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EVOLUTION OF AGRICULTURE.   Term Paper ID:22743 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Examines materialist & environmentalist theories on history & development of world agriculture.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Examines materialist & environmentalist theories on history & development of world agriculture. Paper Introduction: Theories on the evolution of agriculture are numerous and contradictory. These theories fall into two main categories. The materialist theories have marxist economic theory as the reason for agricultural development and the environmentalist theories which assume a change in the environment caused the beginnings of agriculture. Both of these groups of theorists agree on the probable time frame for the beginnings of agricultural evolution as the ending of the pleistocene era. Different theories place the area of the genesis of agriculture at various sites around the world. Most theories have agriculture's origins at more than one site. This paper will present some of the theories and hypotheses about the origins of agriculture. The debate is continuing as more archeological and biological data is accumulated. There is no consensus in the Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Itmeans that the preservation of the crop is more easily maintained than withvarieties which require cross-pollination. Themassive ice sheets caused the jet stream to split.[15] This resulted indrier winter and wetter summers. Most theories have agriculture's origins at morethan one site. [3]David Rindos, The Origins of Agriculture: An EvolutionaryPerspective (Orlando, Florida: Academic Press, Inc., 1984), 18. This dictated a change in culture from a strict hunter-gatherer strategy in which all production is consumed. Both of them arebased on the same premise of population pressure. Vavilov's followers beganto try to trace the biological diversity of domesticated plant life back tothese primary hearths. In areas of marginal productivity, a moresecure subsistence strategy dictated the need for domestic production ofresources. [22]Joy McCorriston and Frank Hole, "The Ecology off Seasonal Stressand the Origins of Agriculture in the Near East," American Anthropologist93 (March 1991): 58. These theories fall into two main categories. "Agricultural Origins in the American Midwest: A comment on Charles." American Anthropology 96 (March 1994): 161- 164.Wright, H. Archeological evidence indicates that these crops wereintentionally sown.[21] The domestication of lentils and peas also tookplace in this region.[22] The primary crops of the Near East were thevarieties of wheat, barley, pea, lentil, chickpea, bitter vetch, and flax.All of these plants are annuals and are mostly self-fertile.[23] Self-fertile crops have very little cross-pollination. For all of these reasonsthe development of agriculture was fostered. This paper will present some of the theories and hypothesesabout the origins of agriculture. Childe's fundamentalcontribution to archeology was the hypothesis that agriculture was a newsystem through which people could relate to their immediate environment.[3] The second major school of thought on the beginnings of agriculturewas begun by Ivan Vavilov. Childe's followers, theenvironmental determinists, were busy trying to show that climate changesprecipitated the social change to settled society and an agricultural base. [18]Ibid., 466. The use of cereal productsrequires a multi-step process for the grower. Gordon Childe was the first of the theorists known asenvironmentalists. The Origin of Agriculture and Settled Life. The domestication of plants andanimals followed each other closely. It appears that Childe may be closer to the truth about the beginnings ofagriculture than Vavilov, but his hypothesis that the climate became wetterwas the opposite of what occurred. It appears that in areas withmarginal subsistence capacity the variety of food gathering strategies wasgreater than in villages settled in areas with high levels of fertility.[7] High levels of flexibility in the gathering of food products is noted inthese types of areas. Food production requires thatthere be a withholding of some level of production to continueproducing.[11] Capital in the form of seed is the minimum necessary tobegin production. Themobility of settled people became restricted and with this restrictedmobility came the need to force the environment to increase the level offood it was able to produce in their territory. Evidence suggests that even in fragilemarginal areas people continue to utilize a variety of food productiontechniques after farming and herding have been initiated.[1 ] A gradualdecline in the level of wild food produced and an increase in thepopulation are among the changes which help produce an economy based onever greater levels of domestic production. The second climatic event to occur at this time which affected thebirth of agricultural production was the increased summer insolation causedby the Milankovitch orbital cycles. In this area the population hadalready formed villages and were settled. [2 ]Ibid. The ability of these crops to accept cross-pollination allows for rapid evolution to produce new varieties. The deserts becamemore arid. The Origins of Agriculture: An Evolutionary Perspective. [15]Ibid., 463. [1 ]Ibid., 12 . Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992.Rindos, David. The regions surrounding the oases became havens for plant andanimal life. By increasing thedependence on agricultural production verses the gathering activities,people were able to increase overall food production and absorb theincreased population levels.