Comparative Civilizations Review Volume 44 Article 5 Number 44 Spring 2001 4-1-2001 How Humans Domesticated Themselves, Invented Agriculture and Became Civilized Stedman B. Nobel Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/ccr Recommended Citation Nobel, Stedman B. (2001) "How Humans Domesticated Themselves, Invented Agriculture and Became Civilized," Comparative Civilizations Review: Vol. 44 : No. 44 , Article 5. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/ccr/vol44/iss44/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the All Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Comparative Civilizations Review by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact
[email protected],
[email protected]. Nobel: How Humans Domesticated Themselves, Invented Agriculture and Beca 72 COMPARATIVE CIVILIZATIONS REVIEW How Humans Domesticated Themselves, Invented Agriculture, and Became Civilized STEDMAN B. NOBLE I. A Systemics of Ancient History It was Immanuel Wallerstein [1974] who is said to have done it. In his study of economic development, each region was shown to be part of a world-wide systemics, and in this way, a sys- tematic approach was introduced into history. Relatively modern history, that is. The general system shows that division of labor exists between regions, with some regions being deeply dependent upon some others. Sherratt enthuses and why not? It is so wide-spanning, it is so systemic - but Sherratt finds himself inspired by both Gordon Childe and Wallerstein, "Both of them have made major contribu- tions but both need very major re-writing" [1993a:249, also 250] For ancient Europe, Sherratt [1993b, 1994, 1995, 1997] provides some of the requisite re-writing, but he also states repeatedly that certain approaches, taken by both Childe and Wallerstein, are now out of date.