Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
modification from the human use of fire. Another formerly much-debated question
concerns the causes of plant and animal domestication in widely separated regions
soon after 11 ka and the start of the Neolithic. Certainly, the development of appropri-
ate tools for harvesting, grinding and storing cereal grains is an obvious prerequisite,
but other less easily discerned social and economic factors no doubt played a role, as
did stress on local natural resources from a growing population (Cohen,
1977
).
The use of genetic evidence, notably mitochondrial DNA inherited from the mother
and Y chromosome data inherited via the father has proven to be a powerful means
of determining when and whence human populations migrated out of Africa into
Eurasia, Australia and the Americas.
