Historical Theories about the Origins of Agriculture. Alphonse de Candolle Nikolai Vavilov Carl Sauer Gordon Childe Robert Braidwood

Transcription

1 Historical Theories about the Origins of Agriculture Alphonse de Candolle Nikolai Vavilov Carl Sauer Gordon Childe Robert Braidwood

2 Few topics in prehistory have engendered so much discussion and resulted in so few satisfying answers as the attempt to explain why hunter/gatherers began to cultivate plants and raise animals. Climatic change, population pressure, sedentism, resource concentration from desertification, girls hormones, land ownership, geniuses, rituals, scheduling conflicts, random genetic kicks, natural selection, broad spectrum adaptation and multicausal retreats from explanation have all been proffered to explain domestication. All have major flaws the data do not accord well with any one of these models. (Hayden, Nomads, Piscators, Pluckers, and Planters: the emergence of food production, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 9:31-69 (1990).

3 Alphonse de Candolle Origin of Cultivated Plants (1884) Conditions: 1) productive and easy, 2) climate OK, 3) should be drought in hot lands, 4) must be security at settlements, 5) must be pressing necessity owing to insufficient resources Sources of knowledge: 1) botany, 2) archaeology and paleontology, 3) history, 4) philology-study of common names of plants Could identify 72/247 places of origin

4 Alphonse de Candolle

5 Nikolai Vavilov Geographic Origins of Cultivated Plants Sought geographic centers of domestication through extensive fieldwork Centers are where variant forms of species are in greatest numbers. Look where traditional agriculture is being practiced Look in mountains where natural conditions vary, giving rise to genetic variation. 20% of earth s surface He found 8 centers: China, Indian, CentralAsia, Near East, Mediterranean, Abyssinia, Mexico and Central America, South America Found home of maize and potato (America), oats (N. Spain), some wheat (Central Asia)

6 Nikolai Vavilov

7 Carl Sauer Cultural geographer Agricultural Origins and Dispersals (1952) Believed in and then disavowed geographic determinism Sought agricultural origins in 1) vegetative reproduction, 2) areas of marked diversity in terrain and climate, 3) not in flood areas along large rivers, 4) began in forested land, easy to dig, 5) pre-adapted skills, 6) people were sedentary Fishing tribes were the most likely, especially in Southeast Asia Sauer is much better known among geographers for other studies

8 Carl Sauer

9 V. Gordon Childe Marxist evolutionist Savagery- hunting and collecting Barbarism - cultivation and husbandry Civilization - surplus production Coined term Neolithic Revolution Desiccation hypothesis

10 The Oasis hypothesis Precipitating cause is post-glacial desiccation Wet lands recede to rivers and oases where people and animals take refuge The huntsman and his prey thus find themselves united in an effort to circumvent the dreadful power of drought. In propinquity the species learn to co-exist for mutual benefit

11 David Harris Cultural Geographer, UCL Fieldwork in Australia, Great Britain, Near East and Central Asia Many books, including Origins and Spread of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Well-known for syntheses of theories and data and for his diagrams of the evolution of agricultural economies

12 David Harris

13 David Harris s evolutionary sequence of agriculture

14 David Harris s evolution of agricultural origins diagram

15 Robert Braidwood Professor at the University of Chicago Dismissed Neo-grecisms and defined eras of human development ending with food production Reasoned that origins were within the geographic boundaries of the important species Organized a multi-disciplinary team to guide work and interpret the results Excavated Jarmo, a classic example of a primary village farming community

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18 Braidwood s Eras Sub-era of Intensified Hunting- Collecting aka Terminal Level of Food Collecting, e.g., Epipaleolithic Sub-era of Incipient Cultivation and Domestication, e.g., PPNA Sub-era of The Primary Village Farming Community, e.g., PPNB

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20 Braidwood s reasons for not using neogrecisms

21 Braidwood s Droop Chart

22 Patty Jo Watson and Robert Braidwood on Tigris

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25 Newer Theories George Willcox Roger Byrne Jared Diamond Greg Wadley and Angus Martin Mordechai Kislev, E. Weiss and A. Hartmann Marc Verhoeven (see article) Trevor Watkins (see article and video

26 George Willcox Archaeobotanist and experimental cultivator at Jalès Careful evaluation of evidence for domestication through morphology of seeds Many domestication episodes Prolonged process

27 David Willcox in experimental field at Jalès

28 George Willcox Science 316:1830 (2007)

29 Dated evidence for earliest cereal remains from Near East

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31 Modern distributions of wild cereals, and sites with early morphological evidence of domestication

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34 Eleven centers of original domestication

35 Roger Byrne Key is climate with extreme seasonality of precipitation Mediterranean climate favors annuals, not perennials Increased seasonality after Pleistocene led to proliferation of species in the diverse Levantine terrain

36 CO2 Increase Rowan Sage and Richerson CO2 between ka was <200 ppm ka, ppm, a 33% increase CO2 affects photosynthesis, enhances growth, inhibits water loss 50% greater plant production after 12 ka Was it possible to have agriculture earlier?

37 Jared Diamond Best-known book, Guns, Germs and Steel Location, location, location DNA evidence puts domestication of einkorn wheat, chickpea, and bitter vetch in Eastern Turkey All other economically important cereals, as well as lentils, peas and flax, sheep, goats, pigs, cattle are found in same region Together provided total nutrition and secondary products

38 Ground Collecting Theory of Kislev, Weiss and Hartmann, PNAS 101/9: (2004) Wild wheat and barley can be harvested for only short time before seeds fall Use of sickles and hand harvest will also shatter seed heads Seeds are easy to collect on ground and can be harvested until next rains See as precursor to planting

39 Psychoactive Attraction Cereals and milk have psychoactive substances (exorphins) Activate pleasure sensation Wheat and milk are not natural human foods and many people do not tolerate them Evolution of tolerance was related to addictive qualities

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46 Goat DNA groups and sites where found

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