Ch.9 Flashcards
For years, some scholars argued that domestication could’ve occurred without peoples full awareness of what they were doing. Outline and briefly describe three criticisms of this approach to plant domestication.
Define sedentism
Mom did my answer the first part.
Sedentism: The process of increasingly permanent human habitation in one place.
Compare and contrast domestication and cultivation.
D: variety of ways that humans affected the reproduction of another species, with the result that specific plants and animals become more useful to and dependent on people.
D: is human influence in the reproduction of another species, with the result that specific plants and animals become both more useful to and dependent on people.
Cultivation, by contrast, is a concentrated process involving the activities of preparing fields, sowing, weeding, harvesting, and storing products, which requires a new way of thinking about subsistence and new technology to bring it about.
Define agriculture and Agrocology
Agriculture: the systematic modifications of the environment of plants and animals to increase their productivity and usefulness.
agroecology: The systematically modified environment (or constructed niche) that becomes the only environment within which domesticated plants can flourish
Recently some anthropologists have argued that niche construction Theory can clarify relationships among people plants and animals that emerge in the process of domestication. Identify Zeder’s three “distinctive pathways” that humans,plants, and animals follow into domestication.
1Humans engage in ecosystem modification to enhance the conditions of growth for plants and animals e.g. burning
2Plants and animals enter into relations with humans in order to take advantages of the opportunities created by human modified environments
3 Humans may begin interfering with the reproduction of plants and animals to suit them better to human purpose.

Compare and contrast a wild wheat plant and a domesticated wheat plant in terms of different characteristics for the rachis , number of kernels,Reckoning times and the glume.
Wheat kernels form within spikelets that attach to the plant by a structure called the “rachis”. The rachis of wild wheat is brittle, which aids in the dispersal of seeds. The rachis of domesticated wheat is not brittle and spikelets remain attached to the ear during harvest.
Wild wheat:
-Brittle rachis as kernel ripens
-ripen form bottom to top over 2 weeks
-2 rows of kernels on each stalk
-seeds have greater chance of scattering in different directions and not all landing at the foot of parent plant in a clump b/c they ripen at different times
-enclosed in a rough outer husk called a glume, which protects kernel from frost. Dehydration and allows it to remain viable for as long as 20 years in the ground
Domestic wheat:
-less brittle rachis
-seed head mature at same time and softer glume
-require larger more easily visible seed seed (both in terms of kernel size and number of kernel rows on a stalk)
-6 rows of kernels
Define sedentism
Do people who become sedentary become farmers?
Sedentism: The process of increasingly permanent human habitation in one place.
People do not have to become farmers to become sedentary. The indigenous people of the north west coast of Canada are considered sedentary foragers as they depend on seasonally reoccurring salmon runs that occurred in the same place in the same river. These reliable sources of fish were harvested as regularly as domesticated crops but involved minimal ecological interference and no processes of domestication.
“As highlighted in the section quotation marks how do anthropologists explain the origins of animal domestication”
What is meant by animal domestication?
Animal domestication can be defined as “the capture and taming by human beings of animals of a species with particular behavioural characteristics, their removal from their natural living area and breeding community, and their maintenance under controlled breading conditions for mutual benefits”
What is the focus of the field of social
Zoo Archeology.
Social zoo archeology draws attention to the animal side of human animal mutualism a great example of this is captured in the work of archeologist Kristen Armstrong Alma where she suggests that people and animals were able to live together in Scandinavian Bronze Age long houses Because the animals considered humans as extended members of their herd. Despite this closeness, the relationship between humans and animals was not one of equals since humans will choose to act in ways that favour their interests over their animals.
Outline the six stages of relationships between domesticated animals, humans, and the environment.
- Random hunting, in which hunters make no attempt to control herds but hunt animals as they find them.
- Controlled hunting, involves the selective hunting of herds- this is beginning if regular human intervention in herd species genepool.
