The Triumph of Food Production over Hunting and Gathering...

The human race was once completely dependent on hunting and gathering as its source for caloric intake. Today, this is not the case. We live in a society that is continuously becoming more global, and the large global population is being supported by modern food production. But what factors caused this switch to take place from hunting and gathering to food production? The main contributors over the last several thousand years include: the increase in calorie yield, the stability, and the benefits derived from domesticate-able animals that can all be attributed to food production. To better understand how these three contributors interact with and influence one another, it is beneficial to examine Abraham Maslow’s well-known Hierarchy of†¦show more content†¦These changes can spontaneously produce instability that would ultimately leave hunting and gathering societies with â€Å"the constant threat of extinction.† In contrast, a lifestyle where food production is dominant has an increase in predictability when it comes to calorie retrieval. When a person plants crops, they can reasonably approximate the time of year that the crops will be available to harvest. Once the crops are harvested, the farmers are able to use what they need, and then store what remains for future use in their permanent structures. It varies from year to year, but eventually a pattern is established and the society is able to have a surplus of food. And thus the physiological needs are met and maintained. This extra food gives many benefits to food producing societies that hunting and gathering societies do not see. The most easily observable would be the dramatic increase in population potential. The estimated population growth rate of early agricultural societies was â€Å"around 100 times greater than those† of hunting and gathering societies. After a few thousand years, food producing societies would easily have overcome the numbers of their hunting and gathering rivals. The societies practicing food production would come to dominate the globe simply by their ability to populate if time was the only factor that they had to work with. This lookShow MoreRelatedThe Death And The Afterlife Essay1675 Words   |  7 Pagesbuild temples for these gods and goddesses to stay in their favor. These gods were believed to control everything, and if the Egyptians pleased them they would be rewarded. They worshipped their gods by making offerings. 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