According to Chapter 13, there are two reasons why a
sedentary lifestyle (one in which people stopped being nomadic and settled down in
villages) was important for the development of
technology.
First, sedentary people are able to have many
possessions that are not portable. If you are nomadic, you can only have such
possessions (and technology) as can be carried. You can't carry around big things like
pottery kilns as you walk from camp to camp.
Second,
sedentary people can have bigger populations with specialists in various activities.
Because they are able to produce food surpluses, these societies can have people who
devote their lives to creating technology. This is not possible in hunter-gatherer
societies where it is impossible to have much surplus food.
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