PowerPoint Presentation - The Origins and Spread of Agriculture

							The Origins and Spread of
Agriculture
Outline                      Key Terms
I.   Intro                    Food Production
II.  The Middle East &        Broad Spectrum
     Beyond                    Foraging
III. Other “Old World”        Sedentism
     Farmers                  Domesticates
IV.  Food Production in        (Domestication)
     the Americas             Neolithic Revolution
V.   Benefits and Costs of    Pastoralism
     Food Production          Holocene
Announcement
   Cinema Politica documentary cinema series:
    http://www.cinemapolitica.org/nipissing
The Making of Mankind:
Settling Down

   The Making of Mankind [Part 6]: Settling
    Down. A BBC-TV production in association
    with Time Life Films, Inc. 1983.
    Videocassette.
   Why did people shift to agriculture as their
    subsistence system? Why might they not?
   How were grains domesticated?
The Middle East and Beyond
   Neolithic Revolution
   FP first appears in ME
    10,000 BP
   Wheat, barley, goats,
    sheep
   Broad Spectrum
    Foraging
   Sedentism
    Vegetation Zones in Middle
    East

   Plateau, Hilly Flanks,
    steppe, alluvial plain
   Early cultivation in
    marginal areas
   Irrigation = cities –
    6,000-5,500 BP
    Spread of Middle Eastern
    Agriculture

   Spread by
       Trade
       Diffusion
       Migration
   Egypt, 7500 BP
   Greece, 8000 BP
   Europe, 6000 BP
   Indus Valley (Pakistan)
    before 4800 BP
Other “Old World” Farmers

   7 sites of independent transition to Ag’l
   Sahel (Africa)
       Pastoralism, 11,000 – 7900 BP
       Seasonal round
       Millet, sorghum, African rice
   China
       Northern China – millet, 7500 BP
       Southern China – rice, 8400 BP
    The Americas

   Three areas, c. 4500
    BP
       Eastern U.S.
       South Central Andes
       Central Mexico
        (“Mesoamerica”)
   Paleo-Indians
   Extinction of
    Megafauna, 9,000 BP
   Peru, Andes
       potato, manioc
        (cassava)
Mesoamerica
   Teocentli (teosinte)
   Maize, 7,000 BP-4,000
    BP
   Mesoamerican triad
    (“three sisters”)
       Maize
       Beans
       Squash
   To North America by
    700-1200 CE
Benefits and Costs

   “civilization”
   Social specialization
   Cities
   More work
   Social stratification, poverty
   Poor health
   Environmental degradation
Discussion
   The adoption of food production was rapid in places
    such as South East and Central Europe where the
    hunter/gatherer way of life was not always the most
    productive, yet what about places where people were
    making a sustainable living from the hunter/gatherer
    lifestyle? The changes in theses places, as noted by the
    articles, was slower, but why evolve practices at all if
    hunting and gathering was providing the food necessary
    for life? What were the influences for evolution and
    change in these areas?
Class Discussion
   During the course of man’s evolution from hunters and
    gatherers to farmers, there had to have been a kind of in
    between period where only few crops yielded edible
    food, and what little was yielded would not have been
    sustainable enough. Although historians in the articles
    note that this change from hunting to agriculture was by
    no means an overnight change, they also note that
    many different strategies of gathering food were tried
    but almost all failed. Why did the strategy of farming
    and crop cultivation not phase out, especially since
    crops were not always readily available due to the
    process of cultivating, re-seeding, and maturation?
Selected Discussion Question

   Why did hunting & gathering societies
    transition to food production?