Neolithic

Neolithic

1. The term Neolithic was used for the first time by the British researcher John Lubbock in 1865

   • To refer to the historical time in which people began to polish the stone and not just carve it as they did in the Paleolithic.
     • Neolithic means
       • New Stone

2. Characteristics

   • Domestication of plants
   • Domestication of animals
   • The first agricultural settlements date from 9000 BC ( Fertile crescent: Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, Indus)
   • Agricultural settlements in Mesoamerica and the Andes date from 7000 BC.

3. Hypothesis about the origin of farming.

   • Oasis hypothesis
     • It was advocated by Gordon Childe in 1936
       • The climate changed, and there was less rain. Temperature increased.
         • Humans went to live in or near oases where there is more water, to be able to survive. Some animals and plants did that too.
           • It was only a small step to domesticate some of the animals that were there.
             • Climate data from the period does not support it though.

4. Hypothesis about the origin of farming.

   • Ideological Hypothesis
     • Developed by the French archaeologist Jaques Cauvin.
       • The invention of agriculture was the result of various processes and strategies of human beings , directly related to their need for survival and not the result of environmental and economic determinisms.

5. Hypothesis about the origin of farming.

   • Social Factor Hypothesis
     • Developed by A. Testar.It starts from the premise of the existence of nomadic hunter-gatherer groups and sedentary hunter-gatherer groups and accumulators. Members of the latter group would push to produce more, an aspect that would have led to the discovery of agriculture.

6. Hypothesis about the origin of farming.

   • Population pressure hypothesis
     • Developed by the American anthropologist M. N. Cohen.
       • Population no longer sustanable by hunting and looking for food
         • Agriculture began when population reached critical mass population required more food than habitat could sustain.

7. Hypothesis about the origin of farming.

   • Nuclear zone hypothesis
     • Anthropologist Robert Braidwood claims that the Neolithic origin occurred in ecologically favorable areas.
       • In other words, in those areas where plant and animal species already existed in a natural way that would later be domesticated. These zones would be located in the fertile crescent of the Middle East, which would be the nuclear area.

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