[13] The hypothesis put forth by Childe that domestication of plantsfollowed the changing climate was initially discounted as climatologystudies disproved that the climate became drier as he had postulated. It is known as materialism. Wright, Jr. This means that there islittle contamination of the seed from other plants. This was the same time period as the Younger Dryaswas happening.[14] Younger Dyas was when the glacial ice reclaimedportions of the continent. The southern Levant was located at theboundary between two climate zones. Zeder, "After the Revolution: Post-NeolithicSubsistence in Northern Mesopotamia," American Anthropologist 96 (March1994): 12 . A grower will wantthe grain to remain on the stalk for threshing. The region began to experience summer drought and strong seasonalfluctuations.[16] Pollen counts form the time period show increasedconcentrations of mediterranean plants such as olive and pistachio. The first wave of crops to be domesticated were crops which were forthe most part self-fertile. In addition, food resources which were domesticatedwere easier to store and stockpile against times of scarce production.[8]The flexibility of each area to take advantage of the wild and domesticresources available meant that in the fertile areas with good rainfall andcultivatable soil agriculture was practiced as a more secure means ofproduction than the previously practiced hunter-gatherer strategies. 2nd ed. Morerecent studies completed in the Levant area of the Near East have onceagain opened the debate on whether climate change had a major impact on thebeginnings of agricultural production. The debate is continuing as morearcheological and biological data is accumulated. This caused two important changes in theweather system of the Levant. MacNeish, The Origin of Agriculture and Settled Life(Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 6. Theplace where the first archeological evidence for agricultural production offood exists is in the Near East in the Levant region. This explanation followsthe marxist party line--changes in economic production follow changes inpopulation. The people hadtechniques for food storage and processing. [6]Ibid. [7]Melinda A. In order of importance and number of plant speciesdomesticated these are: China with 136 plants domesticated, India with117, the Near East had 83 plants, the Guatemala highlands with 49, theAndes with 46, the Sudanic-Abyssinian area had 38, the South Americantropics had 35 and southeast Asia had domesticated 24 plants.[6] Thehypothesis concerning these great hearths states that human populationssettled into these areas because of the wide variety of natural food plantswhich were available. The first archeological record of cultivated plantsappears about 76 -7 bc.[19] Plant cultivation and animal domesticationboth began at roughly the same time period. Both the increase in population and the need forpermanent food processing and storage facilities encouraged the populationto become settled in a particular region. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.----------------------- [1]Richard S. These theorists believed that the birth of agriculturetook place at the end of the pleistocene era when the climate changed.[1]They believed changing climate caused the plant and animal life to becomeconcentrated in the areas around the oases and rivers. [21]Ibid. At approximately the same time thatagriculture was developing in the Levant area, climate change can be shownto have been occurring. The people were utilizing thenative plants which were existing on natural moisture. "Environmental Determinism in Near EasternPrehistory," Current Anthropology 34 (August-October 1993): 461-463. Thus, the seasonality of the region wasless extreme than it is today. The materialistviewed population growth and the need for a new system of food productionas causes; the population was growing therefore the people needed a newform of food production to maintain the new population level.[4] The rootcauses of the introduction of a new food production system were notimportant to this group of theorists. [4]MacNeish, 7. Humans took advantage of the concentrated life and throughexperimentation with native plants agriculture was begun.[2] Concurrent with this spontaneous experimentation with plants, was theNeolithic Revolution. [14]H. [16]Ibid., 464. There were increases inpopulation due to increase in the food supply. Sir V. [12]Ibid., 163. The role of population pressure on the need to form an agriculturaleconomic base in settled areas appears to be well documented. As people live on the land it slowlybecomes depleted and new sources of food or new methods of food productionmust be found. This effect lasted until the ice sheetsbegan their second retreat and the climate began to behave as it doestoday. There is no consensus inthe field of archeology at this time to define the origins of agriculture.Different archeological sites with evidence of early agriculture supportassorted hypotheses. These were places where he believed that agriculturalproduction first began. The incidence of cross-pollinationevents are rare but noteworthy. The first change is related to the continental ice sheets. [2]Ibid. [9]Ibid., 12 -121. Domestication of plants and animals by a group of sedentarypeople resulted in the the inauguration of agriculture was the solution. [8]Ibid. Next the harvesting of the grain. E. The food supply grew inreaction to the use of stone tools, and the beginnings of agriculture. The most numerous remains of thesecrops come from three types of cereal: emmer wheat, einkorn wheat andbarley. This is important in early agriculture because it allows thefarmer to interplant his crops and have them still breed true to form. Orlando, Florida: Academic Press, Inc., 1984.Rosenberg, Michael. Cereal plants were abundant atthis time. [13]Zeder, 12 . First the seed must be sown. Thematerialist theories have marxist economic theory as the reason foragricultural development and the environmentalist theories which assume achange in the environment caused the beginnings of agriculture. A period of cultural selectionis necessary for full domestic production. These are cyclical changes in theearth and sun's orbital relations which are now considered to be a majorcause of global climactic changes.