Editing Society (section)

==== Agrarian ====
{{Main article|Agrarian society}}
[[File:Detail of Les tres riches heures - March.jpg|thumb|Ploughing with oxen in the 15th century]]
Agrarian societies use agricultural [[technological]] advances to cultivate crops over a large area. Sociologists use the phrase [[Neolithic Revolution|agricultural revolution]] to refer to the technological changes that occurred as long as 8,500 years ago that led to cultivating crops and raising farm animals. Increases in food supplies then led to larger populations than in earlier communities. This meant a greater surplus, which resulted in towns that became centers of trade supporting various rulers, educators, craftspeople, merchants, and religious leaders who did not have to worry about locating nourishment.

Greater degrees of social stratification appeared in agrarian societies. For example, women previously had higher social status because they shared labor more equally with men. In hunting and gathering societies, women even gathered more food than men. However, as food stores improved and women took on lesser roles in providing food for the family, they increasingly became subordinate to men. As villages and towns expanded into neighboring areas, conflicts with other communities inevitably occurred. Farmers provided warriors with food in [[Trade|exchange]] for protection against invasion by enemies. A system of rulers with high social status also appeared. This nobility organized warriors to protect the society from invasion. In this way, the nobility managed to extract goods from "lesser" members of society.

[[File:Cleric-Knight-Workman.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.75|Cleric, knight and peasant; an example of feudal societies]]