World Peace In Prehistory (5)

Con raises the point that agriculture did not directly lead to war, but its byproducts did. This is partly true. Agriculture created the idea of ownership, "wealth", specialization of labor, and population expansion. None of these factors existed in a pre-agricultural world, therefore, agriculture lead to the development of warfare [3]. Agriculture -> Idea of Ownership -> War Agriculture -> Population Pressure -> Need for Expansion -> War Idea of Ownership and Wealth In hunting gathering communities, the idea of ownership did not exist. The clan work together to accomplish a common goal, gather food and reproduce. The game that was killed was shared amongst everyone (assuming they contributed to the clans progress), as well as the gathered wild vegetation. Before the development of agriculture there where little possessions, the most one person may have had would be a spear for hunting (other types of tools), and animal skins to keep war, everything else was shared amongst the clan. They idea of ownership developed because of the transition to an agricultural lifestyle. Agricultural lifestyle provides a "steadier food supply", which allowed early cultivators accumulate surplus, which ultimately lead to the idea of "wealth". Pottery helps archeologist determine what type of lifestyle a community had. Pots where developed to store surplus, extensive amounts off food, which had never happened before, which lead to a new issue, food storage [6]. In a hunting and gathering community, every member is needed and contributes to the group. Men and women are equal, but have separate roles. Unlike in later history, women contributed to society and had an important role in survival. Wealth quickly tore apart the natural way of life. In later history, roles of women in society started to become obsolete, as evident in dynastic China [7]. Wealth and "social status" did not only affect women, but also had an impact on people of other races and social classes, which I will expand on later. Surplus lead to increased wealth and social distinctions (upper/lower caste/classes). The idea of having a different social status was almost immediately followed by the idea of superiority. All throughout history, and even today, we see conflicts between social classes, which often results in war and bloodshed [1]. Conflicts where not uncommon between early cultivators and hunter and gathers. Hunter and gathers would take the food of a cultivator, because they did not understand the idea of ownership, and the farmer would get mad. This caused constant conflict between the two, and expansion of farmers did not help to solve the issue. If the hunter and gathers repeatedly stole from the farmer, the farmer would attack and sometimes kill to get them to leave [5]. Population Pressure Throughout history, a common reason for migration is population pressure. One example of this would be Ionian (Greek) colonist. Having a surplus and steady food supply contributed to a population explosion. More people where born, but the world did not get any bigger, thus causing less land to be available per person (less resources). Once most of the known world turned to an agricultural state, when famines hit, one could not just move to a new location. Because people did not want to stave, they had to take from others, which lead to a common reason for war [1]. I will make the rest of my points and rebuttals in the following rounds… [1] War: http://en.wikipedia.org... [2] Agriculture: http://en.wikipedia.org... [3] Ownership: http://en.wikipedia.org... [4] Prehistoric Warfare: http://en.wikipedia.org... [5] Conflict between lifestyles: http://findarticles.com... [6] Pottery: http://en.wikipedia.org... [7] Roles of Women: http://www.chinavoc.com...