Volume 150, Issue 1, June 2006, Pages 12-20  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2006.01.004Get rights and content In the early Holocene, hunter–gatherers began to manipulate the growth of specific plants and animals, resulting in plant cultivation and animal husbandry. During the first five thousand years of the Holocene—when climates became essentially modern—hunter–gatherers domesticated plants in at least eight independent centres throughout the world, in Asia (Near East, South China, North China), in the western Pacific (New Guinea), in Africa (sub-Sahara), and in the Americas (South America, central Mexico, eastern United States) (Smith, 1998; Neumann, 2003). Agriculture spread widely from these primary centres. Today, all human societies depend upon domesticated plants and animals for their survival to one extent or another. For some regions of the globe, domesticated animals were key resources, especially with regard to meat, milk, skin products, and transport. In the Near East—the earliest known centre of domestication—cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, and chickens became fundamental economic resources. However, in this and the other areas, domesticated plants were more important as a food source than domesticated animals. Why did the global shift from foraging to farming come about? Some authorities argue that the disappearance of megafauna throughout the world in the terminal Pleistocene created the need for new food resources, resulting in domestication. This explanation seems unlikely, however, especially given the availability to humans of other animals (and plants) that did not become extinct. Rather, the change from foraging to farming was likely motivated by humans seeking a means of acquiring food that would increase the predictability of food acquisition, specifically from a limited number of wild species, thereby reducing risk (Winterhalder and Goland, 1993; Smith, 1998). Be that as it may, we are learning that the shift from foraging to farming likely resulted from a number of interacting variables, including climate change in the Pleistocene-to-Holocene transition, the subsequent evolution of animals and plants adapted to the new landscapes, and local factors such as water availability and knowledge of local flora and fauna by human populations (see Smith, 1998). Whatever its root cause (so to speak), the shift from foraging to farming occasioned a new way of living, new kinds of settlement patterns, and new foods, all having a profound impact on human health and lifestyle. In general, the shift resulted in the consumption of a less varied diet and reduced meat consumption and access to key micronutrients, such as iron (Larsen, 2003). For coastal populations undergoing the transition, the shift from foraging to farming saw a dramatic and sudden reduction in consumption of marine foods (fish, especially) with the introduction of farming practices (e.g., Larsen et al., 2001; Richards et al., 2003a, Richards et al., 2003b; Papathanasiou, 2001; Papathansiou et al., 2000). This paper explores the biological consequences of the shift from foraging to farming for human populations living in the Holocene. Arguably, this change is among the most profound in all of human evolution. Although domesticated animals were important, this paper focuses mainly on the impact of plant domestication and the increasing dependence on plants as a food source. This impact on humans is part of the larger suite of environmental catastrophes documented during the Holocene. The evidence for changing food practices in the Holocene and before have long been based on archaeological documentation of the remains of foods—plants and animals—consumed by past societies. Every setting has specific taphonomic circumstances associated with it that influence the picture that archaeologists develop about human diet from the recovery of plants and animals from ancient settings. For example, very dry climates promote plant preservation, whereas in subtropical or tropical Although there is a considerable amount of variation in settlement systems of foragers and farmers, both today and in the prehistoric past, in general foragers lived a more transitory lifestyle, moving about the landscape in the food quest, whereas farming involves a more sedentary lifestyle. Depending upon the degree of commitment to farming, the greater degree of sedentism reflects the fact that farmers are required to stay put in order to plant, tend, and harvest crops. An important One of perplexing issues currently debated among anthropologists, economists, and historians is the degree to which different subsistence strategies in the past resulted in differences in workload. The traditional point of view has been very much influenced by the Hobbesian characterization of hunter–gatherer lifeways as “nasty, brutish, and short.” From this point of view, hunter–gatherers lived a demanding existence, and farmers had it relatively easier in the food quest (see Kelly, 1995). All human societies have experienced physical confrontations at some point in their history, which is well represented in a range of archaeological evidence, such as fortifications, weaponry, and iconography showing people in conflict (see Keeley, 1996). Archaeological skeletons showing weapon wounds and other evidence of interpersonal violence indicate temporal patterns of violence that are linked to economic shifts and competition for resources. For example, in Eastern North America, violence Most of us are well aware of the dramatic changes in the Earth's landscapes as forests give way to agricultural land, and the resulting environmental degradation, loss of species, and other disasters (e.g., McKee, 2003). A common misperception is that prior to modern times, humans were much more concerned about managing their environment so as to avoid the problems that have surfaced in such a dramatic fashion in the 20th century. However, study of ancient landscapes in Mesoamerica, North Thanks are extended to Suzanne Leroy and Iain Stewart for inviting me to present an earlier version of this paper at the Brunel University conference on environmental catastrophes in the Holocene.
