From: london@sunSITE.unc.edu (Larry London)
Subject: Thread on domestication of plants
Organization: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 05:11:43 GMT

Article 732 (3 more) in bionet.plants:
Newsgroups: sci.archaeology,sci.anthropology,bionet.plants
From: claird@NeoSoft.com (Cameron Laird)
Subject: [ARCH] Re: Which Came First, Agriculture or Pastorialism? [LONG]
Organization: NeoSoft Communications Services -- (713) 684-5900
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 18:37:40 GMT

In article <BzACz4.7IF@well.sf.ca.us> dchapman@well.sf.ca.us (Dave Chapman) writ
es:
>Can anyone out there tell me what the best current dates are
>for the beginning of agriculture, and for the beginning of
>herding?  I have the impression that domestication of sheep
>occurred later than the domestication of grains, but would
>like to see actual references.
>
>Also, information on the approximate order in which the various
>food animals and food crops were domesticated would be
>appreciated.  Thanks.
                        .
                        .
                        
Domestication is a marvelous subject.  That is,
it endlessly fascinates me.

This comes up often enough, by the way, that it
deserves to be in an FAQ.

The cheap answer is to instruct you to look in
recent Scientific Americans; there was, for ex-
ample, a review this fall of the archaeology of
some of the early Eurasian horse pastoralists.
There is much, much more to it than this, though.

Humans have practiced domestication all around the
globe, and throughout the last ten thousand years
or so.  Well-attested dog remains have been found
dating back around 10,000 years in Idaho, Britain,
Turkey, ... (what's the archaeology of dingos?  Is
there genetic evidence that humans and dogs settled
the New World together 12000 BP?)  Plenty of people
believe that hominids and canids go back a lot
farther than that.  Cattle are descended from at
least two wild species; this process seems to have
been well underway by 9000 BP.  Sheep go back at least
7000 BP.  Swine have also been domesticated more than
once during the last 5000 years, probably first in
China.  Horses likely entered human society just a bit
later, and almost certainly in Central Asia, although
the date on this one seems to be subject to revision
backwards.  My position:  these numbers will continue
to be shuffled for some time into the future.

The first hard evidence for plant domestication
also dates from around 9000 BP.  Barley, sorghum,
sweet potato (!), rice, common beans, flax, egg-
plant, and maybe maize and avocados (!) have been
well dated before 7000 BP.

A different way to interpret your question:  does
a particular people domesticate plants or animals
first?  There's a lot of ideology tied up in an-
wering this question; it's probably best for you
to read some of the standard literature.  Don't
lose sight of these keys:
1.  domestication has happened at many times and
    places, and by many people.  It continues to
    the present (fox; kiwi fruit; cashews; high-
    bush blueberry; jojoba; various pines; red
    deer; ...);
2.  it's a rare society which is "isolated".
    Most peoples have been connected to a greater
    or lesser extent to the world economy, at
    least for the last 6000 years;
3.  domestication isn't irreversible.  Elk
    ("moose" to North Americans) and stinging
    nettles once were kept by some northern
    Europeans, and a number of ungulates by
    southwestern Asians; no more.
I like thinking about some of the marginal cases:
mesoamerican turkeys, New World rodents and camelids,
and the cervidae.  For a well-contextualized discussion
of a hunter-herder transition, look at

        Ingold, Tim
        1980    Hunters, pastoralists, and ranchers:
                reindeer economies and their transform-
                ations.  Cambridge University Press,
                New York

Most of the controversy in this field has to do with
the "scientific materialism" of archaeology; antagonists
become quite heated over such questions as whether it is
"winners" or "losers" that have innovated in agricultural
technique, and whether horticultural surplus antedates
political hierarchy, and whether social infrastructure
requires, or is required by, agriculture.  You can start
on some of these questions yourself in

        Reed, Charles A., editor
        1977    Origins of agriculture.  Mouton,
                The Hague

The classic that everyone criticizes is

        Boserup, Ester
        1965    The conditions of agricultural growth:
                the economics of agrarian change under
                population pressure.  Aldine Publishing
                Company, New York

For other views, try

        Ammerman, Albert J., and L. L. Cavalli-Sforza
        1984    The neolithic transition and the genetics
                of populations in Europe.

        Clark, J. Desmond, and Steven A. Brandt
        1984    From hunters to farmers:  the causes and
                consequences of food production in Africa.
                University of California Press, Berkeley

        Cohen, Mark Nathan, and George J. Armelagos
        1984    Paleopathology at the origins of agriculture.
                Proceedings of the 1982 Conference on Paleopath-
                ology and Socioeconomic Change at the Origins
                of Agriculture.  Academic Press, New York

        Cowan, C. Wesley, and Patty Jo Watson, with the
        assistance of Nancy L. Benco
        1992    The Origins of agriculture:  an international
                perspective.  Smithsonian Institution Press,
                Washington

        Centro linceo interdisciplinare di scienze mate-
        matiche e loro applicazioni
        1986    The Origin and domestication of cultivated
                plants:  symposium.  Elsevier, New York

        Dolukhanov, Pavel Markovich.
        1979    Ecology and economy in neolithic Eastern
                Europe.  Duckworth, London

        Flannery, Kent V.
        1986    Guila Naquitz:  archaic foraging and early
                agriculture in Oaxaca, Mexico.  Academic
                Press, Orlando

        Harlan, Jack R., Jan M. J. de Wet, and Ann B. L. Stemler
        1976    Origins of African plant domestication.  Mouton,
                the Hague

        Higgs, Eric, editor
        1976    Origine de l'elevage et de la domestication.
                Centre national de la recherche scientifique,
                Paris

        MacNeish, Richard S.
        1992    The origins of agriculture and settled life.
                University of Oklahoma Press, Norman

        Rindos, David
        1984    The origins of agriculture:  an evolutionary
                perspective.  Academic Press, Orlando

        Sauer, Carl Ortwin
        1969    Agricultural origins and dispersals; the
                domestication of animals and foodstuffs.
                M.I.T. Press, Cambridge

        Smith, Philip Edward Lake.
        1976    Food production and its consequences.
                Cummings Publishing Company, Menlo Park

        Zeven, A. C., and P. M. Zhukovsky
        1975    Dictionary of cultivated plants and their
                centres of diversity excluding ornamentals,
                forest trees, and lower plants.  Centre for
                Agricultural Publishing and Documentation,
                Wageningen

        Zvelebil, Marek, editor
        1986    Hunters in transition:  Mesolithic societies
                of temperate Eurasia and their transition to
                farming.  Cambridge University Press, Cam-
                bridgeshire
-- 

Cameron Laird
claird@Neosoft.com (claird%Neosoft.com@uunet.uu.net)    +1 713 267 7966
claird@litwin.com (claird%litwin.com@uunet.uu.net)      +1 713 996 8546