Origins of Food Production Flashcards
bio cultural organisms
humans are able to have a wide spread of geo distribution as a species bc of degree of adaptive flexibility
bio cultural evolution
mutual and interactive evolution of human bio and culture (explains how bio makes culture possible and the influence of culture in the direction of bio evolution)
origins of food production
algaculture and domestication of plants and animals
Neolithic
▪ New Stone Age: 11 700 years ago
Neolithic Revolution
hunting and gathering → food production (agriculture and domestication)
▪ changed the way humans interacted with their environments and each other
Agriculture/farming
planting, herding, processing domesticated plants and animal species
▪ ensures that plants and animals with desirable traits are predictably available to humans as food and for raw materials
▪ cultural process
Domestication
interdependence between humans and specific plants and animals
▪ artificial selection for specific traits which results in genetic change
▪ evolutionary process
Hunter gatherers
select what is available environments; range expansion
Agriculturalists
use/modify environment to produce select plants and animals (not naturally occurring compared to hunting and gathering)
Consequences of Algaculture
▪ changes in settlement patterns, new technology, biological repercussions
▪ changed human societies directly and indirectly and our environments
Sedentism
permanent settlements, communities, towns, cities
Surplus
producing more than is needed
Craft specializations
production of goods and services
ex. weavers, potters, carpenters, metallurgy, religious people, teachers, etc.
Food Production
producing more food than needed for immediate subsistence
Benefits of Extra Food
▪ stockpile for low season
▪ trade
▪ give away to improve social status
▪ craft specialization
Preparation of Food Production
▪ storage is key!
▪ delayed return
▪ preventing rot, pests, etc.
▪ technological innovation: drying, smoking, pottery/use of vessels, “on the hoof”
Domestication and Artificial Selection
- Collect wild plants and animals
- Begin tending wild plants and animals
- Manipulate reproduction to produce beneficial traits: ex. enhanced flavour/colour/yield, larger seed size, ease of processing/consumption, quickly maturing
- Selected animals separated and placed in corrals/ selected plants watered and tended; “weeds” removed
- After many generations of such selection and treatment, plants and animals genetically different from their wild ancestors (and wild neighbours); new species are considered domesticated
Domestication: Plants
▪ agriculture began with local plants
▪ early plant domestication was likely not intentional
▪ arose from wild seed collection
▪ emphasis on roots and cereal crops (complex carbohydrates and easily stored)
Domestication: Animals
▪ animal domestication differed from plants
▪ varied within species
Dogs
▪ 40 000–15 000 years ago, China
▪ hunting, herding, protection, transportation, companions, rarely for food
▪ domesticated from wolves probably independently
▪ selection for tameness, less fear, obedience
Use of Animals
▪ animal meat used as sources until 4000 years
▪ afterwards many animals bred for specific purposes other than nutrition (ex. oxen for ploughing, horses for transport, cows and goats for dairy, sheep for wool)
Use of Animal Products
▪ waste → fertilizer
▪ hides/leather, horn, bone → status symbols
Best Domesticates
domestication was a process, not an event
▪ hierarchical herds
▪ low flight response
▪ not strongly territorial
ex. sheep, goats, pigs, cows, horses in Asia, Europe and Africa; water buffalo, camels, reindeer regionally; llamas and alpacas in the New World
* not always easy to see in the archaeological record*
Domestication and the Origins of Agriculture
▪ choosing which individuals breed allows humans to select traits they want, but these traits often prevent survival in wild
▪ plant and animal species considered domesticated when they cannot breed and/or survive without human intervention
▪ plant and animal species considered domesticated if they exhibit a series of genetic changes that differentiate them from wild relatives (new species)
▪ Canis familiaris (domestic dogs)
ex.
