Transition to farming more likely for small, conservative groups with property rights, but increased productivity is not essential

Gallagher, Elizabeth; Shennan, Stephen; Thomas, Mark G.

doi:10.1073/pnas.1511870112

Cited by 28 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…farming could be readily explained if early farming were more productive than foraging, estimates suggest that this may not have been the case 2 and alternative hypotheses based on environmental, social, and demographic parameters have been proposed 13,14 .…”

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confidence: 99%

Engagement in agricultural work is associated with reduced leisure time among Agta hunter-gatherers

et al. 2019

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A long-standing hypothesis suggests that the transition from hunting-and-gathering to agriculture results in people working harder, spending more time engaged in subsistence activities and having less leisure time 1,2. Tests of this hypothesis are, however, obscured by comparing between populations that vary in ecology and social organisation as well as subsistence 3-6. Here, we test this hypothesis by examining adult time allocation among the Agta, a population of small-scale hunter-gatherers from the northern Philippines who are increasingly engaged in agriculture and other non-foraging work. We find that individuals in camps engaging more in non-foraging work spend more time involved in out-of-camp work and have substantially less leisure time. This difference is largely driven by changes in the time allocation of women, who spend substantially more time engaged in out-of-camp work in more agricultural camps. Our results support the hypothesis that hunting-and-gathering allows a significant amount of leisure time and that this is lost as communities adopt small-scale agriculture. Agriculture emerged independently in multiple locations worldwide from around 12,500 years BP and by 5,000 years BP had replaced hunting-and-gathering as the dominant mode of human subsistence 7,8. The transition from foraging to farming is associated with population growth, sedentism, and the emergence of increasingly hierarchical political structures 6,7. For individuals, the adoption of farming has been associated with an increase in fertility 9,10 and a decline in dietary breadth and overall health 11,12. Although the transition from foraging to

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confidence: 99%

Engagement in agricultural work is associated with reduced leisure time among Agta hunter-gatherers

et al. 2019

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“…It has been suggested that a general idea of land ownership emerged along with agriculture (e.g. North and Thomas, 1977;Earle, 2004;Zeder, 2011;Bowles and Choi, 2013;Gallagher, Shennan and Thomas, 2015). However, although groups of people during the Neolithic probably claimed right to territories, expressed by monuments such as megaliths and grave mounds (e.g.…”

Section: Settlements and Land Ownershipmentioning

confidence: 99%

Origin and Development of Managed Meadows in Sweden: A Review

Eriksson

2020

Rural Landscapes: Society, Environment, History

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This review concerns when and why infield meadows developed, i.e. enclosed land, constructed and managed for production of livestock fodder. Meadows have been associated with 'stalling' of livestock, in turn associated with, for example, protection from adverse weather conditions, increasing efficiency of milk and manure production, or changing human-animal relationships. The suggested timing for origin of meadows ranges from the Neolithic to the Iron Age. Meadows are embedded in a complex of interactions, including aspects of culture, material conditions and the environment, and these were treated as different components, unfolding over time: harvesting fodder, stalling livestock, milk production, use of manure, crops and permanent fields, fencing systems, tools, and settlements and land ownership. The interpretation is based on Hodder's entanglement theory. It is concluded that these component's appearance is distributed over a very long time, from the Neolithic to the first centuries AD, when meadows, viewed as a 'complete' system, appeared. People most likely for long knew the advantages of feeding livestock, and the means to achieve this: collecting additional fodder, keep livestock in close quarters, eventually indoors, and collect and distribute manure on crop fields, but the introduction of iron tools during the centuries around AD was the key to develop meadows. Stalling livestock and construction of infield meadows may have been partly decoupled. Although climate change was not a driver behind development of meadows, the agricultural system with meadows and livestock stalling was adaptive during later periods of climate deterioration, and for colonization of northern forests in Sweden.

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“…Evidence for intensive iron-working possibly pre-dating the Mossi states is known from central Burkina Faso, 50 and settlement patterns similar to those found today in Gulmance society (dispersed household compounds) developed in the Gobnangou on the southern edge of the Gulmance region in the early second millennium CE. 51 Similar to northern Burkina Faso, several areas experienced population reductions and/or site abandonments in the 14th-15th centuries CE, a phenomenon that has been attributed to diverse causes such as increasing aridity, plague epidemics and/or political developments. 52…”

Section: Central West African Savannamentioning

confidence: 99%

The Archaeology of West Africa, ca. 800 BCE to 1500 CE

Dueppen¹

2016

History Compass

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Recent archaeological research has transformed our understandings of events and processes in West Africa between the beginning of iron‐use ca. 800 BCE and the arrival of Europeans in the 15th century CE, forcing reinterpretations of older narratives that were derived from unbalanced archaeological coverage and over‐privileging of the limited textual record. During this period, economic experimentation and transformation were common in West Africa, as farming economies ultimately expanded over the entire region, while specialization and artistic traditions developed within societies for the production of iron, pottery, textiles, terracotta figurines, glass and copper‐based objects. Some societies actively participated in interregional economies and cultivated the growth of trans‐Saharan trade routes, resulting in the development of large‐scale medieval states and empires (e.g. Ghana and Mali) and initial conversions to Islam in northern locations, while elsewhere societies were more focused on local sources of power and authority. Sociopolitical systems varied significantly throughout the region and included mobile foraging groups, diverse village communities, cities with large palaces, cities without hierarchical leadership and territorial states with no urban centres. This article provides an overview of this exciting era in the African past, calling attention to both regional and local historical trajectories.

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Transition to farming more likely for small, conservative groups with property rights, but increased productivity is not essential

Cited by 28 publications

References 37 publications

Engagement in agricultural work is associated with reduced leisure time among Agta hunter-gatherers

Engagement in agricultural work is associated with reduced leisure time among Agta hunter-gatherers

Origin and Development of Managed Meadows in Sweden: A Review

The Archaeology of West Africa, ca. 800 BCE to 1500 CE

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