Routine Subsistence Tasks Of The Neolithic

Register to read the introduction… The reason for this would have been the same as those in migratory societies, practicality. Although the women were no longer restrained by the need to carry infants long distances, and the presence of a crying child would not have had the same effect on domesticated animals as on the hunted prey, they still had to be concerned about the safety of the toddler. Any task taking place while caring for children also had to be interruptible. Men and women had to spend the majority of their time working to produce and prepare their food; for maximum productivity the women would have taken on the tasks that coordinated best with the demands of childcare. Such tasks are generally dull and do not require deep concentration, they can be easily interrupted and resumed. Gathering and basic gardening, cloth-making and small-scale local barter and trade fit these requirements. The main way to cope with an increasing population is for part of the group to split off and move to a new area, spreading and learning new ways of doing things. Another way would be to increase food productivity by farming more efficiently. Better preparation of the soil would help increase the yield of a crop, and deeper digging and turning of the soil is part of soil improvement. The digging stick developed into a hoe with a cutting edge, and the hoe evolved into a plough, which dug a deeper and continuous furrow. Even a simple plough was nearly impossible for one person to manage. Working a plough required two people, one to pull, and one to steer. When large domesticated animals were readily available, they were put to use pulling the plough. This made the task of farming to dangerous to involve women with small children and led to agriculture being a male domain. In a cooperative hunter-gatherer society, men are dependent on the activities of the women. In a …show more content…
The impact of farming was diverse- it affected our physical development, gender socialisation, population size and class systems. This early farming resulted in the extended kinship networks and economic trade systems that existed as late as the industrial revolution. It affected our culture and changed our drives making us territorial and materialistic, but it also created the hierarchical systems that allowed cooperation within our species beyond that normal in the anima kingdom. It was this cooperation that allowed us to change the world our species lived in, giving us the abilities needed to dominate the