History Class

I got an A- on this essay one of six students...yay for me...I just wanted to say...I WORKED SUPER HARD ON THIS!!!!!

Effect of Agriculture on Human Life – Essay

            The emergence of agriculture played a significant role in human life affecting jobs, science, and religion. While the transition to agriculture may have been an accidental one it caused social life to change with it. Before agriculture, hunting and gathering societies were very different. In a hunting and gathering community everyone has the same job and science and religion are not big parts of life. In a hunting and gathering community you could just leave an area when it did not meet the needs they had unlike in an agricultural society. They also believed in animism. However, after the transition to agriculture they had job specialization, they had to study the environment, and they believed in different gods that all controlled different things.

            Agriculture affected the way jobs were handled. While hunting and gathering societies were egalitarian and everyone grew up to have the same job of either hunting or gathering, in an agricultural societies there were some people who didn’t have a direct connection to growing crops, “…individuals who devoted …time to efforts other than the production of food” (Bentley and Ziegler, 25). Some people made tools out of metal that helped to cultivate food and to manage surplus of food and grain some people make pottery for storage. These were things that were also sold to the public for different reasons than these, for instance jewelry and decoration as well. Along with pottery in 7,000 B.C.E. and metallurgy in 6,000 B.C.E. also came textile production. It was necessary to have tools such as gloves to work as an agriculturalist and later on it also became an important role of society and the way people dress. Because of job specialization and people owning land (hunter and gatherer people do not own the land they use) people had different social status as well. Someone who was rich would have a bigger house, more jewelry, nicer clothing, and high quality pottery to adorn their house with and use for food, as opposed to someone who was poor who would have less of these luxuries and there was a leadership based on riches and influence, “Professional managers also appeared–governors, administrators, military strategists [since they now had something to protect], tax collectors…” (Bentley and Ziegler, 25). This was because the more land people had the more food people produced and because of the population explosion the demand for it was there and the more they would sell and make money for such things as these.

            Science was also a big aspect of people’s lives because of agriculture. In order to be able to sell food and have luxuries it was necessary to successfully grow the crops. Women were the also the one who helped this move along. They were the ones who gathered the plants that were needed and were the first ones to notice what helped and what didn’t help their plants grow. Through trial and error they studied the things that helped their plants grow most. By validating and testing the reliability of their results they knew what to do in order to have this. Science became very important to agriculturalist unlike to hunting and gathering societies where they just picked up from a land that replenished itself without the need of any human maintenance, “vegetable foods are abundant, sedentary and predictable. They grow in the same place year after year…” (Borshay Lee, 100). When “asked why they hadn’t taken to agriculture” and planted the mongongo nut the Bushman of the Ju/’hoansi-!Kung said, “Why should we plant, when there are so many mongongo nuts in the world?” (Lee, 93).

            While one would think that because there was science that religion would be something that they didn’t believe in ; however, the opposite is true, “Cities also gave rise to…priests, who…sought to discover meaning in human existence” (Bentley and Ziegler, 25-26). Agricultural societies had a very tight control over their crops because they didn’t let the environment control them, they controlled it; however, it was because of this control that they didn’t understand why sometimes things went wrong. They felt that because they were doing everything right then everything should have been going smoothly, so when something went wrong they blamed the gods. The gods they believed in mostly had to do with their agriculture system; there would be a god for the different aspects and things that helped to make the crops have a high or low yield, unlike in a hunting and gathering society where they were animist and just believed that there was not gods or goddesses but an energy in the world that was just there and that you didn’t have any direct contact with while going about doing things that needed to get done.

            To conclude, agriculture was important to human society and affected jobs, science, and religion the most. It led to job specialization which affected economic and social status of people. Agriculture also led to not only a surplus of food but the need for science in order to cultivate the crops to have a high yield. Lastly agriculture led to the development of a religion where the gods are very human like and are very important to the daily life and crops that they had. It was because of many of these changes that our society is the way it is now.

