Final answer:
Fertility rates rose with farming and sedentism due to a reliable food supply improving health and fertility (biological reason), and larger families becoming advantageous for labor and social security (cultural reason).
Step-by-step explanation:
Two potential reasons for the rise in fertility rates with the advent of farming and sedentism include one biological and one cultural factor:
- Biological reason: The invention of agriculture led to a more dependable food supply and thus a more consistent energy intake. This surplus energy likely supported better health and fertility, enabling women to conceive more frequently and sustain more pregnancies to term.
- Cultural reason: With settled life and the development of surplus food, having more children became advantageous. Larger families could contribute more labor to farming, thereby producing more food and supporting more robust communities. Also, cultural norms may have evolved to value larger family sizes as a form of social and economic security.
With the advent of sedentary societies, humans experienced a significant change in lifestyle. Permanent settlements facilitated the specialization of labor, leading to an interconnected community where people relied on one another for goods and services. As a result, larger families could mean more hands to contribute, reinforcing the cultural norm of high fertility rates within these growing agrarian societies.