Subsistence Strategies and the Neolithic Revolution

Vocabulary flashcards covering human subsistence strategies, the Neolithic Revolution, and archaeological terminology from the lecture notes.

Subsistence strategy

The way a community obtains the food and other resources it needs, which affects settlement patterns, population size, work roles, social organization, and economic exchange.

Foraging (hunting and gathering)

A subsistence strategy based on obtaining food from wild plants and animals rather than domesticated crops or herds, characterized by mobility, small groups, food sharing through social obligations, and low material-storage needs.

Horticulture

Growing domesticated plants mainly using human-powered hand tools, often carried out in relatively small plots with crop diversity, sometimes utilizing shifting cultivation.

Shifting cultivation

A farming practice where a plot of land is cultivated for a period and then left fallow to allow soil and vegetation to recover.

Agriculture

Crop production using intensive techniques and inputs—such as animal or machine power, irrigation, fertilizers, and crop rotation—which typically supports larger, more permanent fields and greater food surpluses.

Pastoralism

Raising and managing domesticated herd animals for resources such as milk, meat, blood, wool, or transport; often practiced where crop farming is difficult, with mobility tracking pasture and water.

Industrialism / industrial food production

A highly mechanized, large-scale production system tied to industrial technologies, extensive specialization, and high interdependence, which began developing during the Industrial Revolution in the late 1700s.

Neolithic Revolution

The long, uneven transition across various regions from predominantly foraging to food production through plant and animal domestication, which did not start everywhere at once or spread from a single origin.

Prehistory (as used in archaeology)

Periods or societies studied without written records, reconstructed using artifacts, landscapes, and other material evidence.

History (as used in archaeology)

Periods or societies studied traditionally through the use of written records.

Marginal environment

An environment considered difficult for a specific subsistence strategy; for example, an area marginal for crop farming that can still sustain foraging or herding.