Abstract
There is no written record depicting how ancient societies viewed their own transition through the agricultural revolution. In the fertile crescent, however, early agricultural societies left intricate literature and myths embedded with their own worldviews and opinions. Clear allegories regarding agriculture can be gleaned from ancient myths of the fertile crescent such as the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Book of Genesis. Analyzing myth historically requires speculation, but even with that considered, these agricultural allegories can in turn be read as commentaries on the Neolithic revolution. Although written and told by agricultural societies, works like Gilgamesh and Genesis could have been passed down through oral tradition throughout the agricultural revolution, or at the very least, these myths show how agricultural civilizations inferred their own transitioning into agriculture from their nomadic and embryonic neighbors.
How to Cite
Sloop, K. A., (2020) “The Ancient Mind and Cultural Evolution: Allegories of the Agricultural Revolution in Gilgamesh and Genesis”, Capstone, The UNC Asheville Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship 33(2).
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