Comparing Food Production from Tilling and Pastoralism in European Regions

This article compares and contrasts food production from tilling and pastoralism in European regions, highlighting the geographical and environmental factors that affect the interaction between nomadic pastoral and sedentary agricultural societies. It also discusses the meaning of ancient Mesopotamian beliefs on the gods and their effects on humans, the reaction of Gilgamesh to death and how it motivates his behavior, and the spread of other stories among neighboring cultures. The article references works by Spengler et al. and Mendlesohn & James.

History
History
Name
Professor
Course
Date
1

History
Map assignment
Comparing and contrasting food production for tilling the soil and food production from
pastoralism in Map 2.1
European regions, for example, Mesopotamia regions such as Ur are areas where food
production from tilling the land emerged. Comparing these areas with regions that emerged as a
result of food production from pastoralism indicates that the regions had fertile soil required for
crop growth. The regions are also surrounded by huge mass of water bodies that ensure a
continuous supply of water required for irrigation (Spengler, Frachetti, Doumani, Rouse,
Cerasetti, Bullion, Mar’yashev, 2014).The geographical region is sloppy with mountains that
attracted rainfall important for plant growth. The highland areas contributed highly to increased
food production through tilling the land in order to grow crops. The other regions had a closer
proximity to Mesopotamia which also led to the increase in the art of growing crops.
In contrast, regions where food production from herding emerged had a minimum water supply
that could not support crop growth. The water content was limited and also the soil was less
fertile. These regions were mostly flat areas with semi-arid climatic conditions that were best
suited for pastoralism. The flat areas constantly had floods and at other times became dry making
the pastoral communities to move from one place to another in search of green pastures for their
animals.
There followed an initial similar combination of herding animals and the art of cultivation of
crops which had proved to be highly successful in the regions around Southwest Asia. The steep
environment did not have the ability to support large-scale farming. However, they engaged in
2

History
secondary activities such as fishing, hunting and utilized small farm plots available in the winter
pastures (Spengler et al, 2014) .In contrast, the region's economy mostly centered on domestic
cattle, sheep and also horses. As the herds continue to increase rapidly, the nomad in the regions
moved on to other new pasture religions utilizing vast expanse of land to carry out herding
activities.in the 2nd millennium BCE, the people became full-scale nomadic herder’s
communities also in arid zones of central Eurasia.
Why cities appeared in the regions as highlighted by the map?
Early cities developed in various regions for example from Europe Mesopotamia to the
Americas. The first cities like Eridu, Ur were established in Mesopotamia just after the Neolithic
period, 7500BCE. The ancient cities could be noted for their functional and geographical
diversity. There exist limited evidence that asserted what kind of conditions brought about the
rise of the first cities. However, some of the pre-conditions and typical mechanisms that led to
the rise of cities are agriculture. Agriculture enables surplus food production and creation of
large economies of scale. The activities of farming made hunters leave nomadic life and settle
close to those who carried out agriculture. The high yield of food production resulted in an
increase in human population density (Spengler et al, 2014).
In the map, the geographical features highlighted indicates the presence of trade routes that
enable development of preindustrial cities.
A conducive environment and strong social organization are some of the reasons that contribute
to the development of a city. Cities rise because of the presence of clean water and favorable
climate for the growth of crops. A strong social organization enables people to acquire several
3

