The Great Transition

 

This lecture covered the nature of Great Transition and the consequences of the Great Transition. What was the Great Transition and why did it occur - the materialist versus cultural factors. Also, the distinctively new forms of social organization as well as fundamental changes in the nature of power, as seen through the division of labour and patriarchy.

 

12,000 - 8,000 years ago, there were two fundamental aspects of the Great Transition: Horticulture /agriculture and the Domestication of animals. The related developments of this were:

 

Nomadic pastoralism was a distinctive response to the particular environments of those large areas of Eurasia that were not suitable for agriculture.

 

Reasons for the Great Transition that have been suggested include:

  1. Population increase
  2. Over-kill
  3. Environmental accident
  4. Primacy of cultural factors

Permanent settlement seems to have become widespread between 20,000 and 15,000 years ago, well before development of horticulture and agriculture.

 

The Consequences of the Great Transition were Power and Social Organisation in Urban Centres:

Division of Labour:

Writing:

Political Centralisation:

Patriarchy: