When hunter-gatherers of Europe became farmers?

[Garrick]

.., and it is all because of women. :05:

This is good point.

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It would be good to consider the factors that influence behavior (conflict, cooperation, etc.) between two population, natives and newcomers.

 

[Angela]

Wait, I have an idea. In Fertile Crescent women were the first farmers. When men was still hunting, women were already tending gardens by houses and harvesting wild wheat. It is not convenient to roam around area picking stuff and carrying small children around. It is much easier to take care of kids and feed them if everything grows around the house. This probably goes for good few thousand years, and might explain why women and kids have higher affinity for starches, pasta or anything sweet. Their diet full of starches is much longer than men.
Next stage was domestication of animals. Either women or men got the idea of keeping animals in pens by the house too. From this time on, men didn't need to go hunting anymore and spent time mostly around villages. Women couldn't stand their men doing nothing and forced them to work in their gardens seeding and harvesting wheat. After couple of thousand of years men got used to farming to the degree that from small gardens farming exploded to acres and hectares, to the size of big fields. They could feed many more kids, population exploded and spread around the globe. Now we are all decedents of these successful farmers..., and it is all because of women. :05:

And a good thing, too! It's just too bad that we lost control for so long...:grin:

Seriously, for all the problems attendant on the new life style, like new infectious diseases, over-reliance on single crops, depletion of the soil, etc, a lot of benefits accrued as well. All the things we learned in school are still true. With agricultural surplus, not everyone has to farm (or hunt) and specialized groups can form, like artisans, inventors of their time, and eventually writing can appear, to keep records, and arithmetic to keep track of the yield, and on we go...eventually we even get indoor plumbing and central heating!

Also, I know that Gimbutas is very out of favor from her hey-day when her "mother goddess" concept was a sort of pop sensation, and I myself am not a big fan, but it's undeniable that a female goddess representing the fertility of the fields, with her own priestesses, was a significant figure for thousands of years.