I know hardly anything about the subject, but I’ll babble on with my guesses as if I do. I’ll talk about religion, too. Correct me where I am wrong. It’s a bit long, but I’ve been thinking about this for a few days.
I would guess that agriculture took so long to develop primarily because there was no need. The jump from migratory hunting and gathering to agriculture involves a lot of preparation, planning, and risk. Also, it requires a number of sociological changes.
Seasonal changes affect when certain plants grow or bear fruit. That attracts insects. That attracts animals that eat the plants and fruit and insects. That attracts other animals. That attracts humans that eat the plants and animals.
I’ve read books and seen shows on primitive hunter/gatherer societies. It seems most of them engaged in some form of basic agriculture. They find a place where a bunch of tasty plants are growing. They harvest them and have a feast. But they also clear the land and plant the seeds or bulbs so that when they come back that way there will be another crop there to harvest.
The hunter/gatherer groups mostly follow traditional migrant paths. They know where certain plants or fruits are likely to be at certain times. They know where the animals that they eat will be. They know places are good for fishing only during certain times of the year (maybe during spawning season). They know that if there are no more monkeys at one place, that means they must have gone off to another place where a certain fruit is ripening. They know that one direction certainly has food but if there isn’t it is a long way from another source, but going another direction is less likely to have food but has other possible sources nearby, so they can adjust based on their needs.
The hunter/gatherer groups are very communal. Elders are revered for their knowledge and experience. Some preferred members may get to eat first or best, but mostly they share things equally. They get what they get when they get it. It’s difficult to take too much for too long. They are all in it together. If one member becomes sick or injured, that can hold up the whole group from moving on to a better place or evening getting behind on the migratory path. So they want to make sure everybody is well-cared for. If someone isn’t pulling their weight, there is strong social pressure from the group to contribute more.
To jump from that to agricultures take a lot of preparation. If you are staying on one place, you have to find plants that will grow in the place where you are staying. You will have to find plants and fruits that can be harvested at different times of the year. You will also have to raise animals because otherwise the animals might all migrate away. You will also have to find ways to store food. Pottery tends to develop rapidly in the times and places where agriculture develops.
You also have to plan everything. You have to know when to plant and when to harvest. You have to know how much food you will need to know how much to plant. You will have to know how many animals you will need. You will have to plan when to feast and when to ration and when to store and when to use those stores. You also need everybody to stick to that plan. If they don’t, everybody dies off or returns to hunting and gathering.
That means social changes. And not everybody might want those changes. You need people to decide on plan and people to enforce that plan. People can’t just have a feast whenever they want, because they then may not have anything to eat later. With the storage of food, some people might want more than other people. There have to be rules and the rules have to be followed. If one person gets sick or injured, it doesn’t affect everybody else in the group. So people have less motivation to care for the group and more motivation to care for themselves. That means more rules to keep the peace ensure justice. Suddenly, politics is born.
But the development of politics is messy and often entrenched in religion. The hunters and gatherers respect the elders and shaman. This lake is taboo. This spirits causes this plant to grow. The myth of this land explains why we go this way rather than that way. In an agricultural society, the gods make the crops grow and ensure animals are born. The gods make sure everybody has enough to eat. The people may not recognize that they are setting up plans and rules, but they know that when certain things are not done things are bad--the gods are angered. So people have to do certain things and not do certain things to not anger the gods. Religion takes on a new form.
To jump from that to agricultures take a lot of risk. If the animals die off or the crops don’t come in, you may be a very long way from any plentiful food supply. Or they can find a nearby group of people with food and good land and steal from them. Now the gods determine the victors in war. Or even justify them (if we defeated them and took their stuff, the gods must have wanted that to happen).
This jump did happen. It could have happened at any time, maybe. But what we see is that relative to human existence, it occurred in many places around the world at relatively the same time. That was near the end of the ice age. It would seem to indicate that the rise of agriculture was linked to climate change. It also occurred mostly in the same regions relative to the equator. It did not happen much in places where there are cold winters. It also did not happen much in tropical areas, and the end of the ice age had less effect on tropical areas.
The end of the ice age probably had a number of effects that made agriculture more viable than before and even more viable that hunting and gathering. Large animals (megafauna) died off. I don’t know, but I would hazard a guess that in regions where agriculture developed, temperatures became more moderate allowing for more diversity of plant life and longer growing seasons. Ecological systems drastically changed, and continued changing during this period. The hunters and gatherers would have to change their migratory routes. The knowledge of the elders that had been passed down through generations was no longer as reliable. Hunting and gathering became more difficult. Simultaneously, agriculture became easier.
So, my hypothesis is that agriculture did not develop until there was climate change that both necessitated the change and made the change easier. What is curious is that in at least two areas where agriculture was independent developed, there was also a rise in the use of stone tools in thousands of years preceding. If that happened everywhere, it would indicate that humans were already on a path toward agriculture. The theory that agriculture developed because of limited food sources seems to be largely dismissed by modern academics. But there may be something there. There were significant climate changes before the end of the ice age. Those may have disrupted traditional hunting and gathering methods. That could result in an increase between human groups for integration, knowledge sharing, trade, and war. That could explain the increase in stone tools, and would all contribute to a path toward agriculture. Knowledge assists the preparation. Larger groups with people dedicated to specific skills. Planning to get to places before completing tribes and engaging in war. Rules for trading and interaction and leadership. Those are all requirements to make agriculture work. So, it may have been smaller climate changes that led to increased human interaction that prepared people for the following significant climate changes that led to sedentary agricultural societies.
And beer.
