The Checkered Prehistory of Rice Movement Southwards as a Domesticated Cereal—from the Yangzi to the Equator

Abstract

This paper discusses the origins of Oryza sativa japonica rice cultivation in the Yangzi region of China and asks how and with which migrating human populations it spread south to reach Taiwan by 3,000 BC and Southeast Asia by 2,000 BC. The perspective adopted is that the spread of rice was driven mainly by demographic expansion, associated with a spread of languages and archaeological material culture. Environmental barriers also played major roles in establishing a "pause, adapt, spread, pause again" mode of movement, such barriers relating to availability of rainfall and alluvial land, latitude (photoperiodism) and climatic seasonality, and the prior presences of other populations, in some cases with vegetative gardening systems that did not involve rice or other cereals. Contingency also played its part in rice history, as we can see with the inability of this crop to spread into Oceania in part due to the route followed by Neolithic colonizers.

Changing Paradigms in Southeast Asian Archaeology

“…But we need to remember that although grand narratives are tantalizing, the big arrow schemes are models that need ground-truthing, especially today in Southeast Asia. Despite persistent statements written with tones of finality (e.g., Bellwood 2011;Higham 2015), the evidence is not unanimous that any particular scheme has been proven. Indeed, there are so many gaps in our data that we can connect the dots in any number of ways.…”

“…Archaeologists have yet to consider how a root crop -taro -would impact their models for dispersal of the "neolithic," which currently are reliant on cereal cultivation, especially of rice, as the driver of population expansion (e.g., Bellwood 2011;Bell wood et al 2013;Higham 2002;Higham et al 2011). …”

An Son Ceramics in the Neolithic Landscape of Mainland Southeast Asia

“…Whilst there is general acceptance for a Neolithic transference from southern China to MSEA, with a potentially ultimate origin in the Yangtze River, its timing, events and routes via river courses or coastal lowlands continue to be discussed (Higham 2002;Rispoli 2007;Fuller et al 2010;Nakamura 2010;Zhang and Hung 2010;Zhao 2010;Bellwood 2011;Castillo 2011;Higham et al 2011;Lu 2011). Increasingly, more interpretations posit multiple movements over a period of time and the adoption of selected traits in the transition to agriculture (Zhang and Hung 2010).…”

The Đa Bút Period in Northern Vietnam: Current Knowledge and Future Directions

“…The high percentage of Poaceae at a depth of 0.8m within core samples suggests the possibility of initial wild plant cultivation at this time. It is impossible to identify which plants were cultivated by Đa Bút Period populations themselves, however the sudden appearance of floral pollen of species not known from core strata corresponding to the Hoabinhian or Bacsonian Periods might indicate the appearance of cultivars, but not rice, which reached Southeast Asia no earlier than 4,000BP, possibly in conjunction with millet in some regions of Southeast Asia (Bellwood 2011;Weber et al 2010).…”