▪ cows are a domesticated species who do poorly without human care
▪ dingoes are feral dogs from Australia who descended from domesticated ancestors
Sedentism
settlement pattern of staying in one place
▪ ↑ work to maintain domesticated plants and animals
▪ stored food surplus not easy to move
▪ inequality, social stratification
▪ reliant on climate
▪ intensive farming on small portions of the landscape
Malnutrition
▪ better protein and balance of other nutrients in hunter gatherer diet (ex. Kalahari Bushmen, Africa)
▪ focus on high-carbohydrate crops (ex. rice, potatoes)
Dickson Mounds, Illinois
▪ 50% increase in dental pathologies (hypoplasia, caries, abscess)
▪ 4x increase in iron deficiency anemia (evidence on bones: porotic hyperostosis)
▪ 3x increase in bone lesions from infectious disease
▪ spinal degeneration: hard physical work
▪ 19 years average longevity (vs 26 years in hunter gatherers)
interbirth interval
▪ hunter gathers had less children (every 4 years)
▪ agriculturalist had more children (every year)
▪ women had worse health bc of poor diet, too much babies, more work, and malnutrition
enamel hypoplasias in farmers
growth arrest lines which is when the growth of the teeth have stopped during development bc of malnutrition or severe disease
Why Agriculture
▪ more PUSH factors than PULL: ↑ population size ↑ in disease
▪ tradeoff of quality for quantity of nutrition
▪ climate change, drought, overpop, etc., could PUSH people towards agriculture but at the same time cause malnutrition and decrease in overall longevity
▪ risk of malnutrition and starvation if crops fail
▪ interbirth interval halved
What the Archeological record tells us about Algaculture
farming can support large numbers of people but with very poor quality of nutrition
Younger Dryas
▪ 13 000–11 500 years ago
▪ climatic shift to cooler and drier conditions in the Levant (eastern
Mediterranean, including present day Israel, Lebanon, parts of Syria and Jordan)
Abu Hureyra, Syria
▪ hunter gatherers included +250 species of plants in their diets at beginning of Younger Dryas, then replaced by cereal grains (rye) from 12 200–10 600 years ago
▪ harvesting wheat, rye and lentils after 9800 years but still including wild plants in their diets
Jericho, Israel
▪ 11 500 years ago
▪ Jericho, Israel (11 500 years): first permanent sedentary communities, mud-brick houses, grinding stones and clay lined storage pits
Dhra’, Jordan
▪ 11 000 years ago
▪ mud granaries and food storage areas + wild barley and oats
Kebara and El Wad, Israel
▪ 10 000 years ago
▪ stone-bladed sickles for harvesting wild wheat and barley
▪ by 10 000 years, goat and sheep herding in the Levant
▪ more complex housing structures
Zooarchaeological evidence for domestication
▪ sheep and goats by 11 000–10 500 years
▪ pigs by 10 500 years
▪ cattle by 10 500–10 000 years
Paleoethnobotanical evidence for domestication
▪ rye 13 000 years?
▪ emmer wheat and barley 11 500 years
▪ einkorn wheat >10 000 years
Near East Technology
▪ Kebara, Israel (10 000 years)
▪ Egypt (4100 years) and Iran (8600 years)
North Africa: Quadan Culture, Egypt (8000 years ago)
▪ domesticating wild cattle, barley and wheat
▪ structures: Reed and mud-brick houses, storage pits, granaries
▪ technology: milling stones, sickles, pottery, woven linens (flax), flint tools, hammered copper objects
Sub-Saharan Africa: Ounjougou, Mali
▪ hunting and gathering (12 000–11 000 years) but by 10 000–9000 years farming and ceramics
▪ 5000–3000 years emphasis on different cereal crops (millet and sorghum)
▪ other sites preserve evidence of yam farming
▪ spread of Asian domesticates: bananas, plantains, taro and yams
▪ cattle and goat herding
▪ ironworking: tools and weapons
South Asia: Mehrgarh, Pakistan (8000–6000 years)
- wild and domesticated barley and wheat + other native plants
- water buffalo, swamp deer, goats, sheep, pigs, cattle and elephants bones (!)
- 6000 years shift to cereal crops, reduction to domestic sheep, goats and cattle
- mud-brick structures with multiple rooms, granaries
- trade in copper, turquoise, shells and cotton
- rice: Lahuradewa, Ganges Valley (8360 years)
China: Cishan (Hubei Province)
- growing millet (not rice!) 10 000 years ago; storage pits
- other sites provide evidence of multiple and complex building structures, ditches built around villages, cemeteries, pottery kilns, painted ceramics
- rice not widespread until after 5000 years ago, but in southern China rice cultivation may have started 12 000–10 000 years ago
- dogs, cattle, pigs
Europe
- origins of algaculture were sudden
- farming by 9000 years (Greece)
- came from Fertile Crescent: sudden appearance of fully domesticated sheep, goats, wheat and barley
- Europe’s Most Complete Neolithic Village Skara Brae, Orkney Islands (Scotland), 3180–2500 years
New World Farming
- focused almost exclusively on plants, especially maize (corn)
- 10 000–7000 years: white and sweet potatoes, yams, manioc, beans, peanuts, sunflowers, quinoa
- sweet peppers, chili peppers, tomatoes, squash, pumpkins, pineapple, papaya, avocado, guava and passion fruit, vanilla and chocolate, tobacco, and cacao
- dogs, llama, alpaca, guinea pigs, Muscovy duck, turkeys
Maize
- ↓ nutrition: lacks amino acids required to produce protein (lysine and tryptophan)
- beans ↑ in lysine, squash ↑ in tryptophan
- Maize is a soil depleter (nitrogen)
- Beans (and other legumes) are nitrogen fixers
