Social Complexification and Pig (Sus scrofa) Husbandry in Ancient China: A Combined Geometric Morphometric and Isotopic Approach

Abstract

Pigs have played a major role in the economic, social and symbolic systems of China since the Early Neolithic more than 8,000 years ago. However, the interaction between the history of pig domestication and transformations in Chinese society since then, have not been fully explored. In this paper, we investigated the co-evolution from the earliest farming communities through to the new political and economic models of state-like societies, up to the Chinese Empire, using 5,000 years of archaeological records from the Xiawanggang (XWG) and Xinzhai (XZ) sites (Henan Province). To trace the changes of pig populations against husbandry practices, we combined the geometric morphometric analysis of dental traits with a study of the stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios from bone collagen. The domestication process intensified during the Neolithic Yangshao, prompted by greater selective pressure and/or better herd control against wild introgression. After that, pig farming, in XWG, relied on local livestock and a gradual change of husbandry practices overtime. This was characterized by a gentle increase in millet foddering and animal protein intake, until a complete change over to household management during the Han dynasty. The only rupture in this steady trend of husbandry occurred during the Longshan period, with the appearance of small sized and idiosyncratic pigs with specific feeding practices (relying on millet and household scraps). From three exploratory hypothesis, we explored the possibility of anti-elite pig production in XWG during the Longshan period, as a means to resist incorporation into a new economic model promoting intensified domestic production. This exploratory hypothesis is the most suitable to our dataset; however, numerous areas need to be explored further in order to adequately document the role of pigs in the rise of China’s complex societies.

Size diversity in Swiss Bronze Age cattle

“…In contrast, the extra‐large Near East mitochondrial d‐loop haplogroup T2 cattle (Bonfiglio et al, ), to date have been found only from the Roman site in Switzerland (Schlumbaum, Turgay, & Schibler, ), were excavated from a house with objects with south German attributes in the EBA Padnal settlement (Horizont E) (Bopp‐Ito, ), which suggests the migration of large cattle from north routes and small cattle from south routes. However, it is difficult to confirm this possibility without genetic (e.g., Schibler & Schlumbaum, ), geometric morphometrics (Cucchi et al, ), isotopic, or strontium (Grupe et al, ; Reitmaier et al, ) evidence to reconstruct phylogenetic relationships and places of origin and migration.…”

“…Previous studies have proposed plausible factors that could have had an impact on animal morphologies and caused size variations, such as livestock diet (Breuer, Rehazek, & Stopp, ), which was linked to climate (Davis, ) or altitude (Knockaert et al, ), breeding strategies (Duval, Horard‐Herbin, & Lepetz, ; Trixl, Steidl, & Peters, ), idiosyncratic choices of husbandry (Cucchi et al, ), introduction of new animal forms (Gaastra, ; MacKinnon, ), transalpine mobility, and migration of humans together with their livestock (Grupe, Hölzl, Mayr, & Söllner, ), or selection of specific sex, such as small female cattle (Manning, Timpson, Shennan, & Crema, ). Because body size and sex are strongly correlated (Davis et al, ) and sex ratio provides a hint of cattle exploitation, computation of sex ratios of cattle populations was considered necessary.…”

Animal husbandry in the Early and Middle Neolithic settlement at Kopydłowo in the Polish lowlands. A multi-isotope perspective

“…Stable isotopes, in particular carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and strontium, are of significant heuristic potential, in particular whilst combined with the results of faunal studies. Increasing numbers of stable isotope measurements of fauna remains have shown how wild animals can be tentatively distinguished from domestic animals Hongo et al 2009) and how the increasing management and later herding of animals can be detected through changes in animal diet as herbivory preference by individual species is replaced by food provided by pastoralists (Pearson et al 2007;Szpak et al 2014;Cucchi et al 2016. The interpretation of these isotopes in combination have been used to good effect at Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Central Anatolia (Bogaard et al 2014;Pearson et al 2015) and central Europe (Bickle and Whittle 2013).…”

“…Szpak et al (2014) illustrated how camelids in Northern Peru during the Early Intermediate Period were likely being managed by small social units, possibly family groups. Most recently, Cucchi et al (2016) have shown how carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis of pig bone collagen enabled an investigation of animal husbandry and increasing social complexity in ancient China.…”

“…C 4 plants are thought to be generally avoided by most animals, due to their poorer nutritional quality relative to C 3 plants (Heckathorn et al 1999), although these plants have been used as foddering by humans in the past (e.g. Copley et al 2003;Fuller et al 2012;Cucchi et al 2016). More modest sources of isotope variation are often the result of local conditions: temperature, rainfall, canopy effect of dense woodland and soil nutrient content (Tieszen 1991;Van der Merwe and Medina 1991;Glagoleva and Chulanovskaya 1992;Tieszen and Fagre 1993;Heaton 1999).…”