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The history of the world economy - Polyak GB

1.4. The Neolithic revolution

Next, after the Mesolithic period is called the Neolithic - New Stone Age. Its chronological framework - VIII-IV millennium BC.. e.

At this time, the heterogeneity of economic evolution leads to the fact that in parallel coexist backward tribes, nomadic, engaged in traditional hunting, fishing and gathering and are made coarse and large-sized tools, and tribes higher hunters, fishers and gatherers leading highly specialized assigns economy.

At an even higher level of economic development were the families that have fallen on the farm foraging to food production. The structure of the productive economy is fundamentally different from appropriating economic structure: the main sectors of the economy began to agriculture, animal husbandry and handicrafts. This transition was in the historical and economic literature as the Neolithic revolution (X-III millennium BC.).

Shifts in human economic activities were extremely important: for the first time thanks to the producing economy made possible a regular rather than episodic, as before, to obtain additional product. The result of the Neolithic Revolution was a change in the nature of work and the very structure of human society, the profound changes in lifestyle and psyche of people.

Thus, the emergence of the productive economy has been the greatest achievement of a primitive economy and the foundation for all further economic history of mankind.

Craft

Ancient craft was pottery. At the heart of it lay the invention of pottery hearth - furnace for firing pottery, the temperature is reached - 1200 ° C, and the potter's wheel - a special device to make pottery forms. Mainly in the production of pottery was pottery, which has greatly improved methods of food production and its storage conditions. Improving food technology becomes an important factor of economic development.

Another ancient craft was weaving - manufacture of cloth on a hand loom. To do this, people grew flax, nettle, other cultures, digested fiber suchili them, spun, started doing rope and thread. From yarn made thin and coarse fabrics for clothing and household needs, sewn bags, bags.

Significantly advanced stone processing equipment, reaching perfection in the Neolithic period. Along with the new, more hard rock minerals former steel processed.

For their treatment was applied almost jewelery machinery grinding and polishing. At the end of the Neolithic, some tribes have completely mastered the technique of stone and knowing all the possibilities of stone, are beginning to use new materials to make tools - metals, primarily copper and bronze. And although the first experiments on the development of metal were scarce, difficult and not always successful, they were later to a large extent predetermined the progress in the development of the productive forces.

Agriculture

The most important cause of major changes in human development during the Neolithic revolution was the beginning of cultivation. It is believed that agriculture as an independent branch of the economy originated in the Near East. Agriculture grew from collecting: the seeds of wild plants collected by people not used fully, could give the seedlings around dwellings.

Receptions and agriculture machinery were, of course, are very primitive: the land is plowed with sticks or hoes, sickles, harvest made with silicon blades, and the resulting crop - corn - were ground on a stone slab or in a stone mortar - grain bruiser. However, there were already mastered almost all currently known major crops - rye, wheat, oats, spelled, lentils and others.

Gradually he improved agricultural machinery: in the IV millennium BC.. e. in agriculture there are such forms as the processing of permanent plots and fallow, the cultivation of non-irrigated (rainfed) and even watering (irrigation) of land. In several regions - Europe, Western and Central Asia - there has been a transition from manual to agriculture arable lands.

cattle breeding

An important sector of the economy is also becoming breeding, common, however, as the agriculture is extremely uneven. Cattle formed from hunting. An important role in its formation played by children who vykarmlivaya young wild animals and playing with them, tamed them. The first domesticated animals have become sheep, goats, cows and pigs.

At the end of the Neolithic tribes distinguished farmers, pastoralists and those who conducted a comprehensive agricultural and pastoral economy. Europe has been the priority area of ​​agriculture spread from cattle stall. In arid and semiarid regions of Central and Southwest Asia dominated nomadic herding, East Asia has been a hotbed of farming.

Prestigious economy

At the boundaries of tribes with different economic orientation, and later within the tribe, all developed intense exchanges. This economic phenomenon was the most important consequence of the specialization of economic activities and progress in the evolution of the productive forces. Nomadic - pastushechi and sedentary - agricultural tribes exchanged their goods - live animals, meat, hides, grain, fruit. Over time, the exchange became more intense, and was the basis for the development of commodity circulation.
The most important feature of economic development in this period was the emergence of the so-called prestige economy - Neolithic version of gift exchange. As before, there was a gift exchange both within and between different communities. As the gifts were a variety of subjects - from livestock to useless on the farm feathers. Regardless of the fact that it gave the man he acquired social prestige. Economic result of gift exchange was contradictory: on the one hand, he was instrumental in the development of production, for certain gifts of specially cultivated plants, bred cattle, on the other hand, the gift exchange procedure is accompanied by abundant feasts, when too much was eaten and drink waste. Unproductive spending hampered the development of society. It is characteristic that gradually intensified the desire to give more than to receive in return: the donor acquires a certain power over taking the wealth. Thus, the economy contributed to a prestigious social stratification and played a major role in deepening inequality and the formation of institutions.

government Organization

An important element of social organization were men or unions, or men's house that grew out of the natural separation of men and women. In the men's houses all adult males of the community discussed current affairs, including economic decision-makers chose leaders. Women in such meetings is not allowed.

