a nomadic lifestyle. So when, and why, did ancient people switch to a nomadic lifestyle? Most likely, this happened due to changes in the diet of ancient man, and his transition from using mainly plant foods to consuming meat. Such a transition to eating meat most likely occurred as a result of fairly rapid climate changes in the habitats of ancient man, and as a result, led to a decrease in traditional plant food sources. Natural changes forced ancient man to turn into omnivorous predators, who initially ate mainly plant foods. It is likely that initially people, who did not have sharp fangs and claws, hunted small herbivorous animals, which constantly moved from one pasture to another in search of food. Apparently already at this stage of the first human migrations, following the migration of animals, individual families began to unite into groups, because this way it was possible to hunt animals more successfully. The desire to include larger and stronger animals among the hunting prey, which were impossible to handle with bare hands, led to the fact that people were forced to invent new tools specially adapted for this purpose. This is how the first weapon created by Stone Age man appeared, the so-called pointed tip, or stone chopper, which allowed him to hunt larger animals. Then people invented a stone axe, a knife, a scraper, and a spear with a bone or stone tip. Following the herds of migrating animals, people began to explore territories where summer warmth gave way to winter cold, and this required the invention of clothing to protect against the cold. Over time, man figured out how to make fire and use it for cooking, protection from the cold and hunting wild animals. Some of the people who roamed near water bodies mastered a new source of food, meaning fish, all kinds of shellfish, algae, bird eggs, and even waterfowl themselves. To do this, they had to invent such a weapon as a spear with a jagged end for catching fish and a bow that made it possible to hit prey at a considerable distance. The man had to figure out how to make a boat from a single tree trunk. Observing the work of a spider weaving a web apparently told people how to make a net, or weave a trap for catching fish from thin rods. Having mastered such a near-aquatic way of life, people naturally lost the opportunity to freely roam the land, since they found themselves tied to a specific body of water, due to the large number of devices they had, which became difficult to move from one place to another. Over time, all the tribes of hunters and gatherers who wandered after the herds of wild animals found themselves in exactly the same situation. If at first, people could move freely, from one place to another, armed only with a stone chopper or an ax, then over time, when they had a lot of material assets, this became much more difficult. Now they had to carry with them several types of weapons, various tools, clay and wooden dishes, and a stone grain grinder for grinding wild grains, acorns or nuts. It was necessary to move to a new parking place, valuable in the opinion of people, the skins of animals that served them as a bed, clothing, a supply of water and food, if the path lay through unfamiliar terrain. Among the things necessary for a person, one can also name figurines of gods, or totem animals that people worshiped, and many other things. For these purposes, people invented, and apparently wove, special shoulder baskets, like a backpack, from thin rods, and also used stretchers, or drags, made of two poles on which the transported load was attached. A clear example of how this looked in ancient times can be the existing tribes from the Amazon River basin, who lived back in the Stone Age, but have already lost the ability to freely roam from place to place, due to the large number of objects used and long-term dwellings built by them. Having occupied their specific niche, and without changing their lives in any way, these tribes stopped in their development at the level of Stone Age people who did not yet conduct agriculture, and were still limited to only the rudiments of animal husbandry. The living Australian aborigines found themselves in approximately the same situation, only the latter, continuing to live in the Stone Age, and due to the small number of tools, did not even switch to a sedentary lifestyle. At some stage of evolution, people increasingly began to face the question of what to do next in this situation, because moving all their belongings from place to place became more and more difficult.
