Humanity's road to the glory of control

At the junction of Africa, Asia and Europe, some 12,000 years ago, intensified control of plants and animals was on the brink of birth.

What future was this control going to create for humanity and the planet? What features of later humans were shaped by this birth of intense control and could perhaps, albeit difficulty, ever be unlearned again. And what genetic makeup existed already for seven million year and would be nearly impossible to adjust.

In order to facilitate better plant growth, the people learned to build irrigation systems. Their rise of construction capacities generated permanent houses in village clusters and cities, with store houses, market places, palaces, temples and tombs within or outside the stone fences.

They developed script to record quantities in their collective farming and distribution of harvests between people and over the year, and keep track of seasons and celestial bodies that influence plant growth.

To coordinate labor in the large projects, they created social hierarchies that gradually solidified into organized discipline, forced labor, slavery and derailing cruelties.

Labor specialization depending on the positions in a hierarchy grew further. Low seasons gave time to specialize in a range of crafts and arts, and engage in peaceful trade relations with neighboring villages or cities.

The low season brought yet another thing. Now that early tribal life based on what nature gave during the one day gave way to annual cycles of farming and storage of harvests, people came to attack other villages and cities and loot such storage. It meant a shift from territorial fights with neighbor communities to fights for both territory and food. In later stages the looting involved valuables produced by craftsmen as well.

Next to looting and large numbers of men, yet another force entered violent conflict between neighbors. That was the maintaining of social hierarchy as learned in the organization of farm labor. Most men got used to operating in hierarchical settings, be disciplined or discipline others. These experiences facilitated the organization of large armies both before and during battles in the field.

But something else also changed neighbor conflicts, something large. The new type of war grew in scale. Permanent farming allowed for huge populations and in the low season men could be recruited in large numbers for the armies. Moreover, the survival of large populations got less in danger with losses of lives such as in warfare. So, don't underestimate the enormous size of those armies. They could count 100,000 soldiers or more.

Thus humanity took off on the road to inequality, exploitation, oppression, cruelty, looting and mass warfare.

And there’s one more, highly important feature that emerged in the Fertile Crescent waiting to be brought on the stage. That is the shifting division of labor between women and men. It comes in my next post.

Key words: human evolution, Fertile Crescent, early farming, warfare, exploitation, oppression, cruelty, genetic makeup.

Key :-)