Advancement_in_Human_History

Advancements in Human History The human race is one unlike any other; it’s made up of independent, adroit, and innovative beings. From the discovery of the wheel, to the microscope, to the telegram and all the way to the apple iPad, the human race has not ceased to advance. Innovations have played a pivotal role throughout history, such as saving lives or even miniscule things like taking over mundane tasks. If we venture back, way back to BCE days, one can tell that learning and adapting was a common means of existing. Early humans progressed slowly but surely and I believe that one of the most significant progressions was the switch from the hunter gathering lifestyle to a more effective lifestyle; farming. Hunter Gathers, also called foragers had a fairly simple lifestyle; they lived in small groups and divided up work. Men went out and hunted in order to keep food on the table and women tended to the plants and small animals. Foragers also lived a nomadic life; moving often because of climatic changes and they adjusted to their circumstances rather well. One of the main problems about their way of living was that it wasn’t consistent and as a result devastation could easily land them in desperate circumstances. Scientists aren’t very sure why foragers made the transition from the hunting and gathering life to the farming life but, some believe that it had to do with climatic changes. These changes consequently forced people to shift to a different method of surviving and that was farming. Farming was a practical means of sustaining people in 8000BCE as well as it is today. A discovery like this must be revolutionary; after all it’s been kept around for so long. The benefits of farming are endless; Cynthia Stokes Brown says in her “Big History” that the world population increased significantly to 6 million as a result of cultural advances. Farming is one of those advances that supported that growth. In her excerpt she states that one square of cultivated land was capable of supporting at least 50 people; that’s fifty to one hundred times greater than hunting could support.