From this point on, the development of the tribes took two different paths. Some tribes who managed to tame a horse or camel were able to remain nomadic, because using the power of these animals allowed them to transport all their belongings from one place to another. The subsequent invention of the wheel and the appearance of carts were the result of the evolution of a nomadic lifestyle. In approximately the same way, all the nomadic peoples of antiquity known to us appeared. Of course, it should be noted that the technical development of such peoples was limited by how much payload they could move from place to place. Tribes that were unable to tame large pack animals began to lead a sedentary lifestyle, so they had to look for ways to feed themselves while living in one place. Such tribes were forced to look for new ways to obtain food by farming or raising small livestock. Nomadic peoples who moved long distances could only engage in the breeding of small animals driven from one pasture to another. But the nomads had the additional opportunity to simultaneously engage in trade. But they were limited in further technical development due to their specific way of life. Peoples leading a sedentary lifestyle, on the contrary, had more opportunities in terms of technical development. They could build large houses, various outbuildings, and improve the tools they needed to cultivate the land. Find ways to preserve or process harvested crops, invent and produce increasingly complex household items. A person settled on the earth, in creative terms, was not limited by the number of pack animals, or the size of the cart, which could only accommodate a certain amount of cargo. Therefore, it seems quite logical that over time, nomadic peoples, such as the Cumans or Scythians, simply disappeared from the historical arena, giving way to more technically advanced agricultural cultures. Concluding the consideration of this issue, it should be noted that in the development of human society several separate stages are visible at once, through which ancient man had to go. The first such stage can be considered the period when our ancestors had not yet made tools, but, like modern Chimpanzees, used stones created by nature as tools. During this very long period, people still led a sedentary lifestyle, occupying one specific feeding area. The next stage began when people were forced to master a new food source. This means a transition from eating mainly plant foods in favor of a meat diet. It was during this period that people began to wander following the migration of herbivores. This way of life led to the fact that small groups of people began to unite into tribes for more successful hunting of herd animals. At the same time, people mastered the manufacture of stone tools, which they needed to successfully hunt larger prey. Thanks to this nomadic lifestyle, people, following their potential food, precisely at this stage, managed to populate all areas of the earth suitable for life. Then, as a result of technological progress, when people began to produce more and more items they needed for life, it became increasingly difficult for tribes burdened with household belongings to lead their former nomadic lifestyle, following herds of wild animals. As a result of this, people were forced to switch to the so-called semi-nomadic lifestyle. Now they built temporary hunting camps and continued to live in them until the surrounding nature could adequately feed the entire tribe. When the food resources at their previous place of residence were depleted, the tribe moved to a new area, moving there all the things they needed and setting up a new camp there. Apparently at this stage in the life of ancient society, attempts were made for the first time to cultivate plants and domesticate wild animals. Some tribes that managed to domesticate wild horses, camels, or reindeer were again able to lead their former nomadic lifestyle.
As we see from subsequent history, many tribes took advantage of this opportunity, later turning into nomadic peoples. The remaining tribes, who had achieved results in agriculture and cattle breeding, but were burdened with a large number of tools and tied to a certain piece of land, had to stop regular migrations and live a sedentary life. Apparently something like this, over the course of several tens of thousands of years, there was a gradual transition of people,
from nomadic to sedentary lifestyle. Every modern person who has read this article can look around him and see what a huge number of different things surround him. It is clear that moving to a new place with such a large pile of goods is currently no longer realistic. After all, even moving from one apartment to another is considered by the people almost a disaster, comparable only to a flood or fire.
Copyright: Nikolay Naumkin, 2017
Certificate of publication No. 217020701400
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Sedentism and domestication, together and separately, transformed human life in ways that still influence our lives today.“Our Earth”
Sedentism and domestication represent not only technological changes, but also changes in worldview. Land is no longer a free commodity available to everyone, with resources randomly scattered throughout its territory - it has become a special territory, owned by someone or a group of people, on which people grow plants and livestock. Thus, a sedentary lifestyle and high levels of resource extraction lead to property ownership that was rare in previous forager societies. Burial sites, heavy goods, permanent housing, grain processing equipment, and fields and livestock tied people to their place of residence. Human influence on the environment has become stronger and more noticeable since the transition to sedentism and the growth of agriculture; people began to increasingly change the surrounding area - building terraces and walls to protect against floods.
Fertility, sedentary lifestyle and food system
The most dramatic consequences of sedentism are changes in female fertility and population growth. A number of different effects combined to increase the population.
Fertility Distribution Intervals
Among modern foragers, female pregnancy occurs once every 3-4 years, due to the long period of breastfeeding characteristic of such societies. Duration does not mean that children are weaned at 3-4 years, but that feeding will last as long as the child needs it, even in cases of several times an hour (Shostak 1981). This feeding stimulates the secretion of hormones that suppress ovulation (Henry 1989). Henry points out that “the adaptive significance of such a mechanism is obvious in the context of nomadic foragers, because one child who needs to be cared for for 3-4 years creates serious problems for the mother, but a second or third during this interval will create an unsolvable problem for her and will jeopardize her health...”