The nature of domestication is often misunderstood. Most definitions of the process are anthropocentric and center on human intentionality, which minimizes the role of unconscious selection and also excludes non-human domesticators. An overarching, biologically grounded definition of domestication is discussed, which emphasizes its core nature as a coevolutionary process that arises from a specialized mutualism, in which one species controls the fitness of another in order to gain resources and/or services. This inclusive definition encompasses both human-associated domestication of crop plants and livestock as well as other non-human domesticators, such as insects. It also calls into question the idea that humans are themselves domesticated, given that evolution of human traits did not arise through the control of fitness by another species. There now exists a duality between humans and Earth that is delineated and defined by the economic structure and dynamic of human material life. In the face of the 6th mass extinction we are forced to understand the formation, power, and unwavering forward march of this economic system (economic superorganism), and the duality it creates between humans and Earth. This is an economic system that began about 10–12 thousand years ago with the advent of grain agriculture and has now reached its apogee with global capitalism. Conservation can serve as a lever of change in a world governed by this forward march, but it will only be effective if it remains clear on the challenge of the long arc of history and the presence of duality. The three main goals of ecological economic theory seek to predict and prevent system breakdowns. However chaos theory and human uncertainty/ignorance guarantee that shocks, breakdowns and catastrophes like COVID-19 will increasingly occur due to converging environmental resource crises. The challenge then is designing a resilient (safe-fail) economy that can endure, adapt to and successfully recover from breakdowns and avoid collapse. To date little attention has been paid in ecological economics to the implications of resilience for broader economic decisions affecting the design of global civilization. This paper provides a general introduction to resilience and an argument for why it should become a much larger focus of ecological economic research going forward. Five arguments are advanced for why resilience should not be subsumed under an existing goal, including that efforts to build resilience have the potential to both complement and contradict the other three goals, especially efficiency. The Resilience Alliance‘s adaptive cycle highlighting the cost to resilience of increasing scale and complexity meshes readily with ecological economist's own critiques of growth, encouraging increased collaboration between these transdisciplines. The need to further study these tensions provides justification for adding “Resilient Design” as a distinct fourth policy goal to core ecological economic theory. It is increasingly clear that averting ecological breakdown will require drastic changes to contemporary human society and the global economy embedded within it. On the other hand, the basic material needs of billions of people across the planet remain unmet. Here, we develop a simple, bottom-up model to estimate a practical minimal threshold for the final energy consumption required to provide decent material livings to the entire global population. We find that global final energy consumption in 2050 could be reduced to the levels of the 1960s, despite a population three times larger. However, such a world requires a massive rollout of advanced technologies across all sectors, as well as radical demand-side changes to reduce consumption – regardless of income – to levels of sufficiency. Sufficiency is, however, far more materially generous in our model than what those opposed to strong reductions in consumption often assume. This study establishes a positive and robust association between the present-day country-level male-to-female sex ratio (at birth, 0–4, 0–14 year olds) and the pre-colonial experience with sedentary agricultural activities (the Neolithic Revolution). In comparison, historical plough use has a less robust impact on the sex ratio at birth, but a positive association for the 0–4 and 0–14 age groups. Today, more than 80% of the human worldwide diet is produced from less than a dozen crop species many of which were domesticated many years ago. Archeological evidence illustrates that starting in the Holocene epoch, the domestication of plants and animals developed in separate global locations most likely triggered by climate change and local population increases. The development of agriculture marks a major turning point in human history and evolution. The dependence on plant and animal domestication entailed a number of environmental adaptations including deforestation, irrigation, and the allocation of land for specific crop cultivation. It also triggered various innovations including new tool technologies, commerce, architecture, and the development of new horticultural practices. As a result of agriculture populations became more stable and less nomadic leading to an intensified division of labor, defined socioeconomic roles, property ownership, and a tiered political systems. This chapter will cover the various regions that adopted early agricultural practices and look at the long-term positive and negative effects of agriculture on society. Documentation of an advanced case of tertiary stage treponemal disease. The well-preserved cranium and mandible of an adult male (Burial G) from the Early Woodland period (900 BCE-200 