4 Chapter 1
and in people of mature years (aged thirty to fifty), men
may have outnumbered women, primarily because so
many women died in childbirth. The life expectancy
for either gender may not have been much more than
thirty years at birth, but those who survived their fifties
had as good a chance as their modern counterparts of
reaching an advanced age. This pattern, like the condi-
tions that produced it, would persist until the industrial
revolution of modern times.
The invention of agriculture expanded the idea of
property to include land and domesticated animals,
which were not only personal possessions but also the
means of survival. In Paleolithic times the primary mea-
sure of individual worth was probably a person’s ability
as a hunter or gatherer, skills from which the entire
tribe presumably benefited. The Neolithic world mea-
sured status in terms of flocks, herds, and fields. This
change affected the structure of human societies in
three important ways. First, because luck and manage-
ment skills vary widely, certain individuals amassed
greater wealth than others. To gain the maximum ad-
vantage from their wealth, they found it necessary to
utilize, and often to exploit, the labor of their poorer
neighbors. Neolithic society was therefore character-
ized by social stratification, though a measure of coop-
eration could be found at the village level in the
performance of agricultural and construction tasks.
Second, the emergence of property seems to have
affected the status of women. Little is known about the
lives of women in Paleolithic times, but most theorists
agree that, with the development of herds and landed
property, controlling female sexuality became necessary
in ways that would have been unnecessary in a commu-
nity of hunter-gatherers. The issue was inheritance.
The survival of the family depended upon the preserva-
tion and augmentation of its wealth. Women were ex-
pected to provide heirs who were the biological
children of their partners. The result was the develop-
ment of a double standard by which women had to be
pure and seen to be pure by the entire community. If
anthropologists are correct, the subjugation of women
and the evolution of characteristically feminine behav-
iors were an outgrowth of the Neolithic revolution.
Third, the Neolithic age marked the beginning of
warfare, the systematic use of force by one community
against another. Though Paleolithic hunters may have
fought one another on occasion, the development of
settled communities provided new incentives for vio-
lence because homes, livestock, and cultivated land are
property that must be defended against the predatory
behavior of neighboring peoples. Dealing with the
problems of population growth by annexing the land of
others was all too easy. War, in turn, made possible the
development of slavery. To a hunter-gatherer, slaves are
unnecessary, but to herders and agriculturalists their
labor makes possible the expansion of herds and the
cultivation of more land because under normal circum-
stances slaves produce more than they consume.
At first, Neolithic communities seem to have been
organized along tribal lines, a structure inherited from
their hunting and gathering ancestors when they settled
down to till the land. Most inhabitants shared a com-
mon ancestor, and chieftainship was probably the domi-
nant form of social organization. The function of the
chief in agricultural societies was far more complex than
in the days of hunting and gathering, involving not only
military leadership but also a primary role in the alloca-
tion of goods and labor. Efficiency in operations such as
harvesting and sheep shearing requires cooperation and
direction. In return, the chief demanded a share of an in-
dividual’s agricultural surplus, which he then stored
against hard times or allocated in other ways.
This function of the chief helps to explain the
storehouses that were often constructed by early rulers.
As agriculture developed, crops became more varied.
Wheat, wine, and olives became the basic triad of prod-
ucts on which society depended in the Mediterranean
basin. One farmer might have a grove of olive trees but
no land capable of growing wheat, while another would
be blessed with well-drained, south-facing hillsides that
produce the best grapes. In such cases the chief encour-
aged a measure of agricultural specialization. He could
collect a tribute of oil from one and grapes from an-
other and barter both to a third farmer in return for his
surplus wheat. In the north, different commodities were
involved, but the principle was the same. Specialization
in Neolithic times was rarely complete because prudent
farmers knew that diversification offered a measure of
security that monoculture, or the growing of only one
crop, can never provide. If the major crop fails, some-
thing else must be available to fall back upon, but even
a modest degree of specialization can increase effi-
ciency and raise a community’s standard of living.
Effective systems of distribution can also encourage
the development of technology. Pottery was invented
soon after the Neolithic revolution, primarily as a
means of storing liquids. The first pots were probably
made by women working at home and firing their pots
in a communal oven, but the invention of the potter’s
wheel allowed for throwing pots with unprecedented
speed and efficiency. Because the new method required
great skill, those who mastered it tended to become
specialists who were paid for their work in food or
other commodities.