Transcript 8-29-ag origins, rev.. - The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

TODAY
• Origins of agriculture & some
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consequences
Questions about last time?
Domestication?
 Properties of cultivated plants?
© T. M. Whitmore
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Origins of agriculture
Why - How - Where?
Many theories (not all noted here)
No absolute agreement
Some address the “why” of agriculture
Most seek to explain the “where”
Also the “how” of agriculture
Not “progress” per se – some negative
consequences
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Origins of agriculture
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Most of human history we have been foragers
(hunter-gathers)
Paradox of domestication/agriculture
Why leave hunting-gathering ?
First Nutrition transition:
 Domestication/agriculture => less variety
in diet and less healthy people
Domestication/agriculture done where wild
plants (e.g., wild relatives of wheat and
barley) are very abundant – so why bother?
H-G often entails less work
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Composite theory to explain the origin
of agriculture in Mesopotamia
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Ag arose in part as a consequence of climate
change
Climate change => increased seasonality
Need to have a diversity of domesticatable
wild plants
Humans altered gathered plants
Process may have been more-or-less
unconscious (dump heap theory)
Population growth leads to population levels
above the carrying capacity around margins of
optimum habitats
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Semi-Dissenters
Sauer
Agriculture did not originate from a lack of
food
Inventors of agriculture had previously
acquired special skills in other directions:
predisposition to agricultural experiments
Agriculture began in wooded areas: easier to
clear than grasslands
Harlan
Although agriculture started more or less
simultaneously (8,000-6,000 BC) in several
parts of the world, circumstances were
probably quite different.
Therefore, a single model will not be
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satisfactory.
Proposed sequence of change
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“Broad Spectrum” revolution (change in H-G
patterns)
20,000 BP and later
“Neolithic” Revolution (advent of agriculture
and later, herding)
12,000 BP and later
Urban Revolution (rise of civilization)
~ 6,000 BP and later
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Consequences I: 1st Nutrition Transition
(Foragers => Agriculturalists)
(Paleolithic to Neolithic)
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H-G/forager health & nutrition
Small bands low density => few infectious
diseases
Various parasites, lice, and some zoonoses
(trichinosis, tetanus, schistosomiasis etc.)
Good nutrition, variety of foods, few
deficiencies
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1st Nutrition Transition
Early agriculturalists
Nutritional status likely lower than for
foragers
 Lean years and hunger seasons
 Theft
 Storage problems
Domesticated varieties may be less
nutritious than wild relatives
Diet is more centered on cereals => less
variety
Agriculture => loss of fertility in fields
(with no amendments) and possible plant
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diseases => greater risks again
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Consequences II: Health
Early agriculturalists: increased health risks
over foragers
Increased “herd type” infectious diseases
 Malaria, mumps, measles, smallpox etc.
Increases in zoonoses and parasites from
animals:
 anthrax, TB etc.
 salmonella or tape worms
Increases in diseases associated with waste
& contaminated water (fecal-oral diseases):
 cholera, typhus, plague
Insect borne diseases (e.g., malaria)
Increased infections => higher malnutrition
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especially for weanlings
Consequences III: Sedentary living
• Neolithic/Agricultural revolution involves
sedentary settlement - a major change =>
Annual harvests => food storage
Storage losses and health risks due to
various forms of rot in storage (e.g., ergot)
Stored foods can be stolen (see McNeil’s
classic Plagues and Peoples)
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Urban/sedentary revolution
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Trade networks associated with cities can
improve food variety and seasonal availability
(but trade is often controlled => development
of elite and poor classes)
“Civilization” is defined by urban specialists
(i.e., non-farmers) – don’t grow own food
Thus, ability to eat dependent on exchange
rather than production ability =>
 possibly vulnerability to “social famine”
(even if crops are abundant)
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Consequences IV:
Population Consequences
Population growth (conventional, “hockey
stick,” view)
Paleolithic = .0015%/yr for thousands of
years
100,000 – 12,000 BP perhaps 3 m humans
total
8 m humans by 10,000 BP (eve of ag)
By 5,000 BP (~ 5,000 yrs of ag) = 100 m!
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Deevey’s 3 “Revolutions”
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A re-interpretation of the “hockey stick
growth curve to highlight 3 “revolutions”
Paleolithic: tool making revolution
Neolithic: agriculture & urbanism revolution
Industrial: industrial revolution
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Deevey’s reinterpretation
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Low growth after gains of initial paleolithic
“surge” and neolithic surges
Paleolithic revolution
Both death and birth rates increased, but
births more
 Increase in population and density
Neolithic Revolution
Birth and death rates increase ( births more)
Greatest potential for disease and death in
very old and very young
Reproducing age folks more likely to survive
all these problem
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Origins of agriculture – where?
Vavilov (1927):
Centers of genetic diversity in wild plants
(precursors of domesticates) => center of
domestication
He posits 8 major centers of domestication
that => centers for early ag
 Some dissent now but still generally
accepted
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SW Asia & E Mediterranean (IV on
map) aka “fertile crescent”)
Zagros mtns., SW Turkey, and E.