[17] In the Near East area these cyclesresult in the maximum heating of the interior areas and the monsoon rainsclose to the continental margins. Theories on the evolution of agriculture are numerous andcontradictory. Wild game and wild plants were gathered for a majorportion of the people's diet. "After the Revolution: Post-Neolithic Subsistence in Northern Mesopotamia," American Anthropologist 96 (March 1994): 97- 126.Zohary, Daniel, and Hopf, Maria. The increased size and stabilityof the village forced new political and social organizational structures onthe village which further encouraged permanence. These crops can accept cross-pollinationalthough they do not do so readily. In these settlements in the Near East the first crops were grown.These first known crops were cereals. BibliographyMacNeish, Richard S. The beginning of the modern debate on the origins of agriculture aretwo theorists: Sir V. Inthese areas a more developed, economically interdependent, denserpopulation is found.[9] As a population becomes more settled and begins to cultivate an areafor subsistence agriculture, the environment will slowly become degraded.This process is not immediate. The climate change encouraged the Natufians to cultivate thecereal plants in order to maintain their sedentary lifestyle.[18] The earliest definitive signs of plant cultivation are found in astring of these Neolithic villages in the Near East in this area ofclimatic change. When the level of rainfall fell below whatcould be tolerated by the wild cereal grains, domestication of these plantsoccurred. All plant cultivation and animal domesticationbegan at these great hearths over a larger area. [17]Ibid., 463. These two theorists were both Marxists but cameto dissimilar conclusions about the start of agriculture's evolution. As the climate changed, the level of moisture available throughrainfall continued to drop. Evidence exists thatagriculture was being practiced as early as 76 -7 bc. E. Domestication of Plants in the Old World. This Neolithic Revolution was when people began tocongregate together to form villages and hamlets. "Environmental Determinism in Near Eastern Prehistory." Current Anthropology 34 (August-October 1993): 458-469.ent Zeder, Melinda A. The increasein food supply and stability of food sources enabled the population of thevillage to grow. with thecultivation of cereal crops and legumes. [5]Ibid. Theyboth believed the marxist doctrine that cultures changed because ofeconomic revolutions which brought about changes in the means and modes ofproduction. Thisdegradation of the environment can be the result of climactic changes, oras simple as the over-harvesting of wild plants and over-hunting of wildgame.[12] As people settled into villages they became territorial. And finally the threshing of the grainto release the kernels.[24] These processes set in motion the selection ofvarieties distinguished from their wild counterparts. As hunter-gather societies enlarged their populations, the a need arose for asteadier, more predictable food supply. [24]Ibid., 16-17.----------------------- 12 Both ofthese groups of theorists agree on the probable time frame for thebeginnings of agricultural evolution as the ending of the pleistocene era.Different theories place the area of the genesis of agriculture at varioussites around the world. Gordon Childe a British anthropologist, and IvanVavilov a soviet botanist. Thefarmer is able to pick his new seed crop from among the old and newvarieties to be the best suited to his region. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 228. Sheep and goats were the firstanimals to be domesticated.[2 ] These animals were followed soon by cattleand pigs. They were more concerned withfinding the dates when plant domestication began and where agriculturalmethods were first employed.[5] Vavilov and his followers listed eight great hearths of plantdomestication. Thecultivation of plants meant a more constant supply of food. [23]Zohary Hopf 16. The domestication of plants and animals provided for a morecertain existence. There are two reasons hypothesized for this change. Population pressure canbe the result of two variables: an increasing population size, or adegradation of the environment's level of productive capacity. The causes of the economic revolution which brought about theevolution of agriculture are the point of contention between the twoschools of thought. [19]Daniel Zohary and Maria Hopf, Domestication of Plants in the OldWorld 2nd ed. The cultivars willbreed true. Vavilov with his theory of multiplehearths of agriculture's origin has both supporters and detractors. People domesticated these varieties for their usewhen the increasing population needed more food. [11]Michael Rosenberg, "Agricultural Origins in the American Midwest:A Comment on Charles," American Anthropology 96 (March 1994): 162. The origin of agriculture has not been adequately accounted for inthe theories of the cultural ecologists and the environmental determinists. The reasons given for the beginningsof agriculture are climate change and the pressure of a growing populationon land which is at or near capacity. Both of these hypotheses are not complete. 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