In this section, we will be continuing the topic of the agricultural revolution that began about 12 000 years ago and which allowed ancient cities to begin forming. 

You will learn that agriculture developed independently in several parts of the globe within a relatively short period of time. It is interesting that there was no single factor that brought it about in each place. It was more of a convergence of conditions. Also, in no place did it happen immediately. No society decided to convert to an agricultural way of life. It was a slow process that likely started with foragers tending to wild plants to encourage them to grow and produce more. 

In the last unit, you were asked to consider whether the transition to agriculture was a benefit to people or not. Here you will be asked to think about why it happened at all and how it managed to arise independently in multiple areas that had no contact with one another. You have been told that agriculture was needed for the rise of civilizations. Here you will be asked to consider what it is that we mean by "civilization" and to think about how you tend to define it. 

In the photo below, a woman in Wisconsin harvests wild rice by knocking the grains into her canoe using two sticks. For many generations, the people here would dismantle beaver dams and would pull other species of plants so that the wild rice could be more productive. However, by most definitions, they were foragers, not farmers. Perhaps, though, what they were doing was neither strictly foraging or farming, but a means of livelihood that is in between. 

Photo from Arcadia - Environment and Society Portal http://www.environmentandsociety.org/arcadia/manoomin-taming-wild-rice-great-lakes-region