During this period, it formed a special kind of leader - in the current international economic historian literature they are called bigmenov. These were the men who advanced themselves, stand out from the masses of the personal talents, knowledge, wealth and generosity. It is from this layer of the male part of the community chose a leader.

It is believed that during this period the supremacy has not inherited. But the power of inheritance background intensely folded. From the head needed to know and do more than we did and were able to rank and file members of the community. This knowledge, skills, experience, it was easier to pass to his son, nephew, brother, than an outsider. At a relative of the leader were more likely to "learn" on the leader than the others. The result of these processes is the formation of privileged strata of society the first nobility, emerged from the tribal elite. These were the leaders, the priestesses, as well as the most successful in the business.

By the end of the Neolithic, apparently, is the emergence of a large scale of the phenomenon of income inequality, which is superimposed on the ancient times existed in the human collective natural inequality, based on a variety of mental, intellectual and physical abilities of people. And lays the foundations of deepening private property-as a comprehensive phenomenon, continuous illuminated historical tradition.

The private property was an individual dwelling, household items, clothing, jewelry, household equipment, tools, animals, boats, other personal property.

Another type of ownership was collective (clan or community) ownership of the land. Within the team, individuals or family plots of land - they can be processed, but it can not be transferred to another person for use.

Population. everyday life

The result of the development of the productive economy was a significant increase in the total population:. At the turn of V-IV millennium BC. e. the world has a population of about 80 million. people, and the population density was to populated areas of 10 to 100 people. 1 km2.

The reasons for such a sharp rise in the number of Neolithic population was improving the quality of life and reduce mortality, increasing the birth rate and a reduction in the intervals between births. For the first time in human history, the desire for large families was planned. In addition, since that time begins to decline very significantly above the gap in life expectancy between men and women. Population of the Earth has increased, despite the fairly frequent epidemics, which have become common since the Neolithic period; epidemics were caused by the transition to a settled way of life and people crowding.

In the Neolithic really varies very type of settlements - is increasingly permanent, built on a specific plan of the village which is home to one community. Residents of the community - not only relatives but also neighbors, and the community itself of generic transformed into a neighbor's, or territorial. The average size of the community is estimated to be several hundred or even thousands of people. Houses in these villages are often built of brick - burnt or raw, as well as clay. Large communal house definitively relegated to the past and now in each house lives a patriarchal family. In a society fixed laws of patriarchy.

Significant changes have been in the position of the sexes. The foundation for this was a new procedure for the division of labor between men and women, due to the specifics of the most important sectors of the productive economy.

At the beginning of the Neolithic complication of industrial activity has led to increased specialization of labor based on gender and age. Manufacture of tools was a man's job, child care, cooking, fetching water and fuel - female. In agriculture and animal husbandry, and the men took part - they carried the heavier work, and women made the most painstaking work that requires patience and accuracy.

Over time, the situation has changed: the participation of women in agriculture and animal husbandry increasingly limited. At the end of the Neolithic area of ​​their activity becomes mainly a household, and in it - service men and children. All the main means of production passed into the hands, and then in the property of men, which resulted in a cost-dependent, unequal status of women.

Science and scientific knowledge

The development of the economy, with its prestigious counting gifts stimulated the accumulation of mathematical knowledge. There were first, still primitive counting systems - these were straw bunch, bunch of shells, rope with knots tied to them. In primitive Europe accounts for usually used stones: the word "calculator", "estimate" back to the ancient Latin word calculus - stone.

Growth of agriculture and more intensive land work contributed to the development of geometric knowledge. the first maps were drawn. At the end of the Neolithic invented the wheel and started the development of wheeled transport. Then there was another event of exceptional importance - first appeared in history writing. It was abroad, separating the primitive history of the era of civilization.

Review Questions

1. What steps are distinguished in the development of primitive farming economy?

2. Explain the term "Neolithic Revolution."

3. Explain why the ancient people for hunting was the most important economic task.

4. Tell us about the major scientific and technological inventions of mankind in the prehistoric era.