The Neolithic revolution saw the independent development of agriculture among at least seven unconnected hunter-gatherer populations. I propose that the rapid spread of agricultural techniques resulted from increased climatic seasonality causing hunter-gatherers to adopt a sedentary lifestyle and store food for the season of scarcity. Their newfound sedentary lifestyle and storage habits facilitated the invention of agriculture. I present a model and support it with global climate data and Neolithic adoption dates, showing that higher seasonality increased the likelihood of agriculture’s invention and its speed of adoption by neighbors. This study suggests that seasonality patterns played a dominant role in determining our species’ transition to farming.

中文翻译：

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蚂蚁和蚱蜢：季节性和农业的发明

新石器革命见证了至少七个互不相干的狩猎采集群体的农业的独立发展。我认为农业技术的迅速传播是由于气候季节性的加剧导致狩猎采集者采取久坐的生活方式并为稀缺季节储存食物。他们新发现的久坐生活方式和储存习惯促进了农业的发明。我提出了一个模型，并用全球气候数据和新石器时代的采用日期来支持它，表明较高的季节性增加了农业发明的可能性及其被邻国采用的速度。这项研究表明，季节性模式在决定我们物种向农业过渡方面发挥了主导作用。