s that hunter-gatherers have more leisure time than farmers. On the other hand, an agricultural system absorbs more labor and increased workload per capita. Based on the output of production, agriculture is perceived as an advance because farmers can produce more food within a smaller area than they could possibly obtain as hunter-gatherers. Harris says that this situation happened since farmers control “the rate of plant reproduction” (Harris 219), which means that immediate adverse consequences could be prevented with the intensification of production. On the other hand, hunter-gatherers, which depend on the availability of natural plants and animals; consequently, can raise their output very little. However, although farmers can produce more food than hunter-gatherers do, the numbers of crops are limited; therefore, when the crops failed, there is risk of starvation.In order to keep their standard of living, hunter-gatherers have to keep their population low. They use many ways to prevent pregnancy, such as herbal contraceptives, plant and animal poisons, and many mechanical techniques for abortion. Hunter-gatherers are also likely to use infanticide and geronticide, which means the killing of infant and old people. Commonly, the mothers executed infanticide by neglecting their babies. On the contrary, people who adopt agriculture do have this practice; they do not keep their population low, conversely, they need more population to help their relatives to plant and harvest their crops.This high population density, however, has its downside. People in agricultural societies tend to bear the risk of infection by many diseases. It happened because they have to trade with other crowded societies in order satisfy their needs. In contrast, hunter-gatherers who live in dry land and with low population, have less risk to contaminate disease because epidemics is less likely to occur in a small population. Agriculture also brings c...
