The Effort to Exist

The two different subsistence patterns of hunter-gatherer and agriculture present both benefits and cons to this form of survival.  The benefit seen by that of the hunter-gatherer is that they are a mobile community that easily adapted to environments providing undesirable dry conditions as grass still existed which sustained the animals. This then allowed the hunter-gatherer to in turn use the animals for their rich diet. Another benefit to this form of survival was that the hunter gatherer learned how to increase the amount of animals available to them by breeding them. This then helped to increase their resources, thus providing for more food.  Another positive was that the hunter-gatherer spent less time working to secure their resources, as opposed to those sustained by agriculture that had to spend hours working to maintain their crops. The benefit to agriculture was that farmers too were able to work their environment to their advantage.  This was done by ridding their land of unwanted resources in order to stimulate the growth of those that were desired. Agriculture also provided the ability for individuals to flourish through their ability to use plants as their resource. As time progressed, humans developed the ability to grow healthier plants. This manipulation of their environment led them to growing more of their resources which they could then store for future use. The invention of stone tools also developed through the agricultural process, which became a great asset.  Through agriculture, humans were able to establish themselves in villages which had a positive effect on the production of crops.  This too however also experienced a downside as the increase in population led to worsened living conditions, which then led to diseases, lack of food, and differences within the society.

Both survival patterns had their disadvantages; by becoming dependent on the animals and plants that were essential to their existence, humans were now confined to this way of living and had to spend much time nurturing the plants and animals in order to maintain them; although they spent much time devoted to their resources, hunter gatherers however did not have to spend as many hours as those in agriculture. For both ways of living populations grew as land was cleared and hunter-gatherers intensified; this then led to more complex societies with machines, which then led to pollution and global warming. The pattern that provides a healthier diet is that of a hunter gatherer as they are eating foods based in high proteins and fats; just by digesting such food helps to sustain stronger bones, taller stature, and healthier teeth and jaws.  The term “healthier” however is up to interpretation.  Although I find the hunter gatherer to have a healthier diet, one might say that those sustained by agriculture are healthier as they eat nutritious plants.  The downfall to such diet nonetheless is that individuals sustained by such consumption have shorter jaws that do not allow much room for teeth, and the existing teeth often need correction. Individuals are also susceptible to deadly diseases through such poor diet as well as shortages in food leading to hunger. Although there have been many noted issues with an agricultural existence, humans made the transition to a farming lifestyle without truly knowing that they were doing so.  However once they made the transition, it was difficult to go back to a hunting way of life.  What aided in such transition was that it was a slow progression into farming, and although some progressed, others in the world were still hunting and gathering until the way resources were produced changed completely.

The direct relationship between the availability of surplus and the ability to trade is seen as just that.  By having an overabundance of product, the situation to then use this extra product for trade is granted. If our resources were limited it would then reduce the likelihood of trade.  Two social benefits of trade are that it connected individuals to distant areas and societies they may have otherwise never connected with, and it allowed individuals to use their resources in order to obtain other desired items that they were not capable of producing. Through trading, more complex and networks of trade were created amongst societies and regions unlike before. Two negative social results of the development of trade were that it united different societies which left the chance of confrontation and violence during exchanges, and the development of more complex trade routes and complex societies which led to highly populated areas, the clearing of land to make room for such civilizations, and essentially deadly diseases as individuals were now living more closely to one another than ever before. The relationship between the development of agriculture and the development of trade is one that is also directly related to one another as the development of agriculture led to the ability to trade. As individuals migrated, they were able to come into contact with different societies who had items to offer in exchange for theirs, such as crops in exchange for wool.  Farmers were also able to manipulate their environment in order to yield more resources, which in turn allowed for the possibility of trade.