WHAT WAS THE SEDENTARY MAN? - HISTORY - 2025

The sedentary man was the human being of the Neolithic period, who modified his habits and behaviors as a consequence of certain climatic changes. This great change is at least 10,000 years old and led humanity to live in small groups.

These groups lived around one of the first economic activities that man developed: agriculture.

In the Upper Paleolithic, a period prior to the Neolithic, men mobilized looking for food according to the migratory currents of the animals, since they depended on these to feed and subsist.

Going from nomadism to sedentarism was the first cultural revolution of man, since it was the beginning of the first urbanizations, the domestication of animals and the discovery of ceramics.

Causes of the evolution from nomadism to sedentary lifestyle

Before becoming sedentary, man depended on hunting and fishing to survive, which led him to mobilize and constantly seek new places to find their prey.

Going from nomadism to sedentary lifestyle was a fundamental change in the social and cultural behaviors of man.

Sedentary man advances

Man discovers agriculture; that is, the possibility of sowing to produce their own food. The first crops were wheat and corn, which began to be stored.

This need for food storage led man to make small containers to store grains and seeds.

Sedentary man uses not only the meat of animals for food, but also as a reserve of skins, as is the case of sheep. Later he began to raise other animals, such as cow, goat and horse.

In addition, he abandons the caverns and caves as places of asylum and protection, and builds the first houses, in very simple ways and built with stones, mud or logs.

This gives rise to the first human settlements. These had a simple social organization, they were tribes where rules were established and traditions were maintained.

As writing did not yet exist, life in tribes or small villages was governed by customary law; that is, the precepts based on customs and usage.

What was man like before he was sedentary?

Before settling in small communities or villages, man was nomadic. This Paleolithic man made very simple stone tools to get food or defend himself from the huge and dangerous animals that inhabited the earth.

They did not produce food, they simply gathered roots and fruits. Over time they improved some tools to transform them into weapons.

With these weapons they improved the techniques for hunting animals, an activity that was generally carried out in groups of four or five individuals.

References

1. Hirst, Kris, “Sedentism: the ancient process of building a community”, 2017. Retrieved on December 15, 2017 from thoughtco.com
2. Schultz, Emily, "The consequences of domestication and sedentism", pp196-200. Retrieved on December 15, 2017 from primitivism.com
3. Owen, Bruce, “Agriculture and sedentism”, 2009. Retrieved on December 15, 2017 from bruceowen.com