Introduction of Animal Husbandry in Human History - Other

Men made one of the most important break-through in their history by introducing animal husbandry into their life.

This event took place about 10,000 years ago during the Neolithic age of human history. That was the first time human settled down and developed agriculture. This marked a significant change in the structure of their life. Before the Neolithic age, men lived a nomadic life, wandering around in a whole group and found food through hunting or gathering.

As if there were a universal call, this change took place all around the world. When people settled down, they developed agriculture. For the first time in the history, animals were domesticated. New techniques of breeding, feeding and raising the animals were invented to support and increase the productivity of animal domestication. Such was the start of animal husbandry. Herd animals, such as cattle and goats, were the popular animals in farms all over the world.

There are a number of different theories postulating the reasons behind men's decision of giving up their nomadic life and settling down. Some of these theories have taken on climate change, need for security, and population growth to be the major reasons behind such a drastic development.

At the start of the Neolithic age, there may have been significant changes in the world climate. Severe droughts, floods or typhoons may have taken place, making food harder to be found through hunting and gathering. The severities posed by the climate change unquestionably prompted the need for food storage and food security, which only by settling down would men have the resources to develop.

Another theory suggested that even if there were not any drastic climate changes at the start of the Neolithic age, the indispensable need for food security and conservation would have led to men's development of sedentary life anyway. Only by settling down and growing agriculture would men be able to grasp a better control of their food supply. Settling down also allowed them the ability to store extra food and to meet the need on less favorable days.

Both of the theories that we mentioned made complete sense because human beings in their development must have wanted to develop better living conditions of their own and to have better control of their life. However, recently, studies have shown that life after the Neolithic age was not necessarily better than the life before. In fact, evidence has proven that men in the Neolithic period were smaller and weaker than those in the previous era. It was actually harder to take up a sedentary life and raising the animals than traveling around and living by hunting and gathering. Because of this evidence, it is now debatable on the validity of the theories on climate change and the need for security as the main reasons behind men's adoption of sedentary life and animal husbandry.

Another prominent theory that explains this phenomenon is the theory on population growth. Through time, men's population may have grown too large and made it difficult for them to travel around. Young population with increasing number of children and pregnant women also greatly slowed down the speed of nomadic life, making it harder to find enough food through hunting and gathering. To preserve their increasing population, men had to settle down and domesticate animals to supply more food for their family.

Additional factors could also have led to this remarkable decision in men's life. One of those was believed to be religion. Since the start of human history, animals have been sacrificed for religious reasons. It is possible that at the start of the Neolithic age, animal husbandry was invented to have sufficient supply for all religious events of sacrifice.

When men settled down and animal husbandry was adopted, it marked a significant change in the life of people. This change was drastic and took place all over the world. Many reasons have been postulated and many theories have been studied on the factors that led up to this important decision. However, there is yet any clear-cut explanation for the phenomenon. It may very well have been a combination of many different factors, some of which we have tried to cover in this article.

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