How Did Early Farming Around 10,000 Years Ago Lead to the More Complex Social Hierarchies of Humans? — Here’s What Researchers Found

Around 10,000 years ago, hunter-gatherers had already started the transition to early farming. However, for most of human history, this was not the norm. Instead of growing food themselves, our ancestors scavenged, foraged, hunted, and gathered the resources they needed.

But with farming, people began to settle in one place, making permanent homes instead of constantly moving around to find food sources, and they found some form of stability, which led to different features of human societies. The transition was a gradual process that occurred over thousands of years.

However, one of the results of this change was the development of more complex social hierarchies among humans. So, in this article, let’s dive deep into how early farming led to inequalities, power, authority, and more.

Surplus, Storage, and Wealth

One of the most significant benefits of farming was that it allowed humans to produce more food than they needed. Before, hunter-gatherers would depend heavily on their natural habitats and the food sources they could provide. But sometimes, due to environmental shifts and climate change, they could run out of resources.

With farming and agriculture, early humans were able to harvest crops and raise animals, where they could get an abundance of extra food supply, which is called a surplus. These reliable and predictable resources, along with a sedentary lifestyle, led to an increase in population.

More people and a more stable food supply meant that not everyone needed to work in food production, leading to the creation of different roles in their group. Some ventured into becoming artisans, creating potteries that would allow humans to store their surplus for a longer period of time. Along with other forms of storage like underground pits, this led to the accumulation of resources, which became a source of wealth.

Read more: PubMed Central

Sedentism, Land Control, and Territory

Mankind: The Story of All of Us: Birth of Farming | History

Another huge change in the lifestyle of humans when they transitioned to farming was that they stopped moving so much. Hunter-gatherer societies would often leave a habitat once its resources were depleted in order to find new food sources. However, with farming, they needed to stay close to manage their crops and tend to their livestock.

This meant that they had to create permanent homes to be able to live near their new food supply, which also required hard work for most of the year. This led to a more sedentary lifestyle, where people settled and began to claim the land where their crops were planted. They installed fences and defended the territories, as a land that produces food becomes very valuable for early human societies.

The individuals or groups who were able to take control of these farm lands gained a major resource that gave them status and power. Since farming and storing the products led to the accumulation of surplus, the people who managed the distribution of the food supply became the most influential. They were able to decide who gets more or less, creating the foundation for social differences and inequalities.

Specialization, Roles, and Leadership

So, if the people who manage and control the food supply and surpluses became the most authoritative, how did they able to obtain that role? Well, once food production became more reliable, not all the people in the same group needed to work on it full-time. This phenomenon allowed individuals to develop specialized roles such as being artisans, builders, traders, and even leaders.

In other words, the specialized roles emerged because farming allowed a community to support and feed those who did not work in food production, and instead provided a different, but still essential value. Then the people who led the group often had the ability to organize and coordinate the population to plan for defense, storage, irrigation, and other forms of labor.

Over time, and with a higher number of individuals, these positions became more formal, as without the robust social structure, early human groups could face more internal conflicts that could harm their overall survival strategies. The formal leaders of the group and those who became experts in their specialized roles were able to demand more resources and higher respect.

The division of labor and roles created the foundation for the class differences of individuals based on the value the group perceives they provide. So, the farmers, artisans, builders, defenders, and leaders were viewed through a hierarchical lens, since they had varying levels of value provided to the group, and based on their ability to control and manage resources.

An example would be a strong warrior who could successfully defend the whole territory from invaders or other groups, or a leader who was able to organize the community to be more efficient and produce more food and resources. So, while different roles provide value and are essential, those who have roles that give them the power to distribute the resources, defend the territory, or command large-scale projects naturally gain more authority and a higher position in the hierarchy.

Read more: University of Cambridge

Inequality, Inheritance, and Hierarchy

The Birth of Civilisation - The First Farmers (20000 BC to 8800 BC)

With the ability to accumulate resources, own land, and have specialized roles, inequality became hereditary. Over many generations, families that have gained a higher status due to their ability to provide a higher value or role to manage the resources directly have also passed down the prestige and control to their offspring.

In other words, the power, wealth, and authority were inherited by the child from their parents. Then, once the control of the resources, land, and laborers was attached to the families or roles, the social hierarchy became more solidified. Some people who were able to obtain enough resources, or manage their distribution because of their roles, became the elites, while those whose role is not as vital, or directly influences the resources, became commoners.

Soon, as the population grew, and people inherited accumulated resources, control, and status over many generations, these differences in social standing became more formal and institutionalized, giving rise to nobles, priests, royalties, and kings.

Author's Final Thoughts

The evolution of social hierarchy in humans was not universal, and not all societies across the world developed it in the same way at the same time. However, the point was, when farming emerged as the primary lifestyle of early humans, it also gave birth to different features of societies that would soon create the civilizations as we know of today.

Farming and agriculture did not just change diets, but they also shaped our societies. Food surpluses, land control, specialization of roles, and inheritance of accumulated resources and power pushed people from being near equals into hierarchical communities.

The farming communities needed to manage internal conflicts, distribute their resources, and govern the territories and people, and in doing so, they developed social ladders, power structures, and, with it, inequalities.

Read next: How Did Humans Domesticate Wild Plants and Animals Around 12,000 Years Ago, and How Did It Lead to Farming? — Here’s What Researchers Discovered

References & Further Reading

Bowles, S., & Choi, J.-K. (2013). Coevolution of farming and private property during the early Holocene. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1212149110

Kohler, T. A., et al. (2017). Greater post-Neolithic wealth disparities in Eurasia than in North America and Mesoamerica. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature24646

Dietrich, O., et al. (2012). The role of cult and feasting in the emergence of Neolithic communities: New evidence from Göbekli Tepe, south-eastern Turkey. Antiquity. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00047840

Bocquet-Appel, J.-P. (2011). When the world’s population took off: The springboard of the Neolithic Demographic Transition. Science. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1208880

Asouti, E., & Fuller, D. Q. (2013). A contextual approach to the emergence of agriculture in Southwest Asia: Reconstructing Early Neolithic plant-food production. Current Anthropology. https://doi.org/10.1086/670679

Bogaard, A., Fochesato, M., & Bowles, S. (2019). The farming-inequality nexus: New insights from ancient Western Eurasia. Antiquity. https://sites.santafe.edu/~bowles/wp-content/uploads/2019-Antiquity-farming-inequality-nexus.pdf