CE) Wilhoite site (40GN10) from east Tennessee. Macroscopic examination of the cranio-facial periostosis on Burial G for pathognomonic indicators of treponemal disease. There are extensive contiguous nodular lesions on the frontal, parietals, temporals, and occipital bones. The frontal squama additionally exhibits radial scaring and circumvallate cavitating lesions. Radial scars are also present on both zygomatic bones and the endocranial surface of the calotte. There is rounding of the nasal margins in addition to periostosis on the palate. Burial G unequivocally exhibits the pathognomonic reactive changes of caries sicca, radial scarring, and cavitating lesions. The Early Woodland date in combination with the advanced degree of pathognomonic reactive change is exceptional, and to date, without parallel in the pre-Columbian archaeological record of North America. Any case approaching the severity displayed here is invariably late prehistoric. The absence of postcrania does not permit assessment of frailty or synergism of secondary conditions. More comprehensive documentation of pre-Columbian treponemal cases is merited. This paper aims at investigating the possible existence of isotopic offsets in δ13Ccol and δ15Ncol values in relation to tertiary syphilis. Based on materials from the 19th c. A.D. deriving from the pathological-anatomical reference collection (the Jedlička collection) of the National Museum in Prague (Czech Republic), a comparative approach of ten individuals with syphilis and nine without the disease was undertaken. Bone powder samples were defatted according to the protocol of Liden et al. (1995). Bone collagen was extracted following the protocol of Bocherens et al. (1991). Our results show that individuals with syphilis have lower δ13Ccol values than individuals without the disease; the observed difference between the two groups is about 0.3-0.4‰, which is relatively small but still meaningful. However, no difference between δ15Ncol values of the two groups has been noticed. Either diets prescribed by physicians to syphilitic patients or nutritional stress caused by cyclic appetite disturbance due to the disease itself or the administered medical treatment appeared to be possible explanations of the observed isotopic pattern. Overall, the response of the two isotopic proxies could argue for relatively limited nutritional restrictions. This is the first study examining bone collagen isotopic response to syphilis based on clinically documented human skeletal materials. The sample sizes are relatively small and cautiousness must be taken regarding the interpretations of the data. Compound-specific stable isotope investigations and analysis of mercury content could be helpful to better understand the observed isotopic effects. The current geological epoch has been dubbed the Anthropocene—the age of humans. We argue that the roots of the Anthropocene lie in the agricultural revolution that began some 8000 years ago. Unique human psychological and cultural characteristics were present in our distant hunter–gatherer past, but in terms of the biophysical impact of our species, agricultural represented an unequivocal and decisive evolutionary break. With the transition to agriculture human society began to function as a superorganism functioning as a single unit designed by social natural selection to produce economic surplus. Where environmental conditions were permitted, early human agricultural societies followed the same pattern as a few social insects and exhibited explosive population growth, complex and detailed division of labor, intensive resource exploitation, territorial expansion, and a social organization favoring the survival and growth of the supergroup over the well-being of individuals within the group. Similar economic forces lie behind ultrasociality in social insects and humans—increased productivity from the division of labor, increasing returns to scale, and the exploitation of stocks of productive resources. Exploring the evolutionary mechanisms behind ultrasociality offers insights into the growth imperative that threatens the stability of the earth's life support systems. Growing evidence suggests that vitamin D supports immune responses to infections, autoimmune conditions and cancers, although evidence from large-scale studies is limited. There is scope to better understand how vitamin D deficiency interacted with other diseases to affect health in past groups. This study investigated paleopathological evidence and documentary records of individual cause of death to examine disease co-occurrence in a group of mid-19th century child burials from London, UK. Twenty-one percent of children had vitamin D deficiency rickets (138/642) and 36 children with rickets had an identified cause of death. Cyclical episodes of metabolic and nutritional deficiencies (rickets and scurvy) had occurred during childhood. Active rickets co-occurred with respiratory and gastrointestinal infections in a small number of children, likely reflecting vitamin D’s role in supporting immune function. Consideration of the stage of the vitamin D deficiency showed that the majority of children were affected by chronic disease loads indicative of multiple episodes of illness. Reconstructions of the wider health consequences of vitamin D deficiency in past groups are dependent on recognising whether the deficiency was active or healed. The variability of diseases identified illustrates the high disease burden that affected children in this socially disadvantaged group. |
What is one environmental impact of the Second Agricultural Revolution?
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