The Origins of Agriculture

• reading: carey 2023

QUIZ: carey (2023) mentions that the domestication process of plants was:

• Rapid

• gradual

QUIZ: according to Carey (2023), which one of the following lifestyles brought about malnutrition, epidemic diseases, and social inequality in human society?

• Hunter-gatherer

• Agriculture-sedentism

• Metalsmith

• All of the above

• gradual

• Agriculture-sedentism

sedentary life - what were effects

people living in permanent settlements year-round

hunting: cultural images and social reality

• We were all hunter-gatherers

• Sports: metaphor of hunting?

• Many HG societies: heavy reliance on plants, fish, or shell

the origins of agriculture

early views

• The Bushman (!Kung) is a “Classic illustration of a people whose economic resources are of the scantist”

• “Only the most intense application makes survival possible”

(Herskovits 1958 Economic Anthropology)

current facts

• Hunter-gatherers were not nasty, brutish, starving, and short

• Monumental architecture came before agriculture

• Why did almost all our hunter-gatherer ancestors adopt sedentary life and agriculture?

• Did sedentary life and agriculture give us a better life?

diet and health

• Balanced rich diet

• Sleep a good deal

• Work less hard

agriculturalists

professionals or individuals involved in the science, practice, and management of farming and food production

Natufian (12,500-9,500 BCE)

• what is material evidence of the transition from H-G to domestication?

• Transition to sedentism and agriculture

• Wild plant us

  • Grinding stones

  • Sickles

incipient agricultre in southwest asia (near east)

• Abu Hureyre (9500-6500 BCE)

• jericho (10000 BCE)

• catalhoyuk (7000 BCE)

Abu Hureyra (Syria): PPNA 9500-8500 BCE

• Wheat, barley, rye

• Pits and silos were located inside and outside houses:

  • Group storage

• cultivation; domestication?

• More sedentary? 

Jericho (Palestine): oldest town:

• Wallas village by 10000 BCE

• Massive walls by 9000 BCE

• Wall and tower:PPNA

  • Defense?

  • Floods?

Catalhoyuk (“”)

• 7000-6500 BCE: large, complex settlement; 32 acres (!Abu H)

• 8000 people

• A large village or town with numerous small houses 3.7ha

the origin of rice cultivation in China 6000 BCE

enviornmental effects or cultural preferences?

• SW asia vs east asiashunayqa 1 : what did researchers find?

• Wheat and barley

  • Grinding and baking

• Rice and millet

  • Steam and boil

effects of agriculture

• population growth

• disease

• the spread of insects

• family-orientated society

• social inequality

• conflicts

• gender division

• impacts on the environment

original affluent society

• Marshall Sahlins

  • “They lived in a kind of material plenty. 

  • With advent of agriculture. People had to work harder.”

diet between hunter-gatherers and agriculturalists

• Hunter-gatherer

  • diets were highly varied, featuring diverse wild plants, lean meats, fish, nuts, and fruits, rich in fiber and micronutrients, offering a balanced protein/carb/fat intake

• agriculturalist

  • diets became less varied, centered on starchy staples like grains (rice, wheat) and tubers (potatoes), leading to more carbohydrates, less fiber, and vulnerability to crop failure, though providing more consistent calorie access

transition to agriculture and sedentism

• Relief from hunger = no?

  • Poorer health status, less diverse diet

• Less work and more leisure time = no

  • More work

domestication in the americas

• Domestication before sedentism

• Monumental architecture before sedentism

• Gradual development, but rapid change after the building of monumental architecture

• Maize, lack of significant animals

domestication of turkey, sweet potato

• where were their origins?

• when?

• Mesoamerica: 800 BCE-100 BCE

• American southeast: 200 BCE-500BCE

• Independent domestication?

effects of turkey domestication

commercial turkey

domesticated turkeys from europe

domestication of bottlee gourds

• why domesticated?

• From the Old World around 8000 BCE or earlier?

• Drift from Africa and domestication around 8000 BCE?

• Early domestication = not for food

Paso de la Amada

• what happens?

• why maize domestication?

• Productive plant

  • 1 kernel: 200 or more

• Medivela european wheat 1:3-5

  

different processes of agriculture between SW aisa and mesoamerica

• Southwest asia

  • Monument architecture before sedentism

  • Sedentism before agriculture

  •  Relatively rapid change after domestication

  • What, barley, animal

• Mesoamerica

  • Domestication before sedentism

  • Monumental architecture before sedentism

  • Gradual development, but rapid change after the building of monumental architecture

  • Maize, lack of significant animals

why agriculture?

• More options along with hunting and gathering

• Climate change warmer and wetter

• Storage = risk-management

  • Animals 

  • mixed substances

• Monumental architecture = feast/ceremony/competiton

  • Intensification of face to face interactions

  • Intensification of production

• Diverse processes

• Unintended consequences

why didnt we go back?

• Population growth ← sedentism

• Environmental change

• Social change