Neolithic Revolution
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The Neolithic Revolution, also known as the First Agricultural Revolution, was the wide-scale transition of many human cultures during the Neolithic period from the egalitarian lifestyle of nomadic and semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers to one of agriculture, settlement, establishment of cross-group organisations, population growth and increasing social differentiation.
Archaeological data indicate that the food producing domestication of some types of wild animals and plants happened independently in separate locations worldwide, starting in Mesopotamia after the end of the last Ice Age, around 11,700 years ago. The climate became warmer, and vast areas were flooded due to the relatively sudden rise in sea levels. It has been speculated that this prehistoric event may have been the origin of widespread myths of a monumental flood.
The transition to agriculture implies a severe restriction (loss) of high-quality food sources compared to what was previously available through hunting and foraging. Nevertheless, many researchers argue that the efficient production of calorie-rich crop allowed humans to invest their efforts in other activities, defining it as "ultimately necessary to the rise of modern civilization" with its global economic growth and industrialization. A minority of scientists takes a critical point of view. They consider that since the dawn of agriculture, a reciprocal relationship may have been initiated whereby more and more people need to be fed by ever larger areas of cultivated land and marine zones (fish farming as well as hunting) including associated infrastructure, and that this must be stabilized at a level that prevents the collapse of global ecosystems (s. The Limits to Growth).
The social forms of human co-existence before and since the beginning of the Neolithic Revolution, the features of political organisations, agriculture, the sequence of their emergence, and empirical interrelations at various sites are the subject of current interdisciplinary research and debate. It is generally assumed that the brain evolution of Homo sapiens constitutes a crucial prerequisite for these cultural achievements, which, apart from that, did not all occur at exactly the same time, also varied depending on the factors of their respective environment (flora and fauna; climate), and the inventiveness of the groups involved. The complexity of these developments cannot be reduced to a strictly linear process; rather, the emergence of Neolithic cultures appears to be governed by the playful trial-and-error principle of Darwinian laws, in which the most economical solution finally prevails, assimilating or displacing all others.