What event or events led men to form more complex societies than the hunter/gatherers?

Question

I was watching Nowhere in Africa the other night and it dawned on me that there are places in the world where people still live in societies that aren't much different from the ancient hunter/gatherer tribes. Why did some "advance" while others "stayed behind"?

If I had to guess, I would say it was the result of living in environments where people were constantly challenged to find better solutions for survival. I can see how this might lead to specialization of duties (some grew crops, some hunted, some made clothes, etc) and innovation.

Answer 1

Close.

It was living in environments that were easy to grow grain surpluses (one professor of mine suggested it was desire for -- wait for it -- none other than BEER! that inspired the growing of "too much" grain).

Thus, the "Fertile Crescent" (Mesopotamia and Egypt) is where we first see "civilizations" -- with big buildings, writing, and such. (Soon after, along the rivers of China, you see complex socieites based on surplus agriculture.)

Then places near those places picked it up.

So one big part is living in a place conducive to mass agriculture.

It was the surplus that allowed specialization. If a relatively few can grow more than enough grain to feed everyone, then some people can devote themselves full time to other things, like making pots, art, building really big things, telling everyone else what to do, etc.

When you're at subsitence level, people don't have the time to do all the different stuff; they're busy getting food and shelter, and doing things directly relevant to same.

Answer 2

How about lack of room? Most hunter gatherers know about crop growing. They knew when a particular plant was ripe and made sure they got there in time to harvest it. Traditionally, most groups left the best plants to seed next season's crop.

When bands started bumping into each other, there first wasn't any new spaces to move too. The band wasn't able to split and one move into fresh territory. They had their range and had to make a living out of it.

Studies have suggested that agriculture wasn't as wonderful as you might think. Grinding seeds meant women suffered repetitive motion injuries, teeth wore down due to stone dust in the food, living together spread disease.

Answer 3

Growing your own food gave people more time at home, to make family relations better, larger families, etc. The use of tools made life easier for people. A low share to plow a garden, an Axe to hunt or chop the meat up with. Taming animals, dogs about 18 K B.P. horses about this same time, if they weren't hungry that is.

     Fishing and boats are now known to have been used about 5 K, B.P. probably to even come down the Northwest coast to help settle North America.

Answer 4

"Necessity if the mother of invention"

When people migrated to other areas we need to adapt our culture to those areas. Tools were adapted, food gathering and social ideals were all adapted. Greed also played into things. Societies were things are communal are generally more cooperative and civil where as other societies are the opposite.

Answer 5

obviously tribes that are cut off from the rest of society aren'y going to flow with the rest of mankind. cultures deep in the amazon still hunt and gather.

Answer 6

The Neolithic Revolution began about 10,000+ years ago at 30 degrees North Latitude, and herlded in the advent of Farming, for populations located near a fresh water source, which allowed people to begin storing food, building cities, domesticating livestock, and remain at the same location for a period of time, thus abandoning the nomadic lifestyle of constantly seeking fresh resources wherever the wild herds wandered!