The Four Forces of Evolution

Chapter 5: The Neolithic Revolution: The Domestication of Plants and Animals

Learning Objectives

By the end of this chapter, having fully read it and reviewed the central themes, students should be able to:

1. Explain how plant and animal domestication occurs, either through intentional or unintentional human interventions.

2. List where and when domestication and food production took place.

3. List some of the differences in the history of domestication in the Old World and in the New World.

4. Discuss how wild species are different from their domesticated counterparts.

5. Explain why the Mesolithic period or the Archaic Culture period were vital to the emergence of food production in the Neolithic.

6. Discuss how human populations began to exploit a variety of resources, many of which were no longer contained to land (e.g. coastal areas).

7. Discuss the theories on why human populations made the transition from hunting and gathering to a food producing lifestyle.

8. List and explain some of the major cultural changes brought about by food production.

9. List and explain how food production and agriculture has impacted human biology.

10. Discuss how agricultural food production can be beneficial, yet also dangerous or unstable.

11. Explain the differences between horticulturalism, pastoralism, and intensive agriculture.

Detailed Chapter Outline

I. CHALLENGE ISSUE AND STUDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES

II. THE MESOLITHIC ROOTS OF FARMING AND PASTORALISM

A. Around 12,000 years ago climatic changes altered the environments of human populations

a. Climates warmed

b. Glaciers that covered the northern hemisphere receded

c. Sea levels rose

d. Herd animals and megafauna disappeared from or went extinct in many areas

e. Tundra was replaced by hardwood forests

B. These environmental changes led to humans exploiting various other plant and animal resources, including fish and foods around rivers, coastal areas, and bays

C. In Europe, Africa, and Asia this was known as the Mesolithic; in the New World we refer to this time period as Archaic Cultures

D. The gathering and exploitation of resources from different environments resulted in new forms of social organization and cultural attributes, such as:

a. Foraging for food on land and water

b. Microlithic technology

i. Sickles

ii. Harpoons

iii. Arrows

iv. Daggers

c. More sedentary lifestyles

III. THE NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION

A. The Neolithic, while characterized in part by the emergence of new stone tool technologies, also represented the shift for some from a hunting and gathering and fishing economy to an economy rooted in food production

B. Agricultural emergence occurred independently in various parts of the world

C. The ultimate source of all cultural change is innovation

a. Human groups throughout the globe independently, but more or less simultaneously, invented food production

D. A key process in the emergence of agriculture is domestication, or the

a. Intentional or unintentional genetic modification of plants or animals brought about by human involvement

b. Domestication ensures the plants’ reproductive success

E. Plants domesticated by humans differed from their wild ancestors in numerous ways:

a. Increased size (for example, contemporary maize or corn versus undomesticated maize)

b. Reduced or absent means of seed dispersal

c. Reduced protective devices (for example, bitterness or husks)

d. Presence of immediate seed germination

e. Simultaneous ripening of fruit or seeds

F. Species domestication also occurred in animals, where humans would select traits beneficial to us. Domesticated animals vary from their wild counterparts in the size and shape of different body parts. For example:

a. Domesticated goats and sheep have smaller horn size and shape, if they have any at all

b. Domesticated pigs have smaller teeth

G. Several questions still preoccupy anthropologists who are attempting to discover the “how and why” behind domestication

a. While the some answers are still unclear, several broad observations can be made:

i. “Food production was not the result of such discoveries that seeds, if planted, grow into plants”

ii. The switch from foraging to food production does not free people from work

iii. Likewise, the switch from foraging to food production does not ensure a more reliable means of subsistence

IV. WHY HUMANS BECAME FOOD PRODUCERS

A. Why do food foragers avoid food production?

a. Food foragers work fewer hours than farmers

b. Food producing limits the variation in species diversity consumed and requires special attention by consumers

