Chapter 13 - Hunter-Gatherers to Agriculture

Younger Dryas

between 12.9 - 11.7 ka, global climate got colder and drier

• some archaeologists suggest that humans took advantage of the vulnerability of animals drawn to shrinking water holes during this time and helped hasten their extinction

Holocene

• Holocene - long-term trend of global warming

  • glaciers melted

  • new land was exposed

  • sea levels rose

  • biotic zones shifted

Hunting and gathering

humans were hunter-gatherers for millions of years

• small bands (kin-based communities)

• egalitarian social organization

• no division of labour (no jobs)

• high mobility (nomadic)

• seasonal resource scheduling

foraging

small groups move frequently to seasonally available resources

• storage for later use is rare

collecting

groups move less and bring resources back to camp to share with others

• storage for later use is common

carrying capacity

max population size for a given organism that can be sustained in a given environment

carrying capacity and hunter-gatherers

• hunter-gatherer populations are limited by their environment

• lower carrying capacity = foragers must be mobile to access seasonal foods

• higher carrying capacity = collectors can access more resources while travelling less

  • use up a smaller number of resource types and rely on increased food storage and preservation

examples of carrying capacities and hunter-gatherer populations

Plains cree tipis - lower carrying capacity

• live in very small bands since they are more mobile to catch their food source (bison) which were very mobile

• less permanent buildings

Haida village - higher carrying capacity

• more permanent buildings

• able to acquire more resources

• stay in one place longer so able to acquire more range of resources

Cultural Periods

• Paleolithic - old stone age

  • paleo = old, lithic = stone

• epi = after

• mesolithic, epipalaeolithic, archaic periods - characterized by use of pottery

• Neo = new

  • neolithic - marks transition to agriculture

Cultural adjusments

Holocene hunter-gatherers in temperate latitudes extracted livelihood from local resources

• hunting, fishing, and gathering

• to accommodate both environmental changes and growth of human population, definition of food was broadened by using a wider range of potentially edible species

  • leads to new tools and ways of making tools

Mesolithic of Northern Europe

stayed as hunter-gatherers

• decrease in hunting large animals

• refinement of tool technology

• use of pottery and textiles

• end of ice age led to rising sea waters

  • humans moving inland ate more meat and fish (since plant foods were seasonally scarce)

Epipaleolithic Sites

• the Near East region was never covered by glaciers

  • people could stay longer with the warmer temp. and gain more knowledge

• hunter-gatherers relied more on wild plants and supplemented them with game

• Near Eastern collectors were so successful that they altered their relationship with their environment

  • this changed their society and was a prelude to food production

Neolithic Revolution

transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture

• Traditional view

  • maintaining fields and herds needed a long-term commitment from early farms

  • neolithic people became sedentary

  • towns and cities developed

  • larger settlements meant fewer people involved in food production

    • allowed for craft specialization (cloth weaving, pottery production, metallurgy)

TRUE OR FALSE: all permanent settlements developed through agriculture

FALSE

• in some cultures permanent settlements developed without agriculture

agriculture

deliberate propagation of plants and animals for human consumption

• major shift in resource exploitation

  • growing own food increases carrying capacity of environment

• food surplus causes population growth

  • leads to social stratification and division of labour

Domestification

artificial selection

• caused by agriculture

• is an evolutionary process

  • domesticated species evolved from wild species

• dependent on humans for survival

• virtually all of our food today is domesticated

• domesticated species don’t survive very well under unfavourable conditions

Domesticated vs. tamed animals

domesticed does NOT equal tamed

• tamed animals - wild animals that have become habituated to humans

• domesticated animals - evolved through artificial selection and have a symbiotic relationship with humans

agriculture vs. domestification

agriculture - cultural practice of raising plants and animals

domestication - evolutionary change of plants and animals through artificial selection

• domesticated species thrive under specific conditions but don’t do very well in natural environment

domestication of wheat

• overtime, wheat has evolved to have more seeds and more sticky

  • more sticky means less dispersal

    • this allows for more collection

Unconscious Darwinian Selection

when people are not aware of genetic principles when they make their selection, but cultural preferences consistently favour a preferred genetic relationship

cultigen

plant that is wholly dependent on humans

• a domesticate

Macrofossils

large enough to be visible to the naked eye

• ex. wood, nutshell, seeds

• carbonization (burning) promotes preservation

microfossils

microscopic in size

• ex. pollen, starch grains, phytoliths

Old world domesticates

staple grains - wheat, barley, oats, rice

other foods - apples, stonefruit, citrus, melons, bananas

drugs - coffee, tea, cannabis, opium

new world domesticates

staple foods - maize (corn), beans, squash, potato, etc.

other foods - pepper, tomato, pumpkin, pineapple, etc.

drugs - tobacco, coca, peyote etc.

Old world animals

• cattle

• sheep

• goats

• pigs

• horses

• chickens

• camels

• reindeer

• honey bees

new world animals

• Llama

• alpaca

• guinea pig

• muscovy duck

• turkey

• bees

why are animals domesticated

• meat

• pulling plow

• riding

• milk product

• wool

• leather

• horn

• bone

• manure fertilizer

• social status

agriculture and domestication takeaway

• agriculture and domestication emerged independently in different parts of the world

  • after emerging, spread outwards to nearby cultures

• intensity of agriculture and types of animals and plants domesticated depends on both environmental and cultural factors

TRUE OR FALSE - culture change is not a simple linear progression

TRUE

TRUE OR FALSE - agriculture is inevitable

FALSE

TRUE OR FALSE - modern hunter-gatherers are stuck in a primitive cultural stage

FALSE

• in many ways their lifestyle is better than ours

why don’t bananas have seeds

single genetic mutation in plants that doesn’t have seeds

• all bananas are clones

  • very low genetic diversity

  • very vulnerable to genetic diseases and pests

what was likely the first domesticated animal

dogs

• domesticated from wild wolves