What increased the social complexity of hunters and gathers during the neolithic revolution?

Question

What increased the social complexity of hunters and gathers during the neolithic revolution?

Answer 1

Farming and animal husbandry.  Agriculture allows for a big increase in food production, plus you don't have to move around as much.  You can start having larger populations, with enough food being produced that some people can start specializing.  With specialization comes greater complexity, as someone working all day with something can think of more innovations than someone who only gets an hour or so a day with it.  Also, since you're more sedentary, you can have more stuff.  A traditional hunter/gatherer society would never have invented, say, the diesel engine because it'd be too heavy to carry it around.

With increased material complexity and with more people came increased social complexity.  You need more taboos and regulations to keep a lot of people in line than you do with just a few.

Answer 2

Well what increased the social complexity of hunters and gatherers was the domestication of plants and animals.  Because hunters and gatherers were able to produce their own food they didn't have to travel around following herds of animals.  This lead to an increase in population and the creation of cities, and the societies became more and more complex.