early food production

stone age

• A broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make implements

• Lasted 3.4 million years

paleolithic (old stone age)

foraging as the means of subsistence

-broad spectrum revolution

mesolithic (middle stone age)

• Broad spectrum revolution

• Microlithic tools

  • Greek for “small stone”

  • Small and delicately shaped stone tools

neolithic (new stone age)

• Food production 

• Ground and polished stone tools

• Pottery

broad spectrum revolution (Kent Flannery 1969)

Foraging activities at the end of the Ice Age (between 15,000 to 12,000 B.P.- before present) during which a wider range of plant and animal life was gathered and hunted

what caused the broad spectrum revolution?

• Environmental change and population grow

  • Ex: humans’ attempt to adapt to the postglacial environment in Europe

    • Change of hunting strategies

    • Gathering remained as the mainstay of human economies

    • Food preservation

    • Development of carpentry

why is the broad spectrum revolution important

• The accumulation of knowledge of plants and animals and their reproductive characteristics

• This revolution gradually led to food production in a mere 10,000 years (hominis had subsisted by foraging for several million years)

define food production

human control over the reproduction of plants and animals- purposeful domestication

causes of food production

• ecological/environmental change

• Population growth

• Social and political need

plant cultivation and selection

• Among 200,000 known plant species, a mere dozen were domesticated

• Characteristics of domesticated plants as a result of purposeful human selection

  • The size of the edible part of plants became larger with domestication. Higher yield

  • Loss of natural speed dispersal mechanism (bean pods, the grain axis)

  • Brittle husks of domesticated grains

Why weren't most large animal species domesticated

• 14 out of 148 large animals had been domesticated

• Animal temperance

• Animal social structure

• The issue of territory

info on animal domestication and selection (first animals to be domesticated? why select certain animals?)

• Sheep and goats: first animals to be domesticated

• selecting animals for certain desirable features (ex woolly sheep)

• Animals tend to get smaller with domestication

old world

• Both farming and herding thrived

• A mutually supportive relationship between farming and herding

• Invention of wheels as a transportation tool

new world

• The meager inventory of available plants and animals was not able to sustain food production in North America

• First plant domestics: squash, sunflower, and goosefoot

• In the absence of large-animal domestication, 13 of 14 domesticated large animals are from the old world. Only llama is from South America

• Invention of wheels as toys

neolithic tools

Advanced techniques of grinding and polishing stone tools (such as axes and hammers) were developed