Chances are that if you were to ask around to family, friends,
or the public at large what the world’s oldest profession is you would receive
several different answers. A popular
answer is the notion that prostitution is the world’s oldest profession, but
this may not actually be the case. Unfortunately,
there is no specific answer to this question because the definitions of the
term profession do vary, as do when specifically human culture is identified as
first starting, but for the purposes of this blog post profession is going to
be defined as a job that requires specialized training and/or skill and
earliest culture is attributed to our hominid ancestors in the genus Homo. Today’s blog post is dedicated to discussing
some potential candidates for the world’s oldest profession, which include
hunter, farmer, and artist.
Candidate 1: Hunter
 |
| Artistic rendition of Neanderthals hunting (Image Source: Google Images) |
Hunting seems like it is something that would be natural to
humans, particularly before the development of agriculture, but hunting, while commonly
utilized by our earliest ancestors and still practiced today, is a skill that
is learned and requires a great deal of training. Several hominid ancestors are associated with
potentially hunting, including Homo erectus, but it is not until the discovery of the atlatl, a spear
thrower, with Neandethals that hunting was confirmed among our hominid
ancestors. Hunting most likely evolved from scavenging activities that are associated with earlier hominid ancestors (the earliest of which was Homo habilis). It does appear that Neanderthals most likely
developed this skill on their own (despite
confirmed contact with Archaic Homo sapiens). Further evidence also provides insights into
Neanderthal hunting practices, which show deliberate selection of specific
prey. Neanderthals hunted a variety of
species, including large and small game, as well as terrestrial and marine
animals, but it does appear that they stuck to local game.
Candidate 2: Farmer
 |
| Artistic rendition of early agriculture (Image Source: OSU) |
About 12,000 years ago early Homo sapiens began to manipulate their environments in order to cultivate specific plants that they wanted to eat. It is unclear as to why specifically humans began to cultivate the land and plants around them, but it is believed that humans experimented with the environment to produce agriculture. Agriculture is another learned skill that requires creative thought, astute observations, and consistent effort to make this work worthwhile. The earliest evidence of agriculture is found in the Levant in the Middle East, and this profession spread across the Old and New Worlds from there. The advent of agriculture led to several new cultural innovations, such as religion and economics, as well as occupations associated with them (e.g. religious officiant and banker).
Candidate 3: Artist
 |
| Painted and perforated shell associated with Neanderthals (Image Source: Google Images) |
Our early human ancestors are considered to be brutish and imbecilic, but that was not actually the case. Our early human ancestors did not have a great deal of time available to them as they were having to constantly work toward their survival, but some of them did have the time and did take the effort to create some of the world's earliest pieces of art. Cave paintings, sculptures (such as the Venus figurines), and personal adornments are considered some of the earliest pieces of art associated with anatomically modern humans, but Neanderthals created several different pieces of art, including jewelry and a flute that still plays music. While art is popularly considered something that is easy by some or a natural skill by others it is known that art can be taught and learned by people, and this may have been the case among our Neanderthal ancestors.
So now I want to put this question back on to you? What do you think is the world's oldest profession and why? Leave your thoughts in the comments section. :)
Bibliography
Feder, Kenneth and Park M. Human Antiquity: An Introduction to Physical Anthropology and Archeology, McGraw-Hill.
Bibliography
Feder, Kenneth and Park M. Human Antiquity: An Introduction to Physical Anthropology and Archeology, McGraw-Hill.
Jurmain, Robert, Kilgore, Lynn,
Trevathan, Wenda, Ciochon, Russell L. Introduction
to Physical
Anthropology. Belmont,
California: Wadsworth, 2014. Print. 
19 comments:
I would consider all of these the oldest profession, simply because if you look back then you notice this is basically all they ever had to deal with. Nothing more nothing less.
Well i think its hunting because we used it for a way to live and we learned how to farm later in our timeline
I think that hunting is the oldest profession because us evolving from primates and knowing that primates don't farm they are scavengers that hunted when they needed to.
I think that the oldest profession is protector; not because it's a profession that deserves respect, but because it's basic human instinct to ensure protection, especially in reference to one's young. I could see someone somehow paying another to look after the former's children when they are too sick or too hurt to do so.
After reading this article I was in awe. I would have never imagined that prostution would be the worlds oldest. I think hunting and farming go hand in hand together so that was a good assumption. People have to eat to survive so if you have any form of that then you will always have income in my opinion.
I feel as though Farming was the first actual profession. This is because before hunting became a thing, they had to realize that this living, moving, animal can be eaten. They were around vicious animals that also wouldn't mind eating them so the safer mechanism for food was probably berries and such until they developed weapons to attack the animals and learn to eat them for proper protein, clothing, forms of medicine, etc.
I would have to say that though all of these were old and much needed professions and i see where each could be seen as the oldest i would assume that hunting would be number 1. Due to the fact that in order o survive one must eat and in order to eat one must hunt and kill to get food.
Art would have to be the oldest profession even older than hunting. Art is the only thing that can be created from anything from destruction to creation and/or accidentally or purposely. Even before humans knew to hunt and survive art was always being created some would even describe hunting and killing as a work of art.
I feel like farming takes a lot of work and it should be a professional job, as in hunting. These two things are something people do to survive. No one can live without one, it have to be both. We need food to survive (meat and vegetables).
Jovie Black
I would say the oldest profession would be hunting, then probably art. They had to eat, farming had to come a little later .
Before reading this blog post i thought hunters and farmers were only canidates for the World’s Oldest Profession. I was surprised to see that an artist could be considered as one.''
-Daisha Benton
When this question arises I automatically think of farmers and how old the profession is. I also would assume that hunting is a premier answer due to the need to eat and flourish daily.
For first profession I would make the argument for farmer. It is the most important of the three and they knew that. Im sure a majority were farmers, while some were foragers/hunters, and then the rest were artists, etc.
I honestly think that hunting was the very first profession. We had to obtain food somehow and it seems like hunting was more manageable than farming. Plus we tend to travel so the growing would have caused problems!
I thinks the world oldest profession was to make tools. i say this because I know more than hands were used to build, dig and hunt for animals.
Hunters and farmers are a couple of the first things I think of when I think about this question, but artist is not one I would had guessed. Now actually thinking about it, art goes back so far, that it makes sense for it to be the oldest perfection. Drawings were such great ways of communication over the years. This was a fun blog.
Kahla Perry
I believe the oldest profession to be hunting. However, it would have started out of necessity. Animals wound try to eat the population, so people were hired to hunt them. The fact that one can eat animal flesh was possibly just a bonus.
I believe hunting was the oldest profession and after that came farming.Only because animals were always getting killed for food back then and vegetables were not popular at the time.
-Jasmine Busby
I personally believe that hunting was the first profession for the simple fact that people have always had to hunt for food but farming in my opinion is the only profession that can compare.
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