amount of land a family owns, and families
Horticultural and Pastoral Societies
Horticultural and pastoral societies both
developed about 10,000–12,000 years ago.
In horticultural societies, people use hoes
and other simple hand tools to raise crops.
In pastoral societies, people raise and herd
sheep, goats, camels, and other domesticated
animals and use them as their major source
of food and also, depending on the animal, as
a means of transportation. Some societies are
either primarily horticultural or pastoral,
while other societies combine both forms.
Pastoral societies tend to be at least
somewhat nomadic, as they often have to
move to find better grazing land for their
animals. Horticultural societies, on the other
hand, tend to be less nomadic, as they are
able to keep growing their crops in the same
location for some time. Both types of
societies often manage to produce a surplus
of food from vegetable or animal sources,
respectively, and this surplus allows them to
trade their extra food with other societies. It
also allows them to have a larger population
size than hunting-and-gathering societies
that often reaches several hundred
members.Horticultural societies often
produce an excess of food that allows
them to trade with other societies and
also to have more members than
hunting-and-gathering
societies.Accompanying the greater
complexity and wealth of horticultural and
pastoral societies is greater inequality in
terms of gender and wealth than is found in
hunting-and-gathering societies.In pastoral
societies, wealth stems from the number of
animals a family owns, and families with
more animals are wealthier and more
powerful than families with fewer animals. In
horticultural societies, wealth stems from the
Agricultural production relies primarily
with more land are wealthier and more upon human and animal labor as
powerful.x opposed to mechanized tools. For
example, a farmer in an agrarian
One other side effect of the greater wealth of
society is likely to plow a field with a
horticultural and pastoral societies is greater
plough powered by horse, oxen or even
conflict. As just mentioned, sharing of food is
a key norm in hunting-and-gathering just himself. An industrial society would
societies. In horticultural and pastoral utilize a tractor to till the field
societies, however, wealth (and more
specifically, the differences in wealth) leads Pastoral Societies Pastoral Society is
to disputes and even fighting over land and a social group of pastoralism, and is
animals. Whereas hunting-and-gathering typical nomadic. Horticultural Societies
peoples tend to be very peaceful, Horticultural Society is an organization
horticultural and pastoral peoples tend to be
devote to the study and culture of
more aggressive. cultivated plants. Domestication
revolution is the process of increasing
grazing land - a field covered with grass
human control over the breeding of wild
or herbage and suitable for grazing by plants and animals in order to select for
livestock. ley, pasture, pastureland, lea. traits that make them more useful for
common land, commons - human
a pasture subject to common use.
cow pasture - a pasture for cows. Horticultural and pastoral societies both
grassland - land where grass or developed about 10,000–12,000 years
grasslike vegetation grows and is the
ago. In horticultural societies, people use
dominant form of plant life hoes and other simple hand tools to raise
crops. In pastoral societies, people raise
Nomadicpastoralism is a form and herd sheep, goats, camels, and other
of pastoralism when livestock are domesticated animals and use them as
herded in order to find fresh pastures on their major source of food and also,
which to graze. Strictly speaking,
true nomads follow an irregular pattern
of movement, in contrast with
transhumance where seasonal pastures
are fixed.\
herd is a social group of certain animals of
the same species, either wild or domestic.