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The Neolithic Revolution and the Rise of Civilisations
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 August 2022
In his bestselling book Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari writes: ‘We did not domesticate wheat. It domesticated us.’1 This statement captures a fundamental truth about the Neolithic Revolution, sometimes also called the Agricultural Revolution, which began about 10,000 BCE. This was a period in history when humans transitioned from a lifestyle of hunting and gathering to one of farming and settlement.
For most of our history, humans have lived nomadic lives. We would cluster into small bands of between 30 and 150 people – and roam the countryside looking for animals to hunt, and seeds, berries and fruits to gather. We know something about this lifestyle of our nomadic ancestors by observing the few groups of people that still live in this way. In southern Africa we are most familiar with the San, although most San people today have now switched to a sedentary lifestyle.
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