Part 4 Human Biocultural Evolution The Challenge of Technology and Human Diversity.

Part 4

Human Biocultural Evolution The Challenge of Technology and Human Diversity

Part Outline

Chapter 11 The Neolithic Revolution: The Domestication of Plants and Animals

Chapter 12 The Emergence of Cities and States

Chapter 13 Modern Human Diversity

Chapter 11

The Neolithic Revolution: The Domestication of Plants and Animals

Chapter Outline

When and where did the change from food foraging to food production begin?

Why did the change take place? What were the consequences of the

Neolithic revolution?

Domestication

A domesticated plant or animal is genetically modified as a consequence of human manipulation.

Analysis of plant and animal remains at a site will indicate whether the occupants were food producers.

Effects of Domestication

Edible parts of domesticated plants are usually larger than those of their wild counterparts.

Domestication produces skeletal changes in some animals.

Age and sex imbalances in herd animals may also indicate human domesticators.

Foraging to Food Production: Observations Food production was not the result of

new discoveries about planting, people were very knowledgeable about plants and animals.

The switch to food production did not free people from hard work.

Food production is not necessarily a more secure means of subsistence than foraging.

Subsistence Trends in Mexico’s Tehuacan Valley

Oasis Theory

Domestication began because the oasis attracted hungry animals.

The animals were too thin to eat, so people began to fatten them up.

Theory fell out of favor as studies of the origins of domestication were begun in the late 1940s.

“Hilly Flanks” Theory

Domestication began in the hilly flanks of the Fertile Crescent.

The people were at the point in their evolutionary development where they were “settling in”.

This culture-bound theory reflected notions of progress that people in the Western world had faith in following World War II.

Chance and Evolution Theory As early as 13,000 y.a. people living east of

Aleppo, Syria, grew domestic rye. They continued to rely on wild plants and

animals for food. 3 millennia later they became farmers. The process was a consequence of a chance

convergence of independent natural events and cultural developments.

Fertile Crescent of Southwest Asia and the Area of Natufian Culture

Natufians

Lived at a time of dramatically changing climates in the region.

Shallow lakes dried up, leaving just three in the Jordan River Valley.

The plants best adapted to instability and seasonal aridity were annuals, including wild cereal grains and legumes.

Natufians

Natufians modified their subsistence practices:

Regularly fired the landscape to promote browsing by red deer and grazing by gazelles.

Placed greater emphasis on the collection of wild seeds from annual plants that could be stored through the dry season.

Consequences of Domestication

Crops become more productive and more vulnerable.

Periodically population outstrips food supplies and people are apt to move into new regions.

In this way, farming has often spread from one region to another, as into Europe from Southwest Asia.

Domestication of Sheep Resulted in EvolutionaryChange

Early Plant and Animal Domestication Southwest Asia (A1), Central Africa (A2), China

(B1), Southeast Asia (B2), Mesoamerica (C1), South America (C2), North America (C3)

Neolithic Technology

People developed scythes, forks, hoes, and plows to replace their simple digging sticks.

Pestles and mortars were used for preparation of grain.

Plows were redesigned when domesticated cattle became available for use as draft animals.

Neolithic Pottery

Pottery vessels could be used for storing small grain, seeds, and other materials.

Pottery was also used for cooking, pipes, ladles, lamps, and other objects.

Some cultures used large vessels for disposal of the dead.

Widespread use of pottery is a good indication of a sedentary community.

Neolithic Clothing

For the first time in history, clothing was made of woven textiles.

Raw materials came from:– flax and cotton from farming– wool from domesticated sheep– silk from silk worms– spindle and loom from the human

mind