The Idea of the Climacteric and the Axial Age as a Period of Enduring Legacies

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Midterm Exam Essay
Felipe Fernandez-Armesto defines climacteric as an extended period of critical change in the world that is poised between distinctive possible outcomes. The era of critical change led to significant changes in civilizations, and some practices were wiped out completely, such as the Harappan civilization. For instance, there was a significant transition from hunting and gathering to the production of agricultural products. The Axial Age was a vital period in the history of world civilization. Indeed, it lasted for about 500 years until the start of the Christian era. During this period, critical cultural and intellectual ideas arose and were spread across India, East Asia, the Mediterranean world, and Iran. The paper focuses on Fernandez-Armesto’s idea of the climacteric to explain the transition from hunter-gatherer to agricultural surplus-producing societies and the Axial Age as a period of enduring legacies.
For an extended period, humans had mastered the art of hunting and gathering to get food for their survival. They had learned various strategies to hunt and ensure that people had enough food for survival. For instance, some communities culled old or weak animals, managed grazing by setting fires, drove herds of animals down lanes to a slaughter place, and others corralled animals for a kill (Fernandez-Armesto 33). Some individuals gathered marine animals, such as clams and mussels, using a natural rock pool. As the population increased, hunting and gathering were not enough to supply people with food, and they had to introduce new mechanisms to facilitate consistent food supply. In that light, the transition from hunting and gathering to agricultural surplus-producing societies took place gradually as humans learned how to use various tools to produce food.
Farming was part of a single continuous attempt by different communities to manage the food supply. Many centuries ago, hunting and gathering was a sure way of getting different types of food that humans needed for their survival. However, the method was not sustainable due to the rapid growth of the population, and new strategies had to be invented to ensure that people did not die from hunger. Jonathan Wells and Jay Stock affirm that for the last about 12,000 years, human populations shifted from foraging, hunting, and gathering to the adoption of distinct forms of agriculture. The domestication of animals and plants began, which led to a crucial nutrition transition (Wells and Stock 1). In particular, the transition from hunting and gathering to the production of surplus agricultural products did not happen abruptly, but it was a process that took place steadily. Fernandez-Armesto is clear when he says that it is challenging to understand the end of the gathering and the beginning of farmi...