HIST 1108 Empires in World History | Humans Developed Farming

1.) How did humans develop farming and what impact did it have?

2.) What is the history of the creation and usage of written language in the Fertile Crescent (Sumer)?

3.) What was the nature of developing congregation religion?

Answer:

How humans developed farming and its impact

The development of farming began as a venture into a new way of surviving gradual changes in environmental, climatic and weather conditions as witnessed in the prehistoric periods. Human beings who were directed in by their needs for survival from their previous ways of earning livelihood which mostly involving the practices of hunting and gathering. The beginning of farming incorporated the use of herded animals such as goats and wild oxen. As many of the animals in the environment become tamable, humans became full-time farmers in both animal and plants thus creating more varieties and breeds in the long run. These changes in the way of living were later followed by the advancements in farm tool use and fundamental changes. Humans sought easier ways of doing farming as well as managing their resources for the good (Waas, Hugé, Verbruggen, & Wright, 2011).

The ultimate changes that followed the development of farming were related to settlement and permanent societies.  People who lived nomadic lives settled into permanent shelters and formed communities and grew crops as well as the keeping of animals on the available lands. These initial formations of the sedimentary settlement would later lead to the development of complex societies and civilizations.  These civilizations trends and human advancements in intelligent tasks lead to strong and organized communities that had developed governance and structures. The capacity to getting food and earn livelihoods without big struggles was very foundation that allowed humans to become historically advanced in relation to previous generations.

The history of creation and usage of written language in the Fertile Crescent

The Fertile Crescent is considered a home for the Sumerian Enuma Elish, the story of creation. This mythology comprises of the details that give important background information about the origin of the world and the creation by the gods. The story shows the exact process and gives step by step detailed information regarding the epic of creation. This story of creation contains seven tablets each contain a portion of the whole information. These ancient texts were found by Henry Layard in the ruins of Nineveh and were unlike the creation story found in the Genesis story of the Bible.  The story was written in the Babylonian dialect. The features of the creation story are relative to those of Genesis in the Bible because they contain the number seven which relates to the seven days in the creation story of Genesis (Kilian, Martin & Salamini, 2010).

The usage of written language come into being in the ancient days just after the formation of the Fertile Crescent in the ancient days. The Cradle civilization which is a crescent-like a region is a home to early agriculture and human civilizations which included the use of written language to communicate information. This civilization that came from the Fertile Crescent would later lead to more advancement in technology and many other important development aspects that arose from this part of the region (McNeill, McNeill, & McNeil, 2003)The usage of language was propelled by the existing ancient practices of mythology, and other religious organizations. For instance, the Sumerian had written language being embraced in the ancient Fertile Crescent as an important part of its structures. Language and literature were also founded on these practices.

The nature of developing congregation religion

The religious societies were characterized by complex systems and beliefs that were sdeveloping into strong influential societies that took roots in the existing communities that were also developing into big societies and organized settlements.  The development of congregation religion was characterized by many changes that involved the structures of leadership, following belief systems and subjection to the religious structures.  The influence of mythology was very complex in the ancient society as many of their traditional religious beliefs were based on them. In the society, the intensity of these religious beliefs was very important in the development of these societies. Thus, due to the development that continued to take root in these ancient communities, the religious systems were advantaged in their organizations. Apparently, these religious organizations developed into big congregations and stable structured groups (Marti, 2009).

In the work of consolidating the developing religious organizations, the incoming opportunities for these activities were very influential to the overall societal settings of moral structures, principles, and factors. There was an existing human tendency to form a web of societal associations that were either affiliated to the same beliefs or that were founded in the practices that leaned on the social-economic practices. Congregation religion was also favored by the many prehistoric mythologies such as the Sumerian, and ancient Egyptian beliefs in deities. The Fertile Crescent was a home for many of these polytheism beliefs. Therefore, the development of congregation religion was favored by these religious practices which led to many people embracing religion as part of the fundamental aspects of the society.

References

Kilian, B., Martin, W., & Salamini, F. (2010). Genetic diversity, evolution and domestication of wheat and barley in the Fertile Crescent. In Evolution in Action (pp. 137-166). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

Marti, G. (2009). Affinity, identity, and transcendence: The experience of religious racial integration in diverse congregations. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 48(1), 53-68.

McNeill, J. R., McNeill, W. H., & McNeil, W. (2003). The human web: a bird's-eye view of world history. WW Norton & Company.

Waas, T., Hugé, J., Verbruggen, A., & Wright, T. (2011). Sustainable development: A bird’s eye view. Sustainability, 3(10), 1637-1661.