Question

What is the Neolithic "revolution"? What are some explanations for this shift in a way of life? How are changes in subsistence linked with technology, settlement patterns, and cultural systems? (Anthropology)

Answer 1

Answer- Neolithic revolution is also known as agricultural revolution. I'm that revolving humans changed their lifestyle from hunters, gatherers to one of agriculture and settlement. Australian archaeologist V. Gordon Childe coined the term “Neolithic Revolution” in 1935 to describe the radical and important period of change in which humans began cultivating plants, breeding animals for food and forming permanent settlements. The advent of agriculture separated Neolithic people from their Paleolithic ancestors.

Explanation-

There was no single factor that led humans to begin farming roughly 12,000 years ago. The causes of the Neolithic Revolution may have varied from region to region which can be explained in following manner-

• The Earth entered a warming trend around 14,000 years ago at the end of the last Ice Age. Some scientists theorize that climate changes drove the Agricultural Revolution.
• In the Fertile Crescent, bounded on the west by the Mediterranean Sea and on the east by the Persian Gulf, wild wheat and barley began to grow as it got warmer. Pre-Neolithic people called Natufians started building permanent houses in the region.
• Others suggest that intellectual advances in the human brain may have caused people to settle down.

Yes, changes in subsistence is closely related with technology, settlement pattern and cultural system, which is explained below-

• Technology- Neolithic period is characterized by major revolutions in technology which involves development of agricultural practices and development of stone tools which helped a lot in this revolution.
• Settlement pattern- The Neolithic Revolution led to masses of people establishing permanent settlements supported by farming and agriculture. It paved the way for the innovations of the ensuing Bronze Age and Iron Age.
• Cultural system- Archaeologists have unearthed more than a dozen mud-brick dwellings at the 9,500 year-old Çatalhöyük. They estimate that as many as 8,000 people may have lived here at one time. The houses were clustered so closely back-to-back that residents had to enter the homes through a hole in the roof. The inhabitants of Çatalhöyük appear to have valued art and spirituality. They buried their dead under the floors of their houses. The walls of the homes are covered with murals of men hunting, cattle and female goddesses.