Hunting and Gathering Versus Agriculture

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when agriculture came around that people started learning to dominate each other. Lineage systems performed the acts that a government today would, and led to social and economic inequalities. Elders would exploit labor from younger members of society, and would attempt to control women’s reproductive powers. Eventually chiefdoms came into the picture, creating a whole new level of inequality. Now people were able to inherit power over others.

Most people will argue that hunting and gathering is not as worthwhile as agriculture. Points will be made saying that they never had a steady food source, and were always having to change where they were getting their food. Maybe they did not have a single steady source, but at least they were able to find multiple different sources. When agriculture was developed, we began to depend on it. A single drought or crop failure could leave entire villages without any food at all. Another point opposing the ways of hunting and gathering is that they did not have the medicines that were developed once people began settling down. True, but there was no need for medicines due to the fact that a majority of the fatal diseases we suffer from today were brought about when we started living so close to animals. We rarely needed medicine until we started farming.

Humans would have been better off without the development of agriculture. We would not have many of the issues we deal with today, which include: our dependence on domesticated plants and animals, a rapidly growing population, epidemics, famine, deforestation, and social inequality. Had humans stuck to hunting and gathering, we could have had more peaceful and fulfilling lifestyles.