As they became dependent on relatively high-maintenance crops, and an increasing number of livestock, the horticultural and shepherd lifestyle finally transformed into an agricultural and farming economy. Along with the social needs of organizing agricultural production, livestock and the resulting products (meat, wool and raw materials), specialization among people emerges.
The economic potential of surplus resources allowed certain individuals within each group to establish permanent exchanges over long distances, laying the groundwork for the emergence of marked social differences within groups.