Throughout the majority of our existence, humans have traversed the globe, living in small groups, surviving through hunting and gathering, and adapting to different climates. For hundreds of thousands of years, our ancestors utilized fire for cooking and warmth. They fashioned tools, built shelters, sewed clothing, and created adornments, limited only by what they could carry. Occasionally, they encountered other hominins, such as Neanderthals, and on occasion, interbred. Across vast stretches of time, history unfolded without being documented.
However, roughly 10,000 years ago, a significant shift occurred.
In select regions, people began cultivating crops, leading to a sedentary lifestyle. Villages and towns were established. Inventive individuals devised writing, monetary systems, wheels, and even gunpowder. Within a few thousand years – a mere instant in evolutionary terms – cities, empires, and factories sprung up across the globe. Today, Earth is encircled by satellites and crisscrossed by internet cables. Such unparalleled developments are unprecedented in human history.
Archaeologists and anthropologists have attempted to elucidate the reasons behind this rapid and transformative shift. The prevailing narrative has often depicted it as a trap: once farming was adopted, there was no turning back, leading to an inevitable path of increasing social complexity, hierarchical structures, inequality, and environmental degradation. This grim outlook on the rise of civilizations has long dominated. However, as we examine more diverse societies, this narrative begins to crumble. Confronted with inconvenient evidence, we are compelled to rewrite the story of our origins. In doing so, we are also reevaluating the very essence of what a society can be.
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