The Evolution of Agricultural Technology

The Evolution of Agricultural Technology — page 3 — The Evolution of Agricultural Technology to increase the size of the habitat for marine life like clams and crabs When people began to domesticate animals they chose species that were already somewhat calm around humans Then over time they selec tively bred them to favor different traits that made the animals more docile or easier to control Humans chose to raise and eat mostly herbivores plant eat ers They observed over countless generations that carnivores meat eaters were difficult to capture and control Surrounded by fields where plants and animals were raised family homes grew over time into vil lages or towns and eventually cities Ultimately farming and related technologies helped lead to the development of modern civilization 6

The Evolution of Agricultural Technology — page 4 — Chapter 1 STONE AGE ORIGINS OF AGRICULTURE From the earliest times agriculture has included raising both crops and animals Before agricul ture became well established hunter-gatherers and fishers had to seek out plants and animals useful to them Wild fruits nuts and berries were probably the first plant foods of ancient peoples Later humans learned to dig up roots and scrape or pound them to a paste for eating Then as people ate some plants more than others they threw the unusable remains onto the ground nearby As a result the seeds of these preferred species became more likely to sprout close to human settlements The pattern continued as some varieties of fruits vegetables and grains began to be used more often than others In a similar way some animals began to risk coming closer to human villages and humans 7

The Evolution of Agricultural Technology — page 5 — The Evolution of Agricultural Technology showed more tolerance for certain of these animal neighbors than others This means that slowly but in not-quite random ways natural selection gave humans a boost in the direction of agriculture As natural selection made some plants and animals more compatible with human life and vice versa people learned to favor some species to a greater degree In other words people helped cer tain plants and animals reproduce in a process we now call artificial selection a key to domestication People learned to select those varieties of wild plant species that had desirable features such as large kernels or fruits They also began to influence the diets and behaviors of the animals around them Tools have always been key to agricultural progress People began using stone tools millions of years ago in Africa Eventually this technology including stone digging tools meat scrapers axes and spear points spread around the world People also gathered and prepared food with tools of bone antler ivory and perishable materials such as wood that we have seldom found in excavations Archae ologists have found 160,000-year-old grindstones that held traces of starch because they were used to grind seeds Fishing hooks and spears are evi 8

The Evolution of Agricultural Technology — page 6 — Stone Age Origins of Agriculture dence from forty thousand years ago that people were skilled at finding food in rivers and lakes and ocean shorelines THE FIRST DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS Over many thousands of years people favored cer tain plants and animals over others Eventually they learned to grow plants for food medicine cloth ing and shelter in areas set aside for that purpose Because it made life much easier for many people it became the preferred way of fulfilling a basic human need People also discovered that there were partic ular advantages to caring for animals in flocks and herds These changes marked the gradual begin ning of agriculture The first domesticated animals were dogs Wolves that scavenged near human communities were their ancestors In a sense the wolves began to domesticate themselves before humans even planned to do so because wolves that could peace fully live near humans began to eat more regularly Meanwhile many could not so other wolves con tinued on as a separate wild species Those wolves 9

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