History
factions that enable development of a city. These features are the factors that made the cities to
appear in the regions.
How interaction between nomadic pastoral and sedentary agricultural societies was
affected by geographical and environmental factors.
Sedentary and nomadic peoples in those marked regions have interacted over time
immemorial. Their interaction had been characterized by complementarity and geographical
conflict as they differed on ownership of land required to grow crops and herd animals. The
circumstances varied according to too ecological conditions of the environment that supported
the basic subsistence base (Spengler et al, 2014) .The geographic movement of the people from
the region to another through pastoralism led them to interact with other people who majorly
focused on sedentary agriculture. Unfavorable environmental factors involving adverse climatic
conditions such as aridity, floods, unfertile soil made agricultural and nomadic societies to move
in search of favorable land to grow crops and in search of both water and grass from the animals.
This contributed to their interaction. Their close geographical proximity also promoted the
interaction among societies.
Primary source assignment
The meaning of the document about ancient Mesopotamian beliefs on the gods and their
effects on humans.
Beliefs included constant prayers and the making of offerings. Beyond the existing Greek
and Roman mythological approaches, religion in Mesopotamia and the epic has been highly
personified. The gods relate in a way that they decide on the appropriate and favorite mortals in
4

History
order to guide and at other times chose another human to destroy. For instance, Enlil decides to
completely destroy mankind existence in the flood but Utnapishtim advised him against it
prompting him to build a boat. This contributes to Gilgamesh finding a possibility of being
immortal since Utnapishtim has identified divine mortality (Mendlesohn & James, 2012).
From the epic of Gilgamesh we religious beliefs clearly shines through. Throughout the culture
domain, masculine identity with the presence of a gender divide is seen. Sex and religious beliefs
play vital roles as significant to the future of culture and religion. The document suggests that
that the Mesopotamian literally believe that when individual carries out a sexual act, it prevents
him from becoming an immortal being. The gods play key roles in peoples everyday lives of the
people for example through the belief that the gods offered protection from enemies. They
believed that in case one does not obey the gods it will result in negative effects and dire
consequences to humans. They are believed to have divine powers able to destroy humans
through the flood. In the ancient Mesopotamia, the beliefs resulted in deaths, temptations, and
the fall of man.
Meaning of reaction of Gilgamesh to death and how it motivates his behavior.
The reaction hear defines fear and grief. In such an aspect, they offer appropriate
motivation to Gilgamesh making him abandon various regal responsibilities and roles. It makes
him embark on a long, more dangerous and also ultimately misdirected in his search for personal
behavioral immortality (Mendlesohn & James, 2012).
Evidently, Gilgamesh is much afraid of or frightened by death making him go on a quest for
immortality.
5

History
Whether the document is familiar from other source and suggestion on spread of other
stories among the neighboring cultures.
The document provides a similar story to that of Noah’s Flood present in the book of
Genesis. In Gilgamesh there exist a particular aspect parallel to Genesis as it would also
represent a historicizing extension into the humanity historical domain regarding primordial
conflicts as depicted by the gods present in Enumalesh. Damrosch outlines several story
elements that arise in the creation-flood epics. Some of the story elements include flood
cataclysm, ensuring post-flood human order and world creation as seen in Genesis sources
(Mendlesohn & James, 2012).
The importance of the flood story in term of Mesopotamia culture and neighboring cultures is the
citizens and folks as they heavily depend on gods to acquire proper control over the river sources
and rain. The culture spreading to other neighbors show that when floods appear, they are
deemed to be a punishment.
The US is the home to a highly wild miscast of gods, stories, and cultural diffusion. Groups from
around the world landed on the shore bringing various stories. Stories develop and mutate readily
from one group to another. The spread of cultural fork tales spread through cultural and
biological evolution (Mendlesohn & James, 2012). They spread through the use of American
Gods-style model where individuals move and take their cultural stories with them. Stories can
also spread among neighboring cultures through migration. Cultural ideas spread across
geographical distances like wildfire through illuminating human biases, combining both genomic
and cultural data. Others spread through imperialism and trade.
6

History
References.
Mendlesohn, F., & James, E. (2012). A short history of fantasy. Oxfordshire: Libri Publishing.
Spengler, R., Frachetti, M., Doumani, P., Rouse, L., Cerasetti, B., Bullion, E., & Mar'yashev, A.
(2014). Early agriculture and crop transmission among Bronze Age mobile pastoralists of
Central Eurasia. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences,
281(1783), 20133382.
7