ANT2000-9/15/16HUNTER-GATHERER PAST (AND PRESENT)ANT2000-9/15/16- HUNTER-GATHERER PAST (AND PRESENT)- Hunter-Gatherer Diversityo Societies whose economies are based largely or exclusively on the exploitation of wild plant and animal foodso Forms of human adaptation with great time depth and enormous geographical expanse Represents over 95% of human prehistory From arctic to deserts from mountains, from mountains to coasts From simple to complex, from mobile to sedentary  Today’s groups but a small fraction of those of the past- How do We Explain the Diversity?o Perspectives have changed over time Ethnocentric bias of life without food protection(Hobbs’s view) Natural Man-closer to nature than the civilized world, Julian Stewart Original affluent society-THIS SHOWS UP ON THE QUIZ THIS WEEK. IT MEANS COLLECT DATA ON WHAT HUNTERS AND GATHERERS DO FOR A LIVING AND ON THEIR HEALTH.HAD EVERYTHING THEY NEEDED BECAUSE THEY DID NOT NEED MUCH AND HAD EVERYTHING THEY WANTED BECAUSE THEIR WANTS WERE LIMITED Victims of colonialism Professional Primitives None of the above? All of the above? Archeological evidence shows even greater diversity among H-Gs than in ethnographic present Calls into question the role of analogy as a method- Ecological Perspectiveso H-G diversity understood in ecological terms Availability of resources- Plants v animals Structure of resources- Patchy v widespread Timing of resources- Perennial v seasonal Reliability of resources- Predictable v unpredictable- But Whose Ecologyo Indigenous beliefs about the animation of “nature” are highly influential in what people eat, how they eat it, where they live, how long they stay put, and so much more And such beliefs are often in sync with “nature” and thus highly sustainable- Social Typological Problemso Common features of band-level societies Small population size and density Extensive, not intensive land-use Mobile settlement Egalitarian social relationship Lack of property beyond personal tools/ornaments Labor divided only by age and sex Fission to resolve dispute or crisis Leadership is situational, nonpermanento But not as common as once thought The mid-20th century idea of band society overlooked connections to other societies and dismissed deviations as anomalies- Connectionso H-G bands part of larger units (macrobands)o H-Gs partnered with food producerso H-Gs involved in large-scale political economies2- Anomalies?o Complex H-Gs (tribes, chiefdoms)o H-Gs worldwide with technologies and practices common to food producers: Sedentism, village life, monuments, pottery, storage, environmental management, irrigation, hunting and fishing infrastructure, and moreo Archaeology shows that “anomalies” were not so anomalous in the ancient pasto What are we to make of all of this? Mode of sustenance does not determine cultural complexity or scale of society Sure, “nature” sets limits, but “nature” itself is affected by history, culture, and belief It is true that no state-level society arose in the absence of food production, but absence of food production does not limit human societies to the category of “band” or to the social ethos of egalitarianism Many of the ways non-food-producing people interact with“nature”DOMESTICATION AND THE NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION- A Neolithic Revolution?o Term used by V. Gordon Childe to describe the origins of agriculture as an event that affected every aspect of human society Humans lifted from the vagaries of nature Productivity increased so that time and energy could be devoted to making civilization (writing, pottery, monumental architecture, etc.) Contained connotations of progress3o Largely unsupported by current data, but food production did indeed change the course of history- Domesticationo Process whereby humans modify the genetic makeup of a population of wild plants or animalso Results in loss of reproductive fitness and increased dependence on humanso End point of a gradual process: Foraging and unintentional tending THIS IS ON THE QUIZ Cultivation Domestication- Archaeological Evidence of Domesticationo Compare archaeobotanical data with modern data Prehistoric range extensions Relative abundance Morphological change-only unequivocal evidence for domestication- Morphological Traits of Domesticationo Flower cluster compactiono Loss of natural shatter mechanism of seed dispersalo Uniform maturation of fruito Increased seed masso Reduced seed coat thickness- Origins of Agriculture: Mesopotamiao Mesopotamia: The “Cradle of Civilization”o By 6,000 years ago, the first state-level society, Sumer, evolved from a 4000-year process of plant domestication Centered on the “Fertile Crescent”, the rich alluvium of theTigris and Euphrates Rivers Process began as by-product of exploiting wild plants- Natufian H-Gso From 12,000 to 10,000 years ago, h-g population known as Natufian inhabited “the western flanks” of the Zagros Mountainso Collected wild wheat and barley for food4o Maintained mobile settlement, utilizing wild plant resources seasonally- Limiting Properties of Wild Wheat and Barleyo Brittle axis or rachiso Thick huskso Only two-row kernelso Dispersed occurrence - Intensificationo Wild plants increased in importance as climate grew increasingly drier and less predictableo Natufians sought the densest stands of wheat and barely and came up with tech innovations to improve returns Sickles and containers for harvesting Storage facilities Grinding basinso Due to these innovations and growing sedentism, populations grew and budded off- Gradual Domestication-KNOW FOR QUIZo Transported kernels into areas that were marginal for the naturalpropagation of wild wheat and barleyo Created genetic drift effect by introducing only kernels with tough rachiso Also, exposed plant to new conditions, new selective factorso Eventually people recognized favorable traits and begun cultivatingo Final step was deliberate planting- Questioning the Neolithic Revolution: How Revolutionary was it?o Sweeping effects of agriculture are undeniable Increased carrying capacity/population Sedentary existence Technological innovation Social differentiationo Adoption of agricultural lifestyle was always a process, never an event5o All of these “advancements” also found among H-Gs- Questioning the Neolithic Revolution: Does