Mediterranean hills
First good evidence of domestication of
cereals (many wild grasses) (8,000-12,000 BP)
Wheat; barley
later flax for oil, peas, lentils
By 6000 BP classic Mediterranean crops: olive,
grapes, figs
Early animal domestication (6000 BP):
Sheep , goats, cattle, pigs
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Fertile Crescent II
Move to flood plains of Iraq (Tigris &
Euphrates rivers) and Nile by 7000-6000 BP
=> Rise of great Mesopotamian and Egyptian
civilizations
Lowlands of Mesopotamia and Nile lack
sufficient rain for agriculture =>
By 5000 BP new (2nd) type of agriculture
(irrigation-based)
Also key is adoption of ox-drawn plow (very
simple “ards”) by 6000 BP
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Fertile Crescent Crops/foods I
Grains: wheat, barley, rye, and oats
Fruits & nuts: grape, olive, fig, date palm,
pomegranates, apricot, walnut, pistachios
Pulses: peas, lentils, chick peas (poor folks'
meat)
Root & tuber crops: turnips, beets, carrots,
radishs
Condiments/vegetables: onions, garlic, leeks,
cucumbers, lettuce, saffron, parsley,
Oil crops: rape seed, safflower, flax, olive
Stimulants: poppy, digitalis, belladonna,
licorice
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Fertile Crescent Crops/foods II
Meat:
Probably mostly small stock (goats, sheep,
pigs)
Cows too valuable to slaughter
Cattle used for milk and traction before for
meat
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Food storage and preparation
Brewing by 5500 BP!
Wine making (grapes, dates)
Milling of wheat and barley for cereal foods
(porridge) and bread
Baking
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Diffusion of SW Asia Ag & domesticates
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Diffusion of crops, animals, & techniques
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North to Europe via Danube valley
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West thru Mediterranean basin: Spain & N
Africa by 6000 BP
To N Sea (and Britain?) by 6000 BP
East to South Asia
By 5000 BP to Indus R valley (Harappa &
Mohenjodaro civilizations)
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To Ganges V by 3000 BP
East to N China plain by 7000 BP
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South East Asia & India
(IIa & IIb on map)
“Vegeculture” (vs seed agriculture)
 Before seed ag in SE Asia
Timing unclear (before 12,000 BP?)
Simple digging stick methods
Important non-seed propagated crops:
Taro, breadfruit, sago palm, bamboo,
coconut, bananas, & some yams
Also chickens and pigs (independently)
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South East Asia continued
Seed-based agriculture
Asian rice by 5000 BP in Thailand or
elsewhere in SE Asia
 Upland (dry, rain-fed) rice initially
 Wet (paddy) rice
– Elaborate landscape modifications
 Spread E to India & N to S China
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India & South Asia continued
• Grains: rice
• Pulses: chickpea (?), mung bean, pigeon pea
• Roots & tubers: radish, taro, some yams
• Oil crops: safflower, sesame (?),
• Fruits & nuts: mango, orange, tangerine
• Vegetables: eggplant, cucumber
• Misc & spices: sugar cane, coconut palm, black pepper,
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indigo, cinnamon
Fiber: various cottons
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China & Central Asia
(regions I & III on map)
Cereals: millets; sorghum; buckwheat
Pulses: soybean, adzuki bean, velvet bean
Roots & tubers: turnip, Chinese yams
Oil crops: rape seed
Fruits & nuts: pear, chestnut, quince;
persimmon, litchi, apricot, peach, walnut (?)
Vegetables & spices: Chinese cabbage, ginger,
onions
Stimulants etc.: tea, ginseng,
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Africa
(VI on the map)
Agricultural origins:
after 9000 BP (more likely 5000-6000 BP)
regions & crops uncertain (Ethiopia &
Sahael), general diffusion west
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African Domesticates
Cereals: African rice, pearl millet, sorghum,
tef
Pulses: cowpea, groundnuts
Roots & tubers: African (true) yam
Oil crops: oil palm, castor bean
Fruits & nuts: baobab, watermelon, melon
Vegetables & spices: okra
Stimulants: coffee
Animals: Common ass & guinea fowl
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Agriculture
Appears
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(Neolithic)
(Paleolithic)
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Near Eastern Crops
1. Lentil
2. Chickpea
3. Salt
4. Peas
5. Raisins
6. Olive
7. Barley
8. Walnut
9. Almond
10. Pistachio nuts
11. Apricot
12. Date
13. Wheat
14. Fig
15. Fava beans
History of Horticulture © 2002 Jules Janick, Purdue University
IRAN
Fertile Crescent
IRAQ
History of Horticulture © 2002 Jules Janick, Purdue University
Agriculture
Appears
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(Neolithic)
(Paleolithic)
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© T. M. Whitmore
ANIMAL SOURCES OF SOME HUMAN
DISEASES
DISEASE
Bacterial
Brucellosis
Pasteurellosis
Tularemia
Anthrax
Listerosis
Tuberculosis
Q Fever
Parasitic
Trichinosis
Coccidiosis
Viral
Influenza
Foot and Mouth
Rabies
COMMON SOURCE
goats, cattle
fowl
sheep, rabbits
cattle, sheep, goats, horses
guinea pigs, fowl
cattle
cattle, sheep, goats
swine
cats
swine, horses
cattle, sheep, goats
dogs, cats
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