Ch. 11: First Farmers (Lecture)

Seven World Areas Where Food Production Was Independently Invented

1) Middle East 2) Andean Region 3) Southern China (Yangtze River corridor) 4) Mesoamerica 5) Northern China (Yellow River) 6) Sub-Saharan Africa 7) Eastern United States

Costs of Food Production

The new economy also brought hardship: • Working harder • Producers have more children . Public health declines: • Diets less varied • Diseases grow and spread (population concentration) Social inequality and poverty increase • Resources no longer common goods, slavery invented, wealth differentials Degradation of environment increases • Deforestation

Neolithic in Africa

• "African Cattle Complex" - - Cattle are used for their milk and blood, only used for meat, ceremonially • New technology, such as the circle that measures the Summer Solstice

Farmers in Middle East:

• 12,000 bp - people intervening in reproductive cycle of plants and animals • Dry farming: farming without irrigation; dependent on rainfall 10,000 - 7500 bp • Increased specialization in food production: 7500 - 5500 bp • Origin of state (Sumer): 5500 bp

Neolithic in Europe and Asia

• 8,000 bp communities on Europe's Mediterranean shores were shifting from foraging to farming • 6,000 bp thousands of farming villages grew up from Russia to northern France • Genetic changes! • Easier to absorb nutrients from wheat and other crops • Milk digestion • Reduction in melanin - not as much vitamin D in new diet

Neolithic in Europe and Asia, Food Domestication

• 8,000 bp: Domesticated goats, sheep, cattle, wheat, and barley were present in Pakistan. • China became one of the first world areas to develop farming, based on millet and rice. • Discoveries suggest that rice was domesticated in the Yangtze River valley as early as 8,400 bp.

Mexican Highlands

• Before farming, highlanders hunted: • Small animals more important than big game • Oaxacans hunted and gathered in fall/winter • Came together in late spring to harvest seasonally available plants • By 4,000 BP: a type of maize was available that provided more food than mesquite pod • Cut down mesquite trees to plant maize • By 3,500 BP: permanent village were set up, based on maize farming • Irrigation systems grew - pot irrigation

Farmers in Middle East, Trends & Strategies:

• Deliberate cultivation most likely came in response to climatic changes - Drying trend • Forced experimentation to adopt new subsistence strategies • Sedentary village life before farming and herding • Vertical economy - different resources in different seasons

The Neolithic:

• Economies based on food production (cultivated crops and domesticated animals). • By 12,000 bp - Middle East • People grew their own food!

Farmers in Middle East, Environment & Lifestyle:

• Fertile Crescent's Environmental Zones: - High Plateau (5,000 feet) - Hilly Flanks: a subtropical woodland zone that flanks rivers to the north - Piedmont Steppe: treeless plain - Alluvial desert: watered by Tigris and Euphrates rivers • Sedentism - Natufians

Benefits of Food Production

• Food production brought the advantages of discovery and invention! • Spinning and weaving • Pottery and brickmaking, arched masonry • Smelting and casting metals • Trade and commerce • By 5,500 BP, Middle Easterners were living in vibrant cities.

First Farmers in the Americas, Food Production Origins

• Food production independently invented in at least three areas of the Americas: • Mesoamerica • Eastern U.S. • South-central Andes

Broad-spectrum revolution:

• Foraging of varied plants and animal foods at end of Ice Age, and the prelude to Neolithic • Beginning of domestication of plants and animals for food

The Mesolithic:

• Mesolithic followed Upper Paleolithic in Europe • Microliths: small stone tools • Fishhooks • Harpoon tips • Dart tips • New hunting techniques • New kinds of axes, chisels, and gouges • Dogs!

Tropical Origins of New World Domestication

• New World farming began in the lowlands of South America's tropical lowlands • Peruvian squash seeds date back 10,000 years • 9,000 and 8,000 bp: farmers selected and cultivated plants • 7,000 bp: slash-and-burn techniques • Maize domestication took place in the lowlands of southwest Mexico. • Teosinte: wild ancestor of maize • Maize spread eastward to Mexican Gulf Coast by 7,300 bp

Explaining the Neolithic

• Several factors converged to make domestication happen: • Sedentism • Self-pollinating plants • Climate with high species diversity • Need to sustain life

First Farmers in the Americas

• The most significant contrast between Old and New World food production involved animal domestication. • Large game animals were not domesticated in the New World • Three caloric staples were domesticated by Native American farmers: • Maize: corn • Potatoes • Manioc: cassava

Food Production and the State:

• The shift from foraging to food production was gradual • More geared toward crops and herds • Intensify cultivation • The invention of better irrigation techniques - Mesopotamia, irrigation, trade, and the state