- Herd following, specific herds and specific groups of people begin to interact regularly; as the herd moves from place to place, the ppl also move
- Loose herding, when ppl begin to control movement of herds. Move herd at various times of the year, ensuring that all of the animals move safety at same time.
- Close herding, most familiar practice in much of Canada. Animals mobility limited and their gene pool is activity managed.
- Factory farming, there is very intensive human intervention in all aspects of the animals lives, in most cases, animals never leave building or feedlot in which they are raised.
As explained in the section when and why did animal domestication begin?
Outline and briefly describe the four main types of evidence that may be used to assess animal domestication in the archeology record.
- The presence of an animal species outside it’s natural range may indicate hurting. Because the southern Levant is outside the area in which wild sheep involved, scholar say that sheep remains found their constitute evidence of hurting: the sheep must’ve been brought into the area by people.
- Morphological changes occur in most animals as domestication progress Wenke and Olszewski Point out that the shape and size of sheep horns reflect the process of domestication. Wild sheep have larger stronger horns then do domesticated sheep.
- An abrupt population increase of some species relative to others at a site is often taken as evidence of domestication. About 9000 years ago in south western Asia, archeological sites were dominated by large numbers of gazelle bones that decreased rapidly, to be replaced by high percentages of bones from sheep and goats.
- The fourth main type of evidence that Archeologists may use to infer the existence of domesticated animals is the age and sex of the animals from archeological sites abundant remains of immature or juvenile herd animals, especially males represent human involvement with the herd. In the wild animals that were killed for meat come from a much wilder age range; there is no emphasis on younger especially younger males, animals also human beings who manage heard skill immature males more rapidly than femalesBecause only a small number of males are required for reproduction, while larger numbers of females provide more offspring; more milk and other products, such as done, well and hair. 
What is the earliest known domesticated animal? Why do they think this occurred?
The earliest known domesticated animal was the dog, likely because there were significant mutual advantages for both dogs and humans to team up in the hunt.
Discussed in the section what influence the beginnings of domestication at different places around the world?
About 10,000 years ago, after thousands of years of successful foraging, some human groups in unconnected parts of the world began developing Substance strategies that involve domesticated plants and animals. Some scholars argue for a single, universal cars for the emergence of domestication. Identify three different single universal causes.
- Domestication is the outcome of population pressure as the increasing hunting-and-gathering human population overwhelmed the existing food resources.
- Climate change or famine as the postglacial climate for drier.
- Proposed explanations that take several different phenomena into account. Such as broad-spectrum foraging.
What is broad spectrum foraging
Broad spectrum foraging: Substance strategy based on collecting a wide range of plants and animals by hunting, fishing and gathering.
Some up Barbara benders Theory to explain the development of domestication.
What is different about this argument?
How is her argument supported ethnographically by the Potlatch of the indigenous peoples of the north west coast. 
Development of domestication that is based on the idea that local groups competed to achieve dominance over each other through feasting.
According to this theory, there was an increasing expenditure of resources on ritual and exchange, engaging neighbours in a kind of prehistoric feasting extravaganza.
To meet increasing demands for food and other resources, land use was intensified and development of food production followed.
Argument emphasizes social factors, rather than environmental or technological factors, and take a localized, regional approach.
Supported by accounts concerning competitive exchange activities, such as the traditional potlatch ceremonies of the indigenous peoples from the northeast coast of Canada.
As discussed in this section what were the consequences of domestication and sedentism.
Briefly outline how domestication and Sedentism transformed human life in terms of; land, female fertility, food surpluses, disease and labor.
-increased rich supplies of wild cereals and large herds of gazelle, which made Sedentism possible.
-villages or base camps reached size of 1000 square metres and beyond.
-hamlets ranged form 40 to 150 people
-artistic production among Natufians was high.
-elaborate ritual and ceremonial activities with the consumption of food and brewed beverages, would also have soothed interactions and reduced tensions in increasingly large communities where co-operation was essential.
