Why was the Neolithic Revolution a Turning Point in History?

During the Paleolithic Era, people were considered nomadic. This means they moved around to follow their food source and they did not have any permanent homes, instead they would have found temporary shelter in caves and such. Other every distinct characteristics for this era are, hunting and gathering meaning they they hunted wild animals and gathered things like nuts and berries, during this era there was no real economy and there were assigned gender roles but both genders were considered equal, this tells us that men were assigned to hunt and fight, while as women were assigned to making clothes and caring for children, (Of course there were more jobs that needed to be done these are just a few to give you a broad idea), but each gender was considered just as important as the other. One way we know these people moved around a lot is because of their cave drawings, there are many theories that try to explain cave drawings. All though we do not know any of these theories are correct one of the most accurate (meaning backed up by real facts and scientific knowledge) theories suggests that because people had not yet learned to write, they would make these drawings or paintings on cave walls wherever they could by to tell other humans what they saw so they could prepare for anything bad.

The transition to the Neolithic Era was called the Neolithic Revolution, not a revolution like taking over a ruler or someone in power but more of a change in knowledge . Starting around 8000 BCE people slowly started to plant seeds they had gathered and grow crops like wheat beans and corn, this was the beginning of farming. The discovery of farming allowed people to stay in one place instead of moving around to follow food. This also helped people grow their communities, because they would need more people to tend to the crops and more people to take over the roles those people had, after people started forming bigger groups the need for permanent housing arose. With the materials they found near their villages people started to build big houses in which the whole village could live. With all these people living and working together people would need someone to make sure it all ran smoothly, leaders started to step forward and take on the role of chiefs. A chief’s job was to make sure everyone in the village was safe and had enough food and water to stay alive. People started settling near rivers to have access to water. Soon after people discovered that they could harness fire and use it to their benefit they would use the heat from the flame to cook and make metal tools. As all this was going on humans started moving towards a male dominated society, men had more useful jobs than women such as hunting, being chiefs, protecting everyone and interacting with other villages. As these villages started to settle people started to trade between villages, this means if one village did not have enough of one thing they would go and take something of their own and trade it for what they needed. To get these jobs done more efficiently people started domesticating animals such as wolves, horses, and cattle. These animals were very useful for things like, hunting and some were even used as food sources.

As you can see the changes between the Paleolithic Era and the Neolithic Era are very drastic this was one of the first big modernizations of mankind working towards what they might not have known than would be a better brighter future. 

Cite this page