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FROM FORAGING TO FARMING: THE SO-CALLED “NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION”

Research in Economic History

ISBN: 978-0-76231-119-4, eISBN: 978-1-84950-282-5

Publication date: 11 December 2004

Abstract

This essay provides evidence that the invention of agriculture was not a dramatic technological advance in the history of humankind and that agriculture was quite consistent with nomadic hunting and gathering. The available clues also suggest that exact origins of agriculture do not seem important. Rather, the crucial question is why certain societies dramatically increased their dependency on agriculture for subsistence two to ten millennia ago. Unfortunately, most of the major theories purporting to explain the neolithic revolution – either the origins or the spread of agriculture – are either untestable or inconsistent with the available evidence. What is at stake for economic historians is to rethink the process of the adoption of agriculture using a multi-causal approach.

Citation

Pryor, F.L. (2004), "FROM FORAGING TO FARMING: THE SO-CALLED “NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION”", Research in Economic History (Research in Economic History, Vol. 22), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 1-39. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0363-3268(04)22001-8

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2004, Emerald Group Publishing Limited