第2章初期の人類Early Humans

As the example of the Indigenous people of Australia proves, agriculture was not readily adopted by everyone exposed to it. This may seem strange to us, living in a world made possible by agriculture. But we’re largely removed from the sometimes-painful transition many of our distant ancestors made. Consider, for example, the loss in leisure time. Scholars who study modern hunter-gatherers have found that the time required to acquire enough food to live amounts to about twenty hours per week. However, comparable agricultural societies spend thirty or more hours engaged in farming. That means less time for resting, sharing knowledge, and undertaking activities that bring more joy than hard work does. These same studies have also noted that the greatest loss in leisure hours was borne by women, who spent far more time engaged in laborious tasks outside the home than hunter-gatherer women in similar environments.

オーストラリアの先住民の例が示すように、農耕に接したすべての人が、すぐにそれを取り入れたわけではない。農耕によって可能になった世界に生きる私たちには、奇妙に思えるかもしれない。しかし、遠い祖先の多くが経験した、ときに苦痛を伴う移行から、私たちは大きく隔たっている。たとえば余暇の減少を考えてみよう。現代の狩猟採集民を研究する学者によれば、生きるのに十分な食料を得るための時間は、週に約20時間である。比較できる農耕社会では、農作業に30時間以上を費やす。休息し、知識を分かち合い、重労働より喜びをもたらす活動をする時間が、それだけ減るのである。同じ研究は、余暇の減少が最も大きかったのは女性だとも指摘している。同様の環境に暮らす狩猟採集民の女性に比べ、農耕社会の女性は、家の外の骨の折れる仕事に、はるかに長い時間を費やしていた。

Large groups living in agricultural communities were also more vulnerable to epidemic diseases, which became common in areas that collected large amounts of human and animal waste. They were far more dependent on the weather as well; their crops needed to receive the water they required but no more. Unlike hunter-gatherers, agriculturalists couldn’t easily migrate to areas with more suitable weather conditions. Farmers also had a less-diverse diet than hunter-gatherers, made up mostly of one or two staple crops, usually starchy carbohydrates. While domesticated animals were available to farmers, meat consumption among Neolithic communities was significantly lower than among hunter-gatherers. Relying on a limited variety of food sources could result in mineral and vitamin deficiencies. But the advantages are also plain to see. Agriculture allowed for much larger populations. That meant more workers producing more food and more people to defend the settlement. When functioning well, agriculture created a constant supply of food and even a surplus that could be stored.

農耕共同体に住む大集団は、流行性の病気にもかかりやすかった。人間や動物の排泄物が大量にたまる地域で、病気が広がりやすくなったのである。天候への依存もはるかに強かった。作物には必要な水が届かなければならず、多すぎてもいけなかった。狩猟採集民と異なり、農耕民はよりよい天候の地域へ簡単には移れなかった。食事も狩猟採集民ほど多様ではなく、主に一つか二つの主食作物、たいていはデンプン質の炭水化物で構成された。家畜を利用できたにもかかわらず、新石器時代の共同体の肉の消費は、狩猟採集民よりかなり少なかった。食料源の種類が限られると、ミネラルやビタミンの不足を招き得る。しかし、利点も明らかだった。農耕は、はるかに多くの人口を養えた。それは食料を作る働き手や、集落を守る人が増えることを意味した。うまく機能すれば、食料が安定して供給され、保存できる余剰さえ生まれた。

As early humans left their hunter-gatherer existence behind beginning around twelve thousand years ago, they also drifted away from the egalitarianism it fostered because agriculture required labor specialization in a way that hunting and gathering did not. Farming a field of wheat, for example, required a family to devote their energy to that process and associated chores, leaving little time for the diversity of tasks common among hunter-gatherers. And as agriculture became more sophisticated, such as by incorporating plows and domesticated animals to pull them, some successful farmers were able to produce surpluses that allowed them to accumulate wealth in the form of material property and land. This wealth, and the higher social status that went with it, were left for their descendants to inherit, strengthening social divisions between the well-off and others. For example, if food was plentiful, not everyone needed to farm, allowing some to become artisans or traders, who generated more wealth.

