The development of agriculture and its effect on humans

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The development of agriculture and its effect on humans
A comparative essay of Christian`s views found in Maps of Time, Chapter 8, and Diamond`s views found in "Agriculture`s Mixed Blessings" from The Third Chimpanzee.
Big history is the study of the origins of the world, basically the history of everything as we know it today. Many a time when the topic of big history is being discussed among scholars in the field of history, astronomy, geology or anthropology, emphasis is laid on myths and theories about the creation story. This has been one of the most hotly debated topics that often pits religion against science or vice versa. However, scientists find themselves in common ground when it comes to agriculture.
All are in agreement that during the origin of mankind, people were predominantly hunters and gatherers before later shifting to agriculture. Creationists support this because Biblically, Adam and Eve used to pick up fruits freely and eat as they pleased. Historians and geologists support this because the archeological evidence they unearth shows evidence of a hunter and gatherer kind of lifestyle for the first humans. The part of the Bible story where Adam and Eve are kicked out of the garden is also in tandem with the archeological evidence that shows a change in lifestyle from hunting and gathering to a rudimentary form of what we now call agriculture.
Scientists often focus on the benefits that agriculture brought to the human race; few usually go the extra mile to actually evaluate the effects that agriculture had on the human race. In the books, "maps of time" and "the third chimpanzee" by Christian and Diamond respectively we see two distinct approaches towards this area of interest. The manner in which they tackle the shift from hunting and gathering to farming leaves the reader asking him or herself the question, "was this shift in lifestyle that necessary?"
In "Agriculture`s mixed blessings", the title itself casts doubts on this change to a more sedentary lifestyle. The term mixed blessings suggests that amid the ‘goodies` agriculture provided for the human race, there existed some thorns in this bed of roses. In the book "the third chimpanzee" we see the obvious satirical reference to humans as apes of some kind. What the writer is trying to say in subtle humor is that we didn`t go that far from our evolutionary cousins, the chimpanzees, after evolving into humans. As far as the titles are concerned, we see that there is something the two stories have in common. Both authors feel that the shift to a lifestyle of agriculture was not completely beneficial to the human race (Christian -255).
The first key difference in the two stories is the approaches and biases which they use to put their points across. Jared Diamond in the "third chimpanzee" maintains a more sociological approach in his discussion of the effect that agricultu...