Was the "Fall" of Man really the Development of Agriculture?

I decided to challenge myself to read the entire Bible in the course of a year, as sort of a New Year's Resolution, and I came to an odd conclusion within the first few chapters. I've always been interested in early human history, and after reading the story about Adam and Eve's fall, (literally translated, man and living's fall) I came to the conclusion that it was referring to the development of agriculture and civilization about 10,000-2,000 years ago.

Basically, the Biblical story goes that Adam and Eve was allowed by God to eat of any tree or plant of the garden (Earth), and as declared masters over animals, it's safe to assume they ate any animal as well. The only thing they couldn't eat was the fruit of the Tree of Good and Evil, which the serpent "tricked" Eve into doing. Eve then gave it to Adam, God found out, and punished them by banishing them from the garden and out into the wilderness for them to grow their own food.

I looked at the dates in which Genesis was written, (1400 by Moses, who lived at least several hundred years later) and realized that this story would've occured around the time of the agricultural movement. And so my theory developed: (I sure hope you enjoy history!)

Our primitive ancestors, Australopithecus (4-2 mya) and Homo Erectus (2 mil-35,000 ya), developed intelligence through behavior, by making tools, organizing small groups for hunting and gathering, taming fire for cooking and other uses, and giving ritualistic burials. Then, about 35,000 years ago, came Homo Sapiens (that's us!), and they were able to adapt by changing their environment rather than their genes, but they remained hunters/gatherers. It is important to note that the basis of paleolithic social organization was cooperation, without permanent leaders or social classes.

Therefore, at this point, man, (Adam and Eve) is innocent, like a child. Intelligent beings, but unconscious of good/evil. Now, during this time, the human population is growing and expanding, eventually covering all the continents except Antarctica. Before long, the land couldn't support their hunter/gatherer lifestyle. All this time man knew the ways of plants and animals, but never needed to cultivate/raise them themselves, but with the growing population, they were forced to do so.

So, about 10,000-2,000 years ago, agriculture developed and spread throughout the world. Man was forced from the garden to the plow and field, just as Adam and Eve were banished from Eden. Growing food was now a full time occupation, versus about 2 hours a day to gather/hunt for food, thus the "punishment" for converting to agriculture.

"Through painful toil you will eat of it all of the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field." -Genesis 3: 17-18

Before, specialization was limited to men as hunters, women as gatherers. Agriculture caused little change in this, as women tended the fields, and men dealt with livestock, though both often swapped roles as necessary. Still, the previous strong male hunter figure led to the slow distinction of men dominating over women.

"Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." -Genesis 3:16

With agriculture, the nomadic ways of man now dissapeared. This opened up the way for civilizations, and the development of cultures within those civilizations. Now until this point, man had no definition of good/evil, but the various cultures created such. Just as our culture today defines for us what is right/wrong, and they clash with other cultures' definitions. This is the curse of civilization.

After coming to these conclusions, I did some research, only to find that others have come to this exact same conclusion, some going on to say that the fight between Cain and Abel is a conflict between these two ways of life. (Which makes sense. )

So, I want to know what you guys think about this. Criticism, Comments, and Questions are all welcomed of course.

(sorry for the lengthy post)

 

I see the 'fruit of knowledge' to be psychedelic plants, most likely mushrooms.

The invention of agriculture certainly threw off our symbiotic relationship with nature.
Culture became male dominated and the 'fall into history' began.

I think you'd really enjoy talks by Terrence Mckenna.
Interesting post. I may read again and offer some more comments later on.

 

I am not really well versed in Christianity or history either really for that matter but The only part I'll disagree with you for sure on is what you are saying in regards to the part about humans 'inhabiting all the continents leading to the change to agriculture.' Humans were not aware at this time that all continents were inhabited. In fact they most probably were unaware of most the continents, let alone other people inhabiting them.

The rest seems open to subjective interpretation like most the bible so I won't try to discredit or support your view.

 

I do agree with you on the fact that humans may have been unaware that all the continents were inhabited. However, what I was saying was that basically, they were competing for territory to obtain the necessary food they needed. Eventually, they spread so far apart that they had to condense to support the population, and they did that through cultivation.

Man may not have spread all across the continents, but they did settle in each of the continents around 8000 BC. (about 10,000 years ago) Agriculture developed individually in various parts of the world in regards to the available life that inhabited each place. Some of the most prominent developments were in the Middle East, Mesoamerica, Southeast Asia, West Africa, the Andes, and Northern China.

Source: The World to 1500: A Global History, L.S. Stavrianos

 

So this is why it confuses me I guess, so you are saying God creates some sort of cosmic force to condense the populations leading to agriculture at this time?

I don't see what bearing this passage directed at a ~1400 bc middle east person in the culture has to a person living in the amazon jungle at this same time.

