Back in the day, before technology of any kind, before neighborhoods, schools, or anything, there were hunters and gatherers. Hunters did as their name states, they hunted anything they could find. It was an extremely unreliable source of food and it wasn't unlikely that they would go back to their people with nothing. They had to move with their prey, using great skill to take it down. Unlike hunting, if gathering, you could stay in basically the same place for longer, maybe leaving if no more food was available. But the problem was, no one could live off of just gathering, and the food ran out very quickly, so they had to travel as well.
Once they discovered ways to domesticate food, things got a little better. they didn't need to leave as much, able to stay in one place for longer, more food was available, and most importantly, there was a surplus. The surplus was extremely important due to a few key factors. One of them being what I said before, you could stay in one place longer, not having to worry about your foot supply. Others branched from that key advantage. Because people could stay longer, they were able to have specialized works such as farming, caring for children, "Research," which for them meant learning how to make better weapons for hunting, making better houses, and learning what can be cooked and what tastes better than what. Also one could learn to build, helping the researchers build sturdy homes made to last harsh winters and hot summers.
Once the researching began, it never stopped. People started learning new things, growing more and more aware of their surroundings. Soon they started putting two and two together, making their lives more and more enjoyable. They found animals and domesticated them, using them for the hard labor they couldn't or wouldn't do. They learned what kinds of animals were good for riding or for pulling heavy things. They also learned which animals were better for meat, milk, hide, or other things of that nature.
The people started having more family or neighbor like relationships, now that they had such a surplus, housing, and other things, they could worry about gossip or relations in general. This all happened because of surplus. Their lives improved just by adding a little bit more food and flexibility to their now "Civilized" Village and society.