There are many more reasons why feeding lasts 3-4 years among foragers. Their diet is rich in proteins, also low in carbohydrates, and lacks soft foods that are easy for babies to digest. In reality, Marjorie Szostak noted that among the Bushmen, modern foragers in the Kalahari Desert, food is coarse and difficult to digest: “To survive in such conditions, a child must be over 2 years old, preferably much older” (1981). After six months of nursing, the mother has no food that can be found and prepared for the baby in addition to her own milk. Among the Bushmen, infants over 6 months old are given solid, already chewed or crushed food, complementary foods, which begin the transition to solid food.
The length of time between pregnancies serves to maintain long-term energy balance in women during their reproductive years. In many foraging societies, increased calorie intake during nursing requires mobility, and this feeding style (high protein, low carbohydrate) may leave the mother's energy balance low. In cases where food supply is limited, the period of pregnancy and lactation can become a net drain of energy, leading to a sharp reduction in fertility. Under such circumstances, this gives the woman more time to restore her fertility. Thus, the period when she is neither pregnant nor lactating becomes necessary to build her energy balance for future reproduction.
Changes in Fertility Rate
In addition to the effects of breastfeeding, Allison notes the age, nutritional status, energy balance, diet, and exercise of women during a given period (1990). This means that intense aerobic exercise can lead to changes in period intervals (amenorrhea), but less intense aerobic exercise can lead to poorer fertility in less obvious but important ways.
Recent studies of North American women whose activities require high levels of endurance (long-distance runners and young ballet dancers, for example) have indicated some changes in fertility. These findings are relevant to sedentism because the activity levels of the women studied are consistent with the activity levels of women in modern foraging societies.
Researchers found 2 different effects on fertility. The young, active ballerinas experienced their first menstruation at age 15.5 years, much later than the inactive control group, whose members experienced their first menstruation at age 12.5 years. High levels of activity also appear to affect the endocrine system, reducing the time a woman is fertile by 1 to 3 times.
To summarize the influence of foraging on female fertility, Henry notes: “It appears that a number of interrelated factors associated with a nomadic foraging lifestyle exert natural fertility control and perhaps explain the low population density of the Paleolithic. In nomadic foraging societies, women appear to experience the same long periods of breastfeeding during child rearing as the high energy drains associated with foraging and periodic wandering. In addition, their diet, which is relatively high in protein, tends to maintain low levels of fat, thereby reducing fertility.” (1989)
With increasing sedentism, these limits to female fertility were weakened. The period of breastfeeding was reduced, as was the amount of energy expended by the woman (Bushman women, for example, walked an average of 1,500 miles per year, carrying 25 pounds of equipment, collected food, and, in some cases, children). This does not mean that a sedentary lifestyle is physically undemanding. Farming requires its own hard work from both men and women. The only difference is in the types of physical activity. Walking long distances, transporting heavy loads and children were replaced by sowing, cultivating the land, collecting, storing and processing grain. A diet rich in grains significantly changed the ratio of proteins and carbohydrates in the diet. This changed prolactin levels, increased positive energy balance and led to faster growth in children and earlier onset of menstruation.
The constant availability of grains allowed mothers to feed their children soft, high-carbohydrate cereals. Analysis of children's feces in Egypt showed that a similar practice was used, but with root vegetables, on the banks of the Nile 19,000 years ago ( Hillman 1989). The influence of grains on fertility has been noted Richard Lee among the sedentary Bushmen, who have recently begun to eat grain and are experiencing a marked increase in birth rates. Renee Pennington(1992) noted that the increase in reproductive success of the Bushmen was possibly associated with a decrease in infant and child mortality.
Decline in Nutrition Quality
The West has long viewed agriculture as a step forward from gathering, a sign of human progress. Although, however, the first farmers did not eat as well as the gatherers.
Jared Diamond(1987) wrote: “When farmers focus on high-carbohydrate crops such as potatoes or rice, the mix of wild plants and animals in the hunter/gatherer diet provides more protein and a better balance of other nutrients. One study noted that Bushmen consumed an average of 2,140 calories and 93 grams of protein per day, well above the recommended daily intake for people their size. It is almost impossible that Bushmen, eating 75 species of wild plants, could starve to death, as happened to thousands of Irish farmers and their families in 1840.”
In skeletal studies we will come to the same point of view. The skeletons, found in Greece and Turkey and dating back to the late Paleolithic, averaged 5 feet 9 inches in height for men and 5 feet 5 inches for women. With the adoption of agriculture, the average height fell - about 5,000 years ago, the average height of a man was 5 feet 3 inches, and a woman about 5 feet. Even modern Greeks and Turks are not, on average, as tall as their Paleolithic ancestors.