 

for the longest time, i have symbolically used Cain and his garden as Coca plant http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Coca been dated back to the mummies.
Easy planting, loads of energy and violence behaviors come from it..
All that use it become like Cain .. Cocaine.

Jesus being the son of David or seed of David....

13 So I gave you a land on which you did not toil
and cities you did not build;
and you live in them and eat from vineyards and
olive groves that you did not plant.'
14 "Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness.
Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond
the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.
15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you,
then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve,
whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River,
or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.
But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

 

If god existed, the bible could only demonstrate him to be the greatest evil known to man.

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

 

Oh, I see what you're confused on. The populations were growing and growing, yes? Well, an area of land can only support so much food for a group of people to live off of. As a population grew, that population needed more land, so they would either expand their territory, or move elsewhere to find more land. This led to humans inhabiting all the continents.

Now eventually, man's population grows so much that there isn't any land left(that they know of) to expand any further. So if they grow their own food, putting it close together in fields, rather than scattered across the landscape, then they'll have enough to feed the entire population, and support growth. That's what I mean by condensing, transitioning from scattered foodstuffs to compact fields to support population growth.

Sorry about the confusion.

 

I find your ideas to have some merit. I don't know about assigning myth to the specific real phenomena but certainly plant cultivation and animal domestication has led to the development and spread of human pathogens.

The pathogens developed over time in Asia and Europe decimated populations in the New World because they were unaccustomed to the diseases that emerged from that life style. If you will notice sedentary communal living produces a huge waste problem for the local environment. Since we are populating the entire world with significant density, it is creating a waste problem for the entire world.

So in this practical sense man has experienced a "fall".
I sometimes refer to civilization as it is practiced to be a pathological liar, promising salvation while delivering disease.

 

Its still confusing though LOL, are you viewing the bible as supposed to be a history book just mistranslated throughout time or is there still a supernatural slant on the way you are deciphering this?

If I had to take a guess at the reason for agriculture, It would have to do with growing population but not in a sense that they felt like they explored all the lands but more that they were restricted to explore further due to changes in the seasons, uninhabitale terrain and having to support families.

 

Oi. You caught me. Yeah, I tend to view the Bible as a biased historical text that has been horribly mistranslated through the ages. I actually consider myself a transitioning agnostic, but I believe there is some truth to be found in the Bible, you just have to figure out what you believe from it.

I'm sure all of those reasons were certainly causes for development of agriculture. I was kinda thinking of the situation where a tribe was kind of trapped by surrounding tribes' territories, so they had to find a way to feed themselves by growing/raising their own food. (having to support families)

 

I completely agree with you! There are many curses with civilization, and certainly this is one of them. Nomadic cultures are less suceptible to disease due to their constant movement, and therefore constant exercise. Living close together, along with accumulation of waste and not being able to move anywhere, welcomes fast spreading and deadly diseases.

 

It is the abundance of food that produces larger populations. Hunter gatherers were constrained in size of population by the carrying capacity of local or regional resources.

 

I agree, and not only mistranslated it's also had parts massive parts added and subtracted from it.
Another reason agriculture 'threw us off balance' in my view, is that it gave us a surplus.
In having all this extra food, we now had something this commodity to guard, which then became a currency to trade and fight over.

..though I'm sure there was still fighting beforehand =(

 

Fair enough, I tried giving the bible a read about 2 years ago, tried to be open minded with it but found it incredibly dull and difficult to comprehend based on the language used.

 

Actually, it's really interesting you say that. As I mentioned in the first post, before the development of agriculture, there was minimal social organization in tribes. Social life was based on cooperation. Occasionally leaders would be used for hunting parties or ceremonies, but no permanent leaders were set in place at this point.

Therefore, there was no social organization to conduct wars or battles. Sure, there would be small skirmishes between groups over territory, but nothing long lasting. With the development of agriculture, and therefore civilization, came the necessary organization for warfare. And certainly, objects and possessions to fight over. Yet another curse of civilization.

 

Before you go all gushy on me, the reason for fewer pathogens in the New World was not from the amount of exercise but that in moving you do not exceed the capacity of the local environment to refresh itself, i.e. a lack of pollution.

Increased exercise means increased potential for injury and in overall survival terms is not necessarily useful. That is, a hunter gatherer nomadic existence comes with it's own brutalities and is not all roses, so to speak.

 

Yes, I suppose you are correct. And, now that I think about it, early agriculture would require extensive amounts of exercise anyway, so I guess that wouldn't make much sense. X_X

 

Environmental pressure is always present. I think the development of agriculture
emerged from observations of local abundance and seasonal variation. I think agriculture is an innovation of the human mind.

 

There is no evidence of social organization to fight other pack animals and other hominids like Neanderthals?