Choose from these words to fill the blanks below:

enlarged, transition, wheat, control, domestication, agriculture, manipulate, cultivating, sensitive, domesticate, intelligent

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Sapiens who lived 30,000 years ago had all the physical characteristics we had and so were capable of being as intelligent, curious and                   sensitive as we are

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they probably had their own share of religious movements, artistic movements, and political struggles

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we don't know much about these events for lack of evidence

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the agricultural revolution

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transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture

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humans for millions of years were hunters and gathers without trying to               control the lives of wheat or the lives of sheep

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they didn't decide where wheat would grow or in which are the herd of sheep would grave, or which ram would mate with which goat

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around 12,000 years ago humans began to spend the majority of their time trying to                     manipulate the lives of a few animal and plant species just as cows, pigs, sheep and wheat

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they did this to provide themselves with more food

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invested more and more time in controlling the lives and production of plants and animals

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agricultural revolution

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from hunting and gathering to controlling and cultivating plants and animals

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9,000 BC: began in the hill country of Southeastern Turkey, Western Iran, and the Levant

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former accepted theory: the agricultural revolution started in the Middle East and spread around the world

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today's most popular theory: agricultural life was initiated in different parts of the world at different times independently: China, New Guinea, South America began domesticating plants and animals without knowing what was happening in the Middle East

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why did                       agriculture spring up in these places but not in Australia, Alaska and South Africa?

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short answer: most species of plants and animals are simply not good candidates for                           domestication, e.g. for farming and herding

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if you are interested in the long answer, I can recommend the book Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamon in which he explains what makes a plant and animal suitable for domestication.

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anthropologists used to argue that the agricultural revolution was a great leap forward for humankind

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A common theory that historians used to have is that evolution gradually produced more and more                       intelligent people, and as they became more intelligent, they were able to understand better how plants and animals reproduced, which enabled them to start taming and controlling plants and animals which enabled them to trade in their less desirable lives as hunter and gatherers for more desirable lives as farmers and herders. But there is no evidence that people became more intelligent around the time of the agricultural revolution (around 10,000 years ago), and there is, however, evidence that the survival of hunters and gatherers depended on intimate knowledge of animals they hunted and plants they gathered, so it is not true to think that humans became farmers because they discovered information about animals and plants that they didn't know before.

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In addition, it's a mistake to think that the                     transition from hunting and gathering to an agricultural life improved humans' standard of living. Compared with the lives of most peasants, ancient hunter gatherers enjoyed a freer life, had a better diet, worked fewer hours and spent their time doing more interesting and varied things, and because of their mobility and flexibility, among other factors, they were less in danger of starvation, disease, and human violence. The agricultural revolution certainly                 enlarged the sum total of food at the disposal of humankind, but all this extra food did not translate into a better diet or life for humans, rather, it led to a demographic explosion which caused in turn shortages of food and and led to pampered elites who hoarded extra food.

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who was responsible for the agricultural revolution

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not kings, priests or merchants

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the real culprits were a handful of plant species such as           wheat, rye, and potatoes. These plants domesticated human beings for their survival rather than vice-versa.

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think of the agricultural revolution from the point of view of wheat, rice and potatoes. These plants domesticated Homo sapiens for their advantage rather than vice versa. Think about this from the view point of wheat: 10,000 years ago, wheat was just one type of wild grass that grew in some small areas of the Middle East. Within just a view short millennia, you find wheat in almost every area of the world. In this short time, it has become one of the most successful plants in the history of planet Earth. 10,000 years ago there was no wheat in America, but today you can walk for 100s of kilometers without encountered anything except wheat, no trees, no animals, not even houses, just fields of wheat. How did wheat do it? How did it grow to cover about 2.25 million square kilometers of earth's surface. Wheat did it by manipulating Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens had been living a comfortable life hunting and gathering until about 10,000 years ago, and then it suddenly began investing more and more time in                       cultivating wheat until after a few millennia large numbers of humans in many parts of the world were doing almost nothing from dawn until sunset other than taking care of wheat and helping it spread around the world. They expended large amounts of energy clearing rocks from fields so wheat could grow better, they cleared weeds and other plants so wheat would get more sun and water, they kept animals away from the wheat.

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the human body did not evolve to bending over in a field all day clearing rocks or carrying large water buckets

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humans had to live in one place in order to take care of the wheat

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the word "                      domesticate" comes from the Latin word "domus" which means house

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who is the one who has been domesticated, it's not wheat, since wheat is still growing in the fields