We read Gilgamesh in Literature Class

\Gilgamesh – Final Draft

            In Gilgamesh by Stephen Mitchell the gods have a close relationship with the humans. The humans ask things of the gods and the gods get glorification in return. They affect the humans in a positive way. The first of the occasions where the immortals help the mortals was when the gods ask Anu to save the people of Uruk from Gilgamesh’s destruction. Another incident is where Gilgamesh goes to Ninsun so that she may interpret his dream. She also gave Gilgamesh and Enkidu a blessing when they were going to kill Humbaba. In return the humans have temples dedicated to them and also do things like how the priestesses give themselves in the name of Ishtar to honor her. So it is important for them to have each other. The gods help the humans and in return they have to worship. The humans are grateful enough that they receive help, and thus carry out the things they have to.

            Gilgamesh “went to his mother, the goddess Ninsun, and asked her to interpret the dream” (83). This is important because it shows that the gods have wisdom and that the humans trust them. The mortals who have limited time on earth are not as wise as the immortals who have been there forever and therefore have the wisdom. Another incident that is similar to this is when Gilgamesh and Enkidu go to get Ninsun’s blessing before going off to kill Humbaba. Gilgamesh says “give me your blessing before I leave” (99) to which she answered by praying to the other gods so that they may give them protection on the journey. The humans rely on the gods to be there for them and share protection and wisdom.

            The gods were asked by the people of Uruk to save them from Gilgamesh’s “tyranny” the gods told Anu that “the people cry out” and no one dares oppose him” they said “Father, do something” (73). Then they “[created] a new hero, [and] let them balance each other perfectly” (74). The fact that they do something to help is what sets them apart from a lot of other pantheons. In this instance, the gods are like parents to humans as they have taken a protective role over the humans. They take care of their problems and fix their situations actively. In return they receive gratitude and offerings in the ziggurats and temples that were built to them.

            In the same way that the gods fix their problems actively the kind of praise the gods receive is very active and extreme as well, because the mortals are grateful and because they don’t want to inquire their wrath. The priestesses of “the temple of Ishtar” stand in front of the temple “ready to serve men’s pleasure, in honor of the goddess” (81). They are complacent enough to do this without any problems. However; if they anger the gods they receive hatred and punishment. After Gilgamesh insulted Ishtar she “shrieked, she exploded with fury. Raging, weeping she went up to heaven…as tears of anger poured down her cheeks” she “led the Bull down to earth, it entered and bellowed, the whole earth shook…” (137). She was very angry with Gilgamesh and even said, “I want to kill that liar, Gilgamesh, and destroy his palace.” (136). Ishtar was going to punish Gilgamesh, Enkidu and bring “famine for seven long years” (136) just because Gilgamesh, who is only one person, had pointed out a fault in her that was true. This shows that along with helping the humans they get a lot of power over them, much like parents over their children, but more extreme.

            The gods are helpful to the humans as long as the humans keep worshiping and not disrespecting the gods. However; when they do wrong toward the gods they receive extreme punishment.  The humans are dependent on the wisdom and protection of the gods, and without it them life is more dangerous. Human life is based on divine protection. The situation is a give and take relationship with the humans, and it makes sense, because Aruru, who is an immortal, is “the one who created humans” (74). The gods and humans need each other in order for both to exist, and without one where would the other be, because the gods are there to protect the humans so that they feel secure; however, humans are the ones who created the gods.

So...I wanted to say that I had a lot of fun writing this. I had to choose my own topic AND my own question to answer and I am very pleased with the results! Also, I could not have done this without the help of my wonderful editors (who are also my friends) Melissa and Anna. When they finished viewing my first draft there were so many pencil marks that I had a lot to work with and I got to understand how the people who read my passages feel. I told Melissa to become my future editor...she is heartless and I rather have someone tell me what is bad than tell me that it was perfect when it wasn't! Extra thanks to Melissa!