Lecture 3: The Neolithic Revolution

when Ingold talks about producing, what connotation does this have?

has connotations of mastery/control

the conventional knowledge that humans set themselves apart from other species by producing their food conveys what?

foragers, who did not produce their food, were not human

what is agriculture?

the production of food using domesticated plants and animals

what is domestication?

process by which wild plants or animals become adapted to humans and the environments they provide

how are animals domesticated?

animals with desired traits are artificially selected and bred so the desirable traits become more pronounced in offspring

generally, domestication entails __________ on humans

dependency

what are three traits associated with domestication?

harvest seed (non-shattering)

increased fruit/grain size

increased palatability (less bitter)

corn was domesticated from

teosinte

what is the difference between modern corn hybrid and teosinte?

modern corn has more rows of kernels, teosinte has two rows of kernels

true or false: domestication originated in one place and then spread elsewhere

false

what is a highly desired trait in wild plants?

immunity/resistance to pathogens

place of origin for plant/animal definition

where it was first domesticated, where their ancestors are found

what plants/animals originated in Eastern North America?

sunflower sumpweed, pitseed, goosefoot, squash

what plants/animals originated in Mesoameica?

maize, beans, squash

what plants/animals originated in Fertile Crescent West?

wheat, barley, cattle, pig

what plants/animals originated in Fertile Crescent East?

barley, sheep, goat

where/when did domestication occur?

occurred in about 20 different places at roughly the same time

occurred at the beginnings of the Holocene (10,000 to 8000 BC)r

what plants/animals originated in Western Savannah?

cowpea, fonio, African rice

what plants/animals originated in North/High Andes?

potato, oca, llama

what is the importance of wild plants for domestication?

there is an abundance of genetic diversity in wild plants- they harbor the traits that breeders look for because they allow new plants to be created

adapted (definition)

biologically adapted artificially through natural selection

people artificially selected certain species with desired traits to bread through which desired traits become more pronounced

heritable changes can be of what variety?

morphological (shape), physiological (anatomy), genetic, and behavioral

non-shattering seeds

seeds that remain on the plant instead of being released when they are ripe

makes harvesting easier and prevents yield loss

de novo domestication

creation of new crops

what are the common characteristics of corn domestication?

from a multi-branched phenotype to a single-branch

concentration of harvestable units to a single crop

where were the origins of corn, wheat, and rice?

corn- Mesoamerica

wheat- Fertile Crescent West

rice- China and Western Savannah (Africa)

Fertile Crescent

origin of many important crops today

how can it be that wheat starts in the Fertile Crescent but moves to places like Great Britain?

the key is the amount of time that passes- seeds have to continue to adapt to the climate as it is moved to different climates

artificial selection- people select the seeds from the plants that are performing the “best”

natural selection- seeds that don’t survive climate, predation, etc. cannot reproduce

what sets the Fertile Crescent apart?

has been a focus of research efforts for hundreds of years

natural conditions led to the ability for preservation

early forms of writing happened earlier so there are written records

true or false: the dominance of the Fertile Crescent is receding

true

how did domestication likely work in the fertile crescent? what were some of the conditions

more temperate climate

delta- edges of the sea as they reach the mouth of the rivers- topography is flat

melting of snow means rivers rise in spring

2x a day the tide goes in and out- raising level of rivers; this leaves the fresh water on the surface (salt water below)

fresh water is pushed onto plains

attraction of wildlife

intense diversity is temporally and spatially distributed meaning there is an abundance of food and knowledge in the same region

increased habitat suitable for plants and animals (increased variety of plants)

agriculture requires

environmental modifications

the up and down sequence of rivers can be seen as a precursor for

irrigation

neolithic innovations

innovations related to agriculture

sickle, ax, adze, grinding ston, terra cotta cooking pot

Neolithic Revolution is conventionally thought of to have started with

the domestication of plants and animals

what are the effects of domestication and Neolithic Revolution on labor?

increased labor (weeding, watering, plowing, processing, etc)

10-100x food energy/unit of land

what are the effects of domestication and Neolithic Revolution on diets and stature?

shift in diets- less meat and more carbohydrates (animals used for traction, manure, and milk; domesticated animals are expensive to maintain)

led to increased anemia and dental caries

reduced stature

what are the effects of domestication and Neolithic Revolution on life expectancy? why the disparities?

reduced life expectancy for women, increased for men

due to increased fertility women were at greater risk during childbirth- higher mortality

what happens to the average height of men and women from the Paleolithic vs Neolithic era?

average height decreases due to changes in diet and nutrition

what is a theory for why there was a motivation for domestication?

there was a decrease in fertility

what do the inflection points represent?

series of rapid growth and then a plateau

what does point A represent?

the Neolithic Revolution- the domestication of plants and animals (~10,000 years ago)

total fertility rate

the average number of total (lifetime) births per woman in a population

growth rate

the percentage growth of a population per year

life expectancy

the average life span of a member of a population at birth

in the shift from paleolithic to neolithic, what happens to population growth rate, total fertility rate, and life expectancy?

population growth rate increases slightly

total fertility rate increases (from 6.5 to 7.5)

life expectancy decreases (from about 18 to 16 1/2)

why would life expectancy decrease during the Neolithic Revolution?

high infant mortality

higher population density means more opportunity for diseases

the rate of population growth was slow prior to agriculture, the doubling rate

increased (between 1500-1900 populaiton incresaes 4 fold)

what is the dominant narrative presented by Graeber and Wengrow about the Neolithic Revolutions?

civilization is attributed to agriculture

agriculture means more food, which means you can feed more people, having more people means that not everyone has to grow food (division of labor)

the conventional narrative of the Neolithic “Revolution” has what implication?

those that did not practice agriculture were not civilized and therefore not human

true or false: evidence suggests that the convention narrative of the Neolithic “revolution” is correct

false