B. An early theory attempting to explain why humans became food producers was proposed by the Australian archaeologist V. Gordon Childe

a. Childe’s theory is known as the Desiccation or Oasis Theory

C. To understand the history of food production, many researchers begin in the Fertile Crescent, which current data suggests was the first location of plant domestication

a. The Natufians who lived in this region began to place a greater emphasis on collecting and storing wild seeds, to ensure a food presence to get through the dry seasons

b. This process of human intervention in wild plants was integral to the processes of domestication

c. Transhumance also played a distinct role in human movement and both plant and animal domestication, particularly by introducing new species into new ecological zones

V. OTHER CENTERS OF DOMESTICATION

A. Outside of Southwest Asia, plant and animal domestication occurred independently in different parts of the world

a. Southeast Asia

b. The Americas

i. Central America

ii. Andean highlands

iii. Tropical forests of South America

iv. Eastern North America

c. Northern China

d. Africa

B. In Southeast Asia root crop farming, or vegeculture, proved an alternative to seed crop cultivation

C. Plant domestication took place independently across the globe

VI. FOOD PRODUCTION AND POPULATION SIZE

A. It is debated whether population growth resulted in pressures that required new food production technologies and techniques such as agriculture, or whether food production enabled populations to expand

B. Research has been conducted in the area of food production, breast feeding, and fertility to hopefully shed some light on these issues in food production and population size

VII. THE SPREAD OF FOOD PRODUCTION

A. While food production increases productivity, it simultaneously increases instability

B. As human populations are dependent on few key food resources, the danger of crop failure increases because of:

a. Crop proximity and the spread of disease

b. Loss of crop genetic diversity

c. Introduction of destructive parasites or insects

d. Environmental fluctuations

C. Due to such instability, the threat of starvation also increases

a. The Irish potato famine illustrates how the combination of increased productivity and vulnerability may contribute to the geographic spread of farming:

VIII. THE CULTURE OF NEOLITHIC SETTLEMENTS

A. Archaeological research at Neolithic settlements has produced a more complete picture of our ancestors’ daily lives such as that at Jericho in the Jordan River Valley

B. Cultural expansion and elaboration occurred in central areas, including:

a. Neolithic material culture

b. Widespread use of pottery

c. More complex and varied permanent housing

d. Clothing made of woven textiles

C. Society was basically egalitarian and had a minimal division of labor

D. The transition to Neolithic culture occurred differently and at different times in the New World when compared to the Old World

IX. THE NEOLITHIC AND HUMAN BIOLOGY

A. Aside from cultural impacts, food production had profound impacts on human biology

B. Food production created some beneficial changes for human populations, including:

a. Less mechanical stress on bodies and teeth

b. Less wear on Neolithic teeth when compared with Paleolithic and Mesolithic populations

c. Gracile bones

d. Reduction in osteoarthritis

C. However, there is a clear indication for marked deterioration, including:

a. Severe and chronic nutritional stress

b. Dental decay

c. Overpopulation due to sedentary lifestyle

d. Deficiency diseases

e. Infectious diseases

f. Greater periods of starvation due to periodic crop failure

g. Diseases introduced through sanitation problems and waste accumulation

h. The spread of airborne diseases

X. THE NEOLITHIC AND THE IDEA OF PROGRESS

A. While the movement to food production for some may signify progress, this is not something that all human cultures share

B. The advent of food production is viewed by anthropologists as part of the diversification of cultures, something that began in the Paleolithic

C. Aside from agricultural production, there are several ways that human groups still acquire food from the environment:

a. Hunting and gathering and fishing

b. Horticulturalism

c. Intensive agriculture

d. Pastoralism

D. These various forms simply represent the diversity found within culture groups around the world

XI. CHAPTER CHECKLIST AND QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

Key Terms

Agriculture

Archaic Cultures

Diffusion

Domestication

Horticulture

Innovation

Mesoamerica

Mesolithic

Microlith

Natufian Culture

Neolithic

Neolithic Revolution

Pastoralism

Primary Innovation

Secondary Innovation

Vegeculture