Neolithic Social Changes

The agricultural transition was a gradual process that began in the Neolithic era. It spread all throughout the world and lead to many changes. One of the most significant of these changes was the impact of the Agricultural transition on the Neolithic social structures. During the Neolithic era, the introduction of agriculture drastically changed the social structures of Neolithic people. It greatly and permanently altered the building blocks of the Neolithic social structure which included roles, statuses, and social classes. It also affected what the social structures influenced. During the early stages of the Neolithic era, Neolithic villagers had only two separate roles based on gender. Male Neolithic people were hunters; suppliers of meat from animals. On the other hand female Neolithic people were foragers; seekers/pickers of anything edible in the environment. However, when agriculture was discovered by the Neolithic people, they understood they could get more food from cultivation and domestication. As a result, most of the Neolithic people adopted new roles to accommodate an
agricultural lifestyle. In this lifestyle, males became domesticators and catchers of animals. In the same manner, females became cultivators/nurtures of plants. With this, more food was produced efficiently. Agriculture gradually lead to a surplus of food and to the growth of population and settlements of Neolithic people near fields. Agriculture also changed the statuses of the Neolithic people.
Agriculture allowed some Neolithic people, who no longer had to worry about producing food, start to specialize on other enterprises and improve technologies which lead to the creation of industries. These specialized laborers received an augmentation of wealth and population began to grow even more. Due to these things, Neolithic villages and towns grew into large cities. In these cities, even more diverse professions where created. People were now holding the statuses/professions of craft workers, governor officials, community figures, rich land owners or basic cultivators. Unlike before where people were only holding statuses of hunter or forager, man or woman. In a similar matter, wealth was now divided unequally between the Neolithic people. Ultimately, agriculture lead to the definite formation of social
classes.
Before the Agricultural transition, everyone was in the same class. But now, everyone was divided based off their trade or land ownership in classes where cultivators were in the bottom and rich land owners on top. Also in some places the state and how aesthetically pleasing the interior of the homes of the Neolithic people would have determined the social class they belonged to. Furthermore, in this social structure these divisions or classes continued to persist due to the fact the wealth and professions were usually passed from generation to generation therefore individuals remained in the same class. Agriculture also opened the eyes of Neolithic people towards the heavens and religion. Many people discovered the correlation between the heavens and the seasons and how it affected farming. Many of them wanted to thank the agricultural deities, and they also started to believe in life, death, and regeneration deities, as well. As a result, further social groups were formed and beliefs and values were formed as part of the social structure. Agriculture also changed what things social structures in Neolithic times influenced. In the early years of the Neolithic era, Neolithic villages did not influence anything but themselves and close by neighbors. But now, because of the growth of cities, brisk trade, market places, the claiming of land, and the building of schools and temples, the social structure of the Neolithic people influenced the economic, political, cultural, and military life of large regions. In all these categories of life the Neolithic social structures were present and affected them in some way. In conclusion, the social structures of the people in the Neolithic were drastically and permanently changed by the Agricultural transition. Overall, agriculture began to mold the social structures. In this social structure people were now densely packed but socially divided, they adopted a new survivable lifestyle; they developed new values and had a greater influence not only on themselves but also everyone and everything around them. And this how I think agriculture changed human social structures.