After the end of Ice Age, a dominant number of pastoral and nomadic people who moved around in search of food changed their way and practiced agriculture, resulting in the societies of human civilization. Some of the characteristics of pastoral and nomadic societies were that they had to move around in order to obtain food. Therefore, their society wasn’t formed on a big scale, nor had a sophisticated structure. However, as many pastoral and nomadic societies were developed into the urban-based civilization that was usually located near the river, natural changes occurred from them, including social structure and the size of the society. These differences therefore resulted in many differences, including gender relations, economic developments, and political organization.
The development of civilizations from pastoral and nomadic societies resulted in the difference in gender relations. One of the abilities that humans pursued during the pastoral and nomadic societies were practical skills that can help them acquire food. Even though big mammals were usually hunted by a male because of some innate physical differences between men and women, females also contributed to obtaining food by collecting edible plants and seeds. Since the nutrition from both of the sources was necessary for the human being and the gathered foods became the important source in case of hunting failure, the society maintained a sense of equality between two different genders. However, as society developed and came to the early step of civilization, the one who possesses the land and produces a surplus of food through agriculture came to hold the power. Because the arduous work of farming required men’s force, men had the dominant power over controlling society. Therefore, the women who often had to stay inside for the housework had lower status compared to men. For example, in some civilizations, men had legal rights to sell their wives, which demonstrates the different social status between men and women. Even though energy-requiring work was associated with men in both time periods, social status regarding gender differences differed greatly.
The development of civilizations from pastoral nomadic societies resulted in the need for a centralized government, which created the difference between political organizations. One characteristic of pastoral and nomadic societies is that the population is relatively small per society, which means the centralized government wasn’t in great need. For example, in early hunter-gatherer cultures, people hunted and gathered within small groups consisting of 30 to 50 individuals. Since they would split off and move to a new group if the group became too big and unmanageable or in case of natural disaster, the formalized laws or centralized government to regulate the people wasn’t necessary. The urban-based early river civilizations consisted of a larger population, which means a sophisticated social structure. To maintain social stratification, regulate trade, tax, and law, and settle disputes between the citizens, they usually resulted in a strong form of the central government. For example, Mesopotamian civilization created a legal, which was equivalent to a king, in need of a person in power to regulate and administer the social infrastructure. Despite the similarity that people’s interaction was necessary for both time periods, their different degrees of sophistication resulted in different political organizations.
The economic development was indispensable for growing civilization from pastoral and nomadic societies. During the pastoral and nomadic societies, some economical activities were present between two clans or tribes such as simple trading or making agreements regarding territories and intermarriage. However, economic activities at that time weren’t sophisticated compared to civilizations. One of the major differences of civilization was the surplus of food, which was the main factor that caused the concept of property. This created the social class stratification, many times including the artisans and traders as the middle class. The longer trades became important in civilization society in supplementing the sources that are lacking, especially through utilizing the river as a trade route. The artisans contributed to the economy by selling goods that are not daily necessities. The complicated economic activities also meant in the result of the currency. For example, Mesopotamian civilization’s currency was silver, meaning that silver became the basic unit in every economic activity in Mesopotamia. Although two different societies were both engaged in basic economical action such as trading, the development of civilization resulted in the development of the social economy as well.
Pastoral and Nomadic societies and urban-based early river civilizations differed in their basic size and component, which lead them to display the differences between gender relations, economic developments, and political organization. The inequality between different genders was aroused by different works that were given by the rise of agriculture in civil society. The political differences were made due to the needs of a person in central power, or centralized government in bigger civilization societies. And finally, the change from pastoral and nomadic society into civilization meant development in the economy as well; from the basic economic activities to more advanced, with currency in present. Despite some societies still choosing to remain pastoral and nomadic societies, many that chose to change to a sedentary agricultural life resulted in civilization, displaying a lot of differences. And these differences are the explanations why the development of civilization is considered one of the most important events in human history.
Writer: Michael Kim
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