約1万2000年前から初期の人類が狩猟採集生活を離れるにつれ、その生活が育んだ平等主義からも遠ざかっていった。農耕は、狩猟採集にはなかった形の労働の専門化を必要としたからである。たとえばコムギ畑を耕す家族は、その作業と関連する雑務に力を注がねばならず、狩猟採集民に一般的だった多様な仕事をする時間はほとんど残らなかった。農耕が発達し、犂やそれを引く家畜が導入されると、うまくいった農民の一部は余剰を生産し、物品や土地の形で富を蓄えられるようになった。その富と、それに伴う高い社会的地位は子孫へ受け継がれ、裕福な人々とそれ以外の人々の社会的な隔たりを強めた。たとえば、食料が豊富なら全員が農耕をする必要はなく、一部は職人や交易者になり、さらに富を生み出すことができた。

Some people were able to specialize in ways that freed them entirely from the need to focus on food production. They became traders, stoneworkers, religious leaders, and other types of elites. Those who acquired considerable wealth became leaders with the authority to command armies and create rules for society. Those without wealth could expect a life of difficult toil if they were lucky, and a life of bondage if they were not. Within the social tiers made possible by the spread of agriculture, new divisions defined by sex emerged. Among hunter-gatherer societies, women commonly gathered while men commonly hunted. But in agricultural societies, it was the men who typically worked among the crops in the fields. The need for strength to control the plow was likely one of the factors that contributed to this development. Women were relegated to the domestic sphere and spent their time preparing food, making pottery, and weaving cloth. Being less tied to the home, men had opportunities for leadership in society that women did not. They also thus had responsibilities women did not, including dangerous duties like fighting and dying to defend the settlement.

一部の人々は、食料生産に集中する必要から完全に解放されるような仕事に専門化できた。交易者、石工、宗教指導者などのエリートになったのである。多くの富を得た者は、軍を指揮し、社会の規則を作る権限を持つ指導者になった。富を持たない者に待っていたのは、運がよければつらい労働の人生、悪ければ隷属の人生だった。農耕の拡大が可能にした社会的階層の中で、性別に基づく新しい分業が生まれた。狩猟採集社会では、女性が採集し、男性が狩るのが一般的だった。しかし農耕社会では、畑で作物を育てるのは、通常は男性だった。犂を扱う力が必要なことも、その一因だったと考えられる。女性は家庭の領域へ追いやられ、食料の準備、土器作り、機織りに時間を費やした。家に縛られることの少ない男性には、女性にはない、社会の指導者になる機会があった。その一方で、集落を守るために戦って死ぬといった危険な務めを含め、女性にはない責任も担った。

At home, women undertook the difficult and time-consuming work of milling grains. Originally done simply with mortars and pestles, this task evolved along with the rise in agricultural production to include the use of larger stone tools. Operating these mills required many long hours kneeling on the ground and bending over the millstones. It was also in the home that wool sheared from domesticated sheep was spun into thread and woven into cloth. Such chores were in addition to the labor of giving birth, rearing children, and preparing food.

家庭では、女性が穀物を粉にする、難しく時間のかかる仕事を担った。もともとは単純に臼と杵で行っていたが、農業生産の増加とともに、より大きな石の道具を使う作業へ変わった。石臼を使うには、地面に膝をつき、臼の上に体をかがめて、長時間働かなければならなかった。家畜のヒツジから刈った羊毛を糸に紡ぎ、布に織るのも家庭で行われた。こうした雑務は、出産、育児、食事の準備という仕事に加わるものだった。

Agriculture also had a huge effect on religious practices. The division of labor and the increased specialization it brought allowed for the emergence of highly defined priestly classes in many places. These religious elites derived their authority from their ability to interpret the intentions of the supernatural world, a quality that was highly prized. As a result, they could control material and human resources, which were put to work constructing sometimes elaborate monuments and performing highly choreographed rituals. Religions themselves became more intricate as well as qualitatively different. Pre-agricultural societies had tended to practice varieties of animism, seeing elements of spirituality in a great many ordinary things and animals. They had a keen interest in communing with the supernatural, often through shamanic and other rituals. Communities that experienced the Neolithic Revolution, however, developed a focus on agricultural fertility and on deities who could intervene for humanity’s benefit by encouraging this fertility and perpetuating the important cycle of birth, death, and rebirth.

農耕は宗教的実践にも大きな影響を与えた。分業と、それが進めた専門化によって、多くの場所で明確な祭司階級が生まれた。これらの宗教的エリートは、超自然の世界の意図を読み解く能力から権威を得た。その能力は高く評価された。その結果、彼らは物的資源や人々の労働力を支配できた。それらは、ときに精巧な記念建造物の建設や、細かく手順を定めた儀礼の実施へ振り向けられた。宗教自体も、より複雑になり、質的にも変化した。農耕以前の社会は、多くの日常的な物や動物に霊性を認める、さまざまなアニミズムを実践する傾向があった。シャーマンなどの儀礼を通じて超自然と交わることに、強い関心を持っていた。これに対し、新石器革命を経験した共同体では、農耕の豊穣と、それを促して誕生・死・再生という重要な循環を続かせ、人間の利益のために介入する神々が、関心の中心になった。