Increased danger
Roughly speaking, agriculture probably first appeared in ancient southwest Asia, and perhaps elsewhere, to increase food supply to support an expanding population under conditions of severe resource stress. Over time, however, as dependence on domesticated crops increased, so did the overall insecurity of the food supply system. Why?
Share of Domesticated Plants in Food
There are several reasons why early farmers became increasingly dependent on cultivated plants. Farmers were able to use previously unsuitable land. When such a vital necessity as water could be brought to the lands between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the land that was native to wheat and barley could grow them. Domesticated plants also provided more and more edible plants and were easier to collect, process, and prepare. They are also better in taste. Rindos listed a number of modern food plants that were developed from bitter wild varieties. Finally, the increase in the yield of domesticated plants per unit of land led to an increase in their proportion in the diet, even if wild plants were still used and available as before.
Dependence on a Small Number of Plants.
Unfortunately, depending on fewer and fewer plants is quite risky if the yield is poor. According to Richard Lee, the Bushmen living in the Kalahari Desert ate more than 100 plants (14 fruits and nuts, 15 berries, 18 edible resins, 41 edible roots and bulbs, and 17 leafy foods, beans, melons, and other foods) (1992). In contrast, modern farmers rely primarily on 20 plants, of which three—wheat, corn, and rice—feed most of the world's people. Historically, there were only one or two grain products for a specific group of people. The decline in the yield of these crops had catastrophic consequences for the population.
Selective Breeding, Monocultures and the Gene Pool
Selective breeding of any plant species reduces the variability of its gene pool, eliminating its natural resistance to rare natural pests and diseases and reducing its long-term chances of survival, increasing the risk of serious losses at harvest. Again, many people depend on specific types of plants, risking their future. Monoculture is the practice of growing only one type of plant in a field. While this increases crop efficiency, it also leaves the entire field exposed to disease or pest damage. The result may be hunger.
Increased Dependence on Plants
As cultivated plants began to play an increasingly important role in their nutrition, people became dependent on plants and plants, in turn, became dependent on people, or more precisely, on the environment created by man. But people cannot completely control the environment. Hail, flood, drought, pests, frost, heat, erosion and many other factors can destroy or significantly affect crops, all of which are beyond human control. The risk of failure and starvation increases.
Increase in the Number of Diseases
The increase in the number of diseases is especially associated with the evolution of domesticated plants, for which there were several reasons. First, before sedentary life, human waste was disposed of outside the residential area. As the number of people living nearby in relatively permanent settlements increased, waste disposal became increasingly problematic. The large amount of feces has led to the emergence of diseases, and insects, some of which are carriers of diseases, feed on animal and plant waste.
Secondly, a large number of people living nearby serves as a reservoir for pathogens. Once the population becomes large enough, the likelihood of disease transmission increases. By the time one person recovers from the disease, another may reach the infectious stage and infect the first one again. Consequently, the disease will never leave the settlement. The speed with which colds, flu, or chickenpox spread among schoolchildren perfectly illustrates the interaction of dense populations and disease.
Thirdly, sedentary people cannot simply escape from the disease; on the contrary, if one of the foragers gets sick, the rest can leave for a while, reducing the likelihood of the disease spreading. Fourth, agricultural nutrition may reduce disease resistance. Finally, population growth has provided ample opportunities for microbial development. Indeed, as previously discussed in Chapter 3, there is good evidence that the clearing of land for farming in sub-Saharan Africa has created an excellent breeding ground for malaria-carrying mosquitoes, leading to a sharp increase in malaria cases.
Environmental Degradation
With the development of agriculture, people began to actively influence the environment. Deforestation, soil deterioration, clogging of streams, and the death of many wild species - all this accompanies domestication. In the valley on the lower reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates, the irrigation waters used by early farmers carried large quantities of soluble salts, poisoning its soil, thereby rendering it unusable to this day.
Increase in Work
Increasing domestication requires much more labor than foraging. People must clear the land, plant seeds, take care of young shoots, protect them from pests, collect them, process the seeds, store them, select seeds for the next sowing; In addition, people must care for and protect domesticated animals, select herds, shear sheep, milk goats, and so on.
(c) Emily A. Schultz & Robert H. Lavenda, excerpt from the college textbook “Anthropology: A Perspective on the Human Condition Second Edition.”