Subsistence and Economy

Part 1

The benefits to being a Hunter Gatherers is that they have more time in a day because they are not preparing the ground to plant or tending their plants. They don't have to harvest them either, their food is already there ready to be harvested. If they want meat, they are not taming, protecting or feeding their soon to be dinner, they just go out and hunt the animals around their camp. There is prep time still to prepare their food but it is not as much as the farmers. Their food supply is vast since all they need to do is pick up and leave when the resources seem to be dwindling. There are also benefits for farmers too, they also can have a good food supply but they will have to work harder to start the process. Once they have their farm set up it will take a lot of hard work to do up keep on the farm to keep the plants and animals safe and happy. They had to learn to work with the land and environment they were living, as well as the plants and animals that they kept. They also learned to make tool and other things to help them with their duties. As they started to profit from their hard work they realized that they were provided with more than enough supplies that they could now use this fro trade. This started civilization, socialization, and trading.

There were also down sides to both the hunter gatherers and the farmers. The hunter gatherers didn't have a permanent home. They never were able to improve their living conditions better their homes do to constant moving. Moving around so much made it hard to store extra food they might come across or to carry it with them as they moved. They would have to move as soon as they saw the food supply running out. Constantly having to learn about new places, plants and animals. The farmers serious down side didn't happen until after their results started to show. All the food provided and all the people living closer to each other caused more sickness and new sickness into a group of people. There were people getting sick now that they were taking care of animals and living in such close proximity of them. Having so many people so close together started social issues. There is also a higher risk of famine if  all the people are expecting to live off one crop, that crop is of high importance and if wiped out my bad weather or something, many people can die.

I think that in the beginning of farming they were the least healthy out of the two life styles but as culture began to grow and people began to be exposed to all types of food that is when it became more healthy than hunter gatherers. Hunter gatherers were able to find plants and animals without issue and with a more relaxed life style. Of course there were issues when finding new food and the body not being able to digest the food properly, but over all their farm land was the world and they were out to find their next meal. However, as agriculture started to become the new way of life and population grew and so did trade, I think that so did the healthier diet. People can get foods that are healthier and not limited to what they grow or have in their local areas. 

I think that as the environment changed it forces people to change as well. As the weather started to get warmer it melted the ice causing the water level to raise. This also caused the land to be divided by water, leaving the people less land and stationary on their island. With all this change to the world the people had to find a new way to live. Being stationary and providing for more people help to grow a population making it harder to up and move. 

Part 2

The statement "there is a direct relationship between the availability of surplus and the ability to trade" which means you have to have the first in order to have the second. One farmers started to grow their crops and see that they had more than enough food for all they figured out that they had a surplus. If they let the surplus of food sit then the food would rot and go to waste. If they traded their surplus then they would be able to get other things that they needed. 

Two social benefits to trading is to see other cultures. With trade you are exposed to another way of life, another language, other beliefs. There is also the benefit to having other products that you were unable to have because of where you live and what you could do. This can mean more illness, but in the long run through the mix breeding and survival of the fittest the new generations will be evolved to stronger humans.

Two negative effects of social results from developing trade are new illnesses passed around to other people and traveling faster than it would otherwise. Trade helped population growth therefore causing more social issues between people. Also, causing leaders to emerge, concur and destroy other peoples. 

The development of agriculture and the development go hand in hand. Once the farmers were able to see this surplus of food they realized that they could prevent it going to waste and getting something out of it in return.