Horticultural

Society
GloryVee Jordan

Danica Juanito
A horticultural society is one in which people

subsist through the cultivation of plants for

food consumption without the use of

mechanized tools or the use of animals to pull

plows. This makes horticultural societies

distinct from agrarian societies, which do use

these tools, and from pastoral societies, which

Horticultural societies developed around 7000 BCE in the Middle East and gradually

spread west through Europe and Africa and east through Asia. They were the first

type of society in which people grew their own food, rather than relying strictly on the

hunter-gather technique. This means that they were also the first type of society in

which settlements were permanent or at least semi-permanent. As a result, the

accumulation of food and goods was possible, and with it, a more complex division of

labor, more substantial dwellings, and a small amount of trade.

There are both simple and more advanced forms of cultivation used in

horticultural societies. The most simple use tools such as axes (to clear forest)

and wooden sticks and metal spades for digging. More advanced forms may

use foot-plows and manure, terracing and irrigation, and rest plots of land in

fallow periods. In some cases, people combine horticulture with hunting or

fishing, or with the keeping of a few domesticated farm animals.

Horticultural societies can have a matrilineal or patrilineal social

organization. In either, ties focused on kinship are common,

though larger horticultural societies will have more complex forms

of social organization. Throughout history, many were matrilineal

because the social ties and structure were organized around the
(Conversely, hunter-gatherer societies were typically

patrilineal because their social ties and structure were

organized around the masculinized work of hunting.) Because

women are at the center of work and survival in horticultural

societies, they are highly valuable to men.

For this reason, polygyny—when a husband has multiple
wives—is common.
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