The Transition To Agriculture In The Bushmen Of The Kalahari Desert

Progress is a term that many perceive/use differently in various scenarios. It’s understood as continuous improvement, developments in science and technology, or as general advancements. Selecting an appropriate definition of progress when using it to discuss history can be a bit problematic. The transition from hunters and gatherers to agriculture began around 10,000 B.C.E. which alternated the way humans lived; this change became irreversible. It’s been debated that the transition to agriculture was caused by the lifestyle of hunters and gatherers being too risky, however the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert proved this to be false. They survived by women gathering fruits and nuts such as the mongongo nut which was never scarce and the men …show more content…
Hunter and gatherers were well off if they were able to find a place suitable for survival like the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert did. Hunters and gatherers only had to spend about three hours a day collecting food while agriculture took hours of labor to clear land, plant, and harvest. The transition to agriculture required people to settle down which caused the population to grow. This growth caused a higher demand of food; therefore more time had to be spent on agriculture in order to maintain enough food. However the food that the hunter and gatherers collected was split evenly among the people in the band even if they didn’t contribute to collecting any. It’s said that hunting and gathering was the more risky of the two however, agriculture relied on nature. Even if agriculturalists were able to predict weather patterns, the weather could be unpredictable and easily destroy the hours of effort put into harvesting the crops. The people would eventually starve after their surplus of food was used up and entire communities of people would die. The Bushmen however were lucky enough to be surrounded by mongongo nuts which were drought resistant. Even if the men’s hunts weren’t successful, they could always rely on them. A Bushman once said, “Why should we plant, when there are so many mongongo nuts in the world?” (Lee, 88). Once the transition to agriculture occurred, the value of women decreased as well. Women in hunting and gathering tribes would gather plants, nuts, and fruits around the bands they lived in. The women contribute more calories of food to the bands than the men. The meat that men collected provided protein which was crucial but the food that women collected sustained everyone. Men and women at this time were seen as equivalent to one another. The transition to agriculture gave women a new task which was to care