Hunting and Gathering vs. Agriculture Essay - 732 Words

From the early prehistoric society until now, we often heard the word â€Å"adaptation†, which means the process of changing something or changing our behavior to deal with new situations. The ways people adjust their natural environment varies according to time, place, and tribe. Foraging is common way of adaptation that people uses for most of human history; however because of the population pressure, some people adopt agriculture to fulfill their need. This essay, will discuss the positive and negative aspects of life in hunting and gathering societies compared to the agricultural societies based on Martin Harris’ article â€Å"Murders in Eden† and Jared Diamond’s article â€Å"The Worst Mistake in the History of Human Race.† Hunting and†¦show more content†¦It also takes more additional hours of food preparation to make it is suitable for consumption. It appears that hunter-gatherers have more leisure time than farmers. On the other hand, an agricultural system absorbs more labor and increased workload per capita. Based on the output of production, agriculture is perceived as an advance because farmers can produce more food within a smaller area than they could possibly obtain as hunter-gatherers. Harris says that this situation happened since farmers control â€Å"the rate of plant reproduction† (Harris 219), which means that immediate adverse consequences could be prevented with the intensification of production. On the other hand, hunter-gatherers, which depend on the availability of natural plants and animals; consequently, can raise their output very little. However, although farmers can produce more food than hunter-gatherers do, the numbers of crops are limited; therefore, when the crops failed, there is risk of starvation. In order to keep their standard of living, hunter-gatherers have to keep their population low. They use many ways to prevent pregnancy, such as herbal contraceptives, plant and animal poisons, and many mechanical techniques for abortion. Hunter-gatherers are also likely to use infanticide and geronticide, which means the killing of infant and oldShow MoreRelatedOrigin Of Agriculture And Village Life1758 Words   |  8 PagesOrigin of Agriculture and Village Life: Natufian Culture vs. Early Chinese Neolihic Food is one of the most biological needs of human, so obtaining food has always been in human priority. So the question here is that if our ancient could hunt and gather, why did some ancient societies turn to food production and sedentism? Well, in contrast to hunting and gathering as a way of life of our ancients, agriculture implies modifying the environment in order to exploit it more effectively. 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