This blog post examines whether the Agricultural Revolution was an innovation that drove human progress or the price paid for losing freedom and abundance.
Before the Agricultural Revolution, Homo sapiens lived as hunter-gatherers. While we have little definitive knowledge about the exact nature of this life, we can infer they lived in smaller groups compared to modern times and roamed in search of food. Most people believe life as hunter-gatherers was more arduous and less happy than life after the Agricultural Revolution. However, Yuval Noah Harari, author of ‘Sapiens’, argues the opposite: that the hunter-gatherer existence was peaceful, abundant, and happy. Consequently, he calls the subsequent Agricultural Revolution the greatest fraud in history, asserting that it led people to live unhappily in harsher conditions.
Of course, the agricultural revolution expanded the total amount of food available to humanity. However, his argument is that this did not increase leisure time for most people and instead led to conditions worse than those of the hunter-gatherer era. While this claim is fascinating, we need to examine the differences between hunter-gatherer societies and agricultural societies more closely.
It is clear that after the Agricultural Revolution, Homo sapiens developed at a dazzling pace, forming a bridge that led to the subsequent Industrial Revolution and Scientific Revolution. Furthermore, considering the explosive population growth and dramatic increase in lifespan that followed, it is evident that humans evolved successfully after the Agricultural Revolution. Alongside this, human evolution redefined humanity’s role and position within its interaction with nature. Humans were no longer merely beings living as part of nature; instead, they came to perceive themselves as agents who utilize and control nature.
But consider livestock like cows and chickens, whose populations exploded due to the Agricultural Revolution. Judging solely by population size, these animals could be seen as having achieved evolutionary success. Yet they lived lives managed against their will, ultimately slaughtered at predetermined times. Considering the miserable deaths of these animals reveals a significant disconnect between evolutionary success and individual happiness. This principle applies equally to human society. We must deeply consider whether human evolutionary progress has truly led to greater happiness in individual lives.
First, it is a fact that the Agricultural Revolution somewhat diminished the quality of human life during a specific period. Humans in hunter-gatherer societies likely lived relatively unconstrained and free lives, unlike today. They lived according to nature’s rhythms, moving as needed without being tied to specific locations. However, upon entering agricultural societies, humans became bound by rigid routines. In a way, human activities shifted to align not with human life cycles, but with the life cycles of crops like wheat and rice. Living according to the life cycle of a single crop was likely not the life humanity desired.
Yet, on the other hand, the agricultural revolution provided humanity with a stable foundation for life. Stable dwellings and food supplies enabled a more predictable and secure existence, allowing for long-term planning and development. This development led to scientific discoveries and technological innovations that were impossible in hunter-gatherer societies. For instance, ancient civilizations, grounded in agriculture, could develop foundational sciences like astronomy, mathematics, and medicine. Scientific progress ultimately led to the Industrial Revolution, contributing to a dramatic improvement in humanity’s standard of living.
Furthermore, the transition to an agricultural society also contributed to humanity’s ability to understand and control nature more systematically. Humans now went beyond merely utilizing nature for survival; they could transform nature and create new environments through it. This ability played a decisive role in humanity’s rise as the dominant species on Earth.
Nevertheless, early humans faced significant hardships during the initial stages of the agricultural revolution. Agriculture demanded substantial human labor, and the nutritional value obtained in return was lower than during the hunter-gatherer period. As omnivorous animals, humans could consume a diverse range of nutrients during their hunter-gatherer existence, though this varied by region. However, the transition to an agricultural society drastically simplified the human diet. Intake of nutrients like protein and fat decreased, with carbohydrates becoming the primary source of sustenance. Moreover, even this was often insufficient depending on the season.
This shift to an agricultural society clearly brought advantages to humans. A predictable and stable life must have brought great satisfaction to humanity, who previously had no permanent settlements and found it difficult to make long-term plans. The shift to a settled society enabled humans, who had previously only been able to think about day-to-day or seasonal concerns, to accomplish things previously impossible. Without this stable life as a foundation, scientific development would also have been impossible.
Much of the scientific progress in the medieval and modern eras was achieved through sustained support from states or wealthy patrons. Considering these facts, one wonders: what if the accumulation of wealth and the predictable, stable life made easier by the transition to an agricultural society had not existed? It is doubtful that scientific development on the scale we see today would have been possible. Had humanity remained in a hunter-gatherer society, the size of individual human groups would have been too small to achieve significant progress. Furthermore, interaction between groups was likely not very active, and there were clear limits to steadily increasing population numbers. Therefore, it would have been impossible for humans—who, aside from their superior brains compared to other animals, did not possess significant advantages—to become the most powerful species on Earth.
The difficulties humanity faced during the transition to an agricultural society might feel like an extremely long period. However, considering the entirety of human history and the future ahead, this is not a long time. In the early stages of the agricultural revolution, humanity experienced evolutionary success through explosive population growth, yet individual quality of life often deteriorated. However, this decline in quality of life stemmed less from the revolution itself than from humanity’s unfamiliarity with the lifestyle and techniques of an agricultural society. After a period of adaptation, the quality of human life improved remarkably.
Moreover, humanity did not stop after achieving this material and evolutionary success. Now, humanity strives for growth in diverse fields such as happiness, human rights, and ethics. In modern society, it is not just developed nations that progress; interest in the Third World is also growing. Through this, balanced development for all of humanity is being pursued, and discussions on the rights of animals are also actively taking place. This demonstrates that humanity is moving closer to an equal and happy society.
Considering these points, while it is difficult to directly compare hunter-gatherer societies and agricultural societies, for which few records remain, the agricultural revolution can be evaluated as closer to a success than a failure for humanity.
