Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
1998). Although the quest for a more predictable food source may have been a factor
in explaining agricultural origins, archaeologists are learning that the farming tran-
sition was likely not monocausal. Instead, it involved the confluence of a number of
factors, including climate change, the evolution of new plants and animals adapted to
the warmer and wetter Holocene landscapes, availability of water, and local knowl-
edge of wild plants and animals whose growth cycles were well understood (Smith
1998).
Whatever the “root” cause of plant domestication, the implications of the farming
transition are large and numerous: It was a new way of living, a new way of settling
the landscape, and exposure to new foods with dramatically different nutritional
content, all of which led to fundamental changes in health and lifestyle. For exam-
ple, diets became generally less varied, more focused on fewer foods, and reduced
consumption of meat and availability of protein and key micronutrients (e.g., iron;
Larsen 1995, 2003).
outcomes foR humAnIty
As the opening of this chapter indicated, most assume that the shift from foraging
to farming was a positive event in human history. Indeed, by some measures it was
the “great leap forward.” If we measure success for humanity by the population size
before and after agriculture, the event was a wonderful success. That is, at 10 thou-
sand years ago, the world was populated by no more than 2 or 3 million people. By
2 thousand years ago, population had increased to 250 to 300 million people. The
first billion mark was hit in the mid-nineteenth century, and today it is well over
6 billion and counting. Agriculture also created the economic basis for the rise of
complex societies and the world's great civilizations. These certainly are measures
of success, but there are other outcomes for humanity that suggest that the transi-
tion to farming was a mixed blessing. For example, as population increased, so did
competition for increasingly fewer resources (e.g., arable land for raising crops). As
a result, organized warfare developed. While the evidence for interpersonal violence
has great antiquity, the level of violence in early humans is nothing in comparison to
what plays out in the early civilizations of southwest Asia, Central America, or South
America. There were also environmental consequences, including degradation of
landscapes (e.g., van der Leeuw 1998, Krech 1999). Dense human settlement has
contributed to soil erosion, which inhibits production of food. Overgrazing by sheep
and goats also contributed to soil erosion. Exploitation of forest for wood for fuel and
construction rapidly stripped vast swaths of landscapes wherever agriculture, towns,
and cities arose. Finally, anthropologists have also shown how human population
size has impacted diversity of animal species around the world, apparently begin-
ning thousands of years ago but accelerating today (McKee 2003).
One of the best records for gauging the impact of the agricultural transition is
from human remains—skeletons and teeth—recovered from sites around the world.
Human remains provide a fund of data on health and lifestyle, and the study of this
important record gives us a detailed picture of what life was like in the Holocene,
especially with relation to its impact on quality of life and well-being.
