ISS 310 03 Human plant relationships in simple societies 2 5 2014 Early plant domestication o QUESTION What is a domesticated plant or animal Anything grown on a farm grown in a house intentionally cultivated dependent on humans o What are the advantages of domestication Based on what you have learned how hard do you think it is to hunt and gather Labor have to travel to and gather o Not very hard stuff is already there just waiting for you to just get it Grocery Store o o How many hours per week do men spend on hunting activities 8 12 hours a week o How many hours per week do women spend on women activities 12 15 hours per week Some facts about growing your own food It does not free people from hard work It doesn t insure a more secure food supply o o o Quality of food actually is often worse Rely on a single dominant food source or type for most of your calories can be more harmful o More significant long term effects on the environment that are rarely positive o Invest more time and energy control all aspects of the plants but things can happen to mess it up Paths to Agriculture o Incipient Agriculture o Cultivation o Domestication Incipient Agriculture o Encouraging certain plant species to propagate sometimes unintentionally by Scattering and or planting of wild seeds Using fire to encourage growth of particular plant communities o New plant communities come after fire Seed Scattering o Ojibwa Indians and berries Collected berries as part of their seasonal diets Scattered seeds along the routes they travelled Intentional or unintentional Referred to as berry trails or paths Anthropogenic Fire o California Indians and Fire Burned patches of land Certain plants grow in burned areas Types of grasses and onions most common in CA Edible to humans and also animals like deer Became predictable places for hunting and gathering o Smokey the Bears model Human induced fires vs wildfires Humans do induce burning of certain parts of the forests to prevent catastrophic random fires Cultivation ISS 310 03 Human plant relationships in simple societies 2 5 2014 o Using deliberate care to increase plant yields by monitoring and controlling the life cycle of a plant Weed water till the soil etc Traditional Tobacco o Nicotiana rustica Originated in South America or Caribbean Hand clean flowers and leaves regularly Small plots that people would take care of heavily Barama River Caribs soak the soil around the roots at intervals with fish poison poison derived from fish to protect against worms o Select specific plant traits to make them more attractive to humans Often results in plant breeds that are dependent on humans for propagation and Domestication survival Evolution of corn o o 5200 3400BC to now a days great expansion of corn size from domestication Started in Mexico Where did agriculture begin o Nikolai Vavilov a plant geneticists identified 8 regions where agriculture arose independently and at different times o Where were they o Centers of Origins Image slide on Angel Potato Lima bean Peanut Corn Chili pepper Andes Mexico Mediterranean Middle East Ethiopia India China SE Asia Coffee Chickpea Eggplant Soybean Millet Sugarcane Rice Cabbage Olive Sugar beet Wheat Barley Apple Apricot ISS 310 03 Human plant relationships in simple societies 2 5 2014 Prerequisites for development of agriculture o Presence of plants that could be domesticated Such plants had a high degree of genetic plasticity Various traits of the plant could be selected for with relatively rapid and consistent results o Knowledge of how to grow and manage crops Knowledge would include how to grow plants Also includes the development of new technologies Not just tools weeding watering fertilization o Decrease in the carrying capacity of landscape for hunting and gathering way of life How does this work Increase in population Environmental changes Adapt move or die Case study Origins of Agriculture in the Middle East o Origins in a period called the Natufian o Natufian peoples lived in the Middle East from 12 500 10 200 BP Natufian life ISS 310 03 Human plant relationships in simple societies 2 5 2014 Intensive focus on harvesting wild grains Not agriculture though but foraging Sites are more substantial than earlier times and show increasing population o o o o Natufian Settlement Hayonim and El Wad Building individual homes with fire rings Seeing accumulation of wealth Natufian Technology Socially things are changing Interested in doing things besides hunting and gathering o Concentrated on harvesting and storing grains Storage Stone bowls and ostrich eggshell containers Sickles Grinding and pounding equipment Other Natufian Developments o Natufian people are being buried with different amounts and types of goods o Why is that important People interested in the accumulation of wealth Natufian Domestication o Of plants no o End of the Natufian But there is evidence for the goat o o o Ends with a rapid post glacial environmental shift referred to as the Younger Dryas 10 900 9 500 BC Shift to another cold and dry climate in many areas of the world Effects of the Younger Dryas Cold and dry climate causes reduction in food resources for Natufian peoples o o What does this mean in regards to carrying capacity Decreases takes a nose dive trigger event o Moving isn t an option for them because they were surrounded by different groups of o Neolithic is the time that the first fully agricultural societies arise in the Old World peoples After Natufian The Neolithic Cultural and Social Features of Neolithic Peoples o A sedentary lifestyle staying in the same place o Domestication of animals and plants o More complex trade networks Far and wide across the middle east o o Technological developments Storage technology o Group individual ownership of resources So how did the process of domestication occur o No one really knows for sure o Several hypotheses Oasis Hypothesis V Gordon Childe From bins to structures that are strictly devoted to food storage o Increasing aridity forced plants animals and people to group around permanent water sources ISS 310 03 Human plant relationships in simple societies 2 5 2014 People expanded their plant and animal knowledge and slowly tame them to fit their needs European Natural Habitat Hypothesis Robert Braidwood Early domesticates would appear in regions where they are found naturally arose accidentally o Humans would have found the possibility of living on domesticates appealing and begun to o o o