On 30/06/2014 13:13, Janet wrote:
In article ,
lid says...

On Sun, 29 Jun 2014 23:52:22 +0100, Janet wrote:

In article ,
lid says...

It was primitive women who did the grinding. The men were out all day hunting
and gathering.

So who was sowing and harvesting those grain crops?

The women? :-)

Who cleared land of stones and trees and cultivated the soil fine
enough to sow the grain in?


In parts of the third world nothing has changed.

In this country, hunter-gathering (found food) preceded agriculture
(the clearing of forest to create grazing, breeding/tending livestock,
cultivating soil to grow crops).

Janet.


What country are you talking about?
Slash and burn was not a common practice in Europe as it is a method
used mainly by nomadic people who move on every 2 or 3 years.
In the UK forests were not cleared for agriculture, it was the need for
Oak for sailing ships from the 16th century onwards.
Forests were about the only source of fuel that people had.
for thousands of years people just gathered the seeds of wild grass,
then some started to make holes on the ground and to drop a few grass
seeds in so that they didn't have to search so far to find the seeds
they needed.
The plough came much later, see
http://www.ploughmen.co.uk/ploughhistory.htm
In The US of A primitive stick ploughs were uses in places well into the
19th century.
Tending of livestock was mostly a shared job, where the animals needed
defending from wild animals or marauding neighbours then it was the men
that did it, especially as the keeping of livestock reduced the need of
hunting to feed the people so men had more time to devote to developing
husbandry skills and other agricultural practices.
I do think that some time spent reading up on agricultural history would
be a good idea