Transition of Humankind
HIS/112
July 11, 2013
Professor Shelton

Transition of Humankind
The Paleolithic Era is the most primitive and a long era of human prehistory, extending from 2.6 million years ago to 10,000 BP. Transitioning from a hunter-gatherer society to an agriculture society, Neolithic community has been perceived as one of the paramount human development in history. Agriculture was first introduced in 7000 BC and it became a widespread into Africa and Europe. Settlers moved to nearby rivers to farm and domesticate animals. Without the need to relocate, cities began to form. During the early Palelithic Era, a few communities were established, because the necessity to move kept the social structure formation constricted. Furthermore, as Wanderers material possessions were not important, nomads only carted what was needed. Based on tools and artifact the Palelithic Era is divided into three periods: The Lower, Middle, Upper periods. The Stone Age era starts with the first human- resembling behaviors of unrefined stone tool fabrication and expires with modern human hunting and gathering apparatus. The Upper Paleolithic Era witnessed the development of the premature works of art, in the form of cave portraits and engraved stones, with colors and apparatuses.
Humans during the Lower Paleolithic Era lived in a diversified habitat, in which permitted them to hunt and gather food. Hunting and gathering was the survival strategy engaged by the early human beginning 0.2 million years ago. Hunting and gathering remained the only survival strategy of subsistence until the end of the Mesolithic era, in which was gradually replaced during the Neolithic Revolution. The transition of hunting-gathering changed between the Middle to Upper Paleolithic period. Hunter-gatherers society began to specialize, in hunting smaller selection of game and gathering. This specialization of work also involved creating specialized tools like nets, hooks and bone with sharp spear head. The transitioning into the Neolithic period is defined by the unique development of emerging agricultural structures and practices. Agriculture originated in regions including the Middle East, Asia and the Mesoamerica. According to Anissinov,” The end of the Palelithic Era was marked global warming, in which may led to the development of agriculture, resulting an end to the hunter-gatherer society (Anissonov, 2013).
The Neolithic Era was considered the period of human knowledge around 9500BC. The Neolithic Era was followed by the Holocene Epipalaeolithic periods, in which started the advancement of farming that produced the "Neolithic Revolution." The Neolithic Era is not in a sequential period, but rather a set of cultural attributes that embraced the usage of crops and domesticated animals. “The effort expended in agricultural systems made the shift to sedentary communities impractical form many groups” (Stearns, 2012). Hunting-gatherer groups and agricultural society continued to live together. Other members practiced pastoralism, the pastoralism societies prospered in semi-arid areas