Agrarian society
Agrarian society were preceded by hunter and gatherer and horticultural societies and transition into industrial society. The transition to agriculture, called the Neolithic Revolution, has taken place independently multiple times. Horticulture and agriculture as types of subsistence developed among humans somewhere between 10,000 and 8,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent region of the Middle East. The reasons for the development of agriculture are debated but may have included climate change, and the accumulation of food surplus for competitive gift-giving. Most certainly there was a gradual transition from hunter-gatherer to agricultural economies after a lengthy period when some crops were deliberately planted and other foods were gathered from the wild. In addition to the emergence of farming in the Fertile Crescent, agriculture appeared in: by at least 6,800 B.C.E. in East Asia (rice) and, later, in Central and South America (maize and squash). Small-scale agriculture also likely arose independently in early Neolithic contexts in India (rice) and Southeast Asia (taro). However, full dependency on domestic crops and animals, when wild resources contributed a nutritionally insignificant component to the diet, did not occur until the Bronze Age.
Mesoamerica
By roughly 6000 BCE, [[hunter-gatherer]]s living in the [[highland (geography)|highlands]] and lowlands of Mesoamerica began to develop agricultural practices with early cultivation of squash and chilli. The earliest example of [[maize]] dates to c. 4000 BCE and comes from [[Guilá Naquitz]], a cave in Oaxaca. Earlier maize samples have been documented at the Los Ladrones cave site in [[Panama]], c. 5500 BCE. Slightly thereafter, semi-[[agrarian community|agrarian communities]] began to cultivate other crops throughout Mesoamerica. Maize was the most common domesticate, but the common bean, tepary bean, scarlet runner bean, [[jicama]], [[tomato]] and squash all became common cultivates by 3500 BCE. At the same time, these communities exploited [[cotton]], [[yucca]], and [[agave]] for fibers and [[textile]] materials. By 2000 BCE, corn was the staple crop in the region, and remained so through modern times. The Ramón or [[Brosimum alicastrum|Breadnut tree]] ("[[Brosimum alicastrum]]") was an occasional substitute for maize in producing flour. Fruit was also important in the daily diet of Mesoamerican cultures. Some of the main ones consumed include [[avocado]], [[papaya]], [[guava]], [[mamey (disambiguation)|mamey]], [[Sapote|zapote]], and [[annona]].