Origins of Food Production

Question 1

bio cultural organisms

Answer 1

humans are able to have a wide spread of geo distribution as a species bc of degree of adaptive flexibility

Question 2

bio cultural evolution

Answer 2

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)

Question 3

origins of food production

Answer 3

algaculture and domestication of plants and animals

Question 4

Neolithic

Answer 4

▪ New Stone Age: 11 700 years ago

Question 5

Neolithic Revolution

Answer 5

hunting and gathering → food production (agriculture and domestication)

▪ changed the way humans interacted with their environments and each other

Question 6

Agriculture/farming

Answer 6

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

Question 7

Domestication

Answer 7

interdependence between humans and specific plants and animals

▪ artificial selection for specific traits which results in genetic change
▪ evolutionary process

Question 8

Hunter gatherers

Answer 8

select what is available environments; range expansion

Question 9

Agriculturalists

Answer 9

use/modify environment to produce select plants and animals (not naturally occurring compared to hunting and gathering)

Question 10

Consequences of Algaculture

Answer 10

▪ changes in settlement patterns, new technology, biological repercussions
▪ changed human societies directly and indirectly and our environments

Question 11

Sedentism

Answer 11

permanent settlements, communities, towns, cities

Question 12

Surplus

Answer 12

producing more than is needed

Question 13

Craft specializations

Answer 13

production of goods and services

ex. weavers, potters, carpenters, metallurgy, religious people, teachers, etc.

Question 14

Food Production

Answer 14

producing more food than needed for immediate subsistence

Question 15

Benefits of Extra Food

Answer 15

▪ stockpile for low season
▪ trade
▪ give away to improve social status
▪ craft specialization

Question 16

Preparation of Food Production

Answer 16

▪ storage is key!
▪ delayed return
▪ preventing rot, pests, etc.
▪ technological innovation: drying, smoking, pottery/use of vessels, “on the hoof”

Question 17

Domestication and Artificial Selection

Answer 17

1. Collect wild plants and animals
2. Begin tending wild plants and animals
3. Manipulate reproduction to produce beneficial traits: ex. enhanced flavour/colour/yield, larger seed size, ease of processing/consumption, quickly maturing
4. Selected animals separated and placed in corrals/ selected plants watered and tended; “weeds” removed
5. 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

Question 18

Domestication: Plants

Answer 18

▪ 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)

Question 19

Domestication: Animals

Answer 19

▪ animal domestication differed from plants

▪ varied within species

Question 20

Dogs

Answer 20

▪ 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

Question 21

Use of Animals

Answer 21

▪ 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)

Question 22

Use of Animal Products

Answer 22

▪ waste → fertilizer

▪ hides/leather, horn, bone → status symbols

Question 23

Best Domesticates

Answer 23

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*

Question 24

Domestication and the Origins of Agriculture

Answer 24

▪ 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

Question 25

Sedentism

Answer 25

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

Question 26

Malnutrition

Answer 26

▪ better protein and balance of other nutrients in hunter gatherer diet (ex. Kalahari Bushmen, Africa)
▪ focus on high-carbohydrate crops (ex. rice, potatoes)

Question 27

Dickson Mounds, Illinois

Answer 27

▪ 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)

Question 28

interbirth interval

Answer 28

▪ 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

Question 29

enamel hypoplasias in farmers

Answer 29

growth arrest lines which is when the growth of the teeth have stopped during development bc of malnutrition or severe disease

Question 30

Why Agriculture

Answer 30

▪ 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

Question 31

What the Archeological record tells us about Algaculture

Answer 31

farming can support large numbers of people but with very poor quality of nutrition

Question 32

Younger Dryas

Answer 32

▪ 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)

Question 33

Abu Hureyra, Syria

Answer 33

▪ 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

Question 34

Jericho, Israel

Answer 34

▪ 11 500 years ago
▪ Jericho, Israel (11 500 years): first permanent sedentary communities, mud-brick houses, grinding stones and clay lined storage pits

Question 35

Dhra’, Jordan

Answer 35

▪ 11 000 years ago

▪ mud granaries and food storage areas + wild barley and oats

Question 36

Kebara and El Wad, Israel

Answer 36

▪ 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

Question 37

Zooarchaeological evidence for domestication

Answer 37

▪ sheep and goats by 11 000–10 500 years
▪ pigs by 10 500 years
▪ cattle by 10 500–10 000 years

Question 38

Paleoethnobotanical evidence for domestication

Answer 38

▪ rye 13 000 years?
▪ emmer wheat and barley 11 500 years
▪ einkorn wheat >10 000 years

Question 39

Near East Technology

Answer 39

▪ Kebara, Israel (10 000 years)

▪ Egypt (4100 years) and Iran (8600 years)

Question 40

North Africa: Quadan Culture, Egypt (8000 years ago)

Answer 40

▪ 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

Question 41

Sub-Saharan Africa: Ounjougou, Mali

Answer 41

▪ 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

Question 42

South Asia: Mehrgarh, Pakistan (8000–6000 years)

Answer 42

• 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)

Question 43

China: Cishan (Hubei Province)

Answer 43

• 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

Question 44

Europe

Answer 44

• 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

Question 45

New World Farming

Answer 45

• 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

Question 46

Maize

Answer 46

• ↓ 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