The Origins of

1

• The Origins of
• Domestication and Settled Life

2
Transition Upper Paleolithic to Mesolithic

• Upper Paleolithic
• 40,000 - 10,000 ya
• lifestyles
• migrations
• megafauna
• retreat of glaciers

3
Transition (cont.)

• Mesolithic - Middle Stone Age
• broad-spectrum food collecting
• 14,000-10,000 ya
• specialized
• sedentarism
• technology
• microliths

4
Transition (cont.)

• Reasons for Broad-Spectrum Development
• climate
• overkill hypothesis
• population growth
• Sedentarism Population Growth
• ethnographic evidence

5
Domestication of Plants Animals

• Impetus for Domestication
• population growth
• sedentarism
• drawbacks of broad-spectrum

6
Domestication (cont.)

• Neolithic - New Stone Age
• associated with domestication
• cultivation
• Evidence of Domestication
• plant remains
• rachis (or axis)
• animal remains

7
Theories of Domestication

• The Oasis Theory - Childe - 1950s
• Readiness Hypothesis - Braidwood
• Population Pressure
• Boserup / Binford
• Marginal Area - Flannery
• Blended Theory

8
Domestication in Different Regions

• Domestication in the Near East
• Fertile Crescent
• wheat barley
• types of animals domesticated
• Domestication elsewhere in the Old World
• China / Southeast Asia / Africa

9
Domestication Regionally (cont.)

• Domestication in the New World
• independent evolution
• early domesticated plants
• maize (corn)
• South American crops
• North American crops
• animal domestication

10
Consequences of the Rise of Food Production

• Accelerated Population Growth
• birth spacing decreased
• Declining Overall Health
• evidence teeth bones
• fewer dietary staples
• rise of stratification

11
Consequences (cont.)

• Elaboration of Material Possessions
• houses
• furnishings
• woven textiles
• trade