Part 4
Human Biocultural Evolution
The Challenge of Technology
and Human Diversity
Part Outline
Chapter 11 The Neolithic Revolution:
The Domestication of Plants and
Animals
 Chapter 12 The Emergence of Cities and
States
 Chapter 13 Modern Human Diversity

Chapter 11
The Neolithic Revolution: The
Domestication of Plants and
Animals
Chapter Outline
When and where did the change from
food foraging to food production begin?
 Why did the change take place?
 What were the consequences of the
Neolithic revolution?

Domestication
A domesticated plant or animal is
genetically modified as a consequence
of human manipulation.
 Analysis of plant and animal remains at
a site will indicate whether the
occupants were food producers.

Effects of Domestication
Edible parts of domesticated plants are
usually larger than those of their wild
counterparts.
 Domestication produces skeletal
changes in some animals.
 Age and sex imbalances in herd animals
may also indicate human
domesticators.

Foraging to Food
Production: Observations
Food production was not the result of
new discoveries about planting, people
were very knowledgeable about plants
and animals.
 The switch to food production did not
free people from hard work.
 Food production is not necessarily a
more secure means of subsistence
than foraging.

Subsistence Trends in
Mexico’s Tehuacan Valley
Oasis Theory
Domestication began because the oasis
attracted hungry animals.
 The animals were too thin to eat, so
people began to fatten them up.
 Theory fell out of favor as studies of the
origins of domestication were begun in
the late 1940s.

“Hilly Flanks” Theory
Domestication began in the hilly flanks
of the Fertile Crescent.
 The people were at the point in their
evolutionary development where they
were “settling in”.
 This culture-bound theory reflected
notions of progress that people in the
Western world had faith in following
World War II.

Chance and Evolution
Theory




As early as 13,000 y.a. people living east of
Aleppo, Syria, grew domestic rye.
They continued to rely on wild plants and
animals for food.
3 millennia later they became farmers.
The process was a consequence of a chance
convergence of independent natural events
and cultural developments.
Fertile Crescent of Southwest
Asia and the Area of Natufian
Culture
Natufians
Lived at a time of dramatically changing
climates in the region.
 Shallow lakes dried up, leaving just
three in the Jordan River Valley.
 The plants best adapted to instability
and seasonal aridity were annuals,
including wild cereal grains and
legumes.

Natufians
Natufians modified their subsistence
practices:
 Regularly fired the landscape to
promote browsing by red deer and
grazing by gazelles.
 Placed greater emphasis on the
collection of wild seeds from annual
plants that could be stored through the
dry season.
Consequences of
Domestication
Crops become more productive and
more vulnerable.
 Periodically population outstrips food
supplies and people are apt to move
into new regions.
 In this way, farming has often spread
from one region to another, as into
Europe from Southwest Asia.

Domestication of Sheep
Resulted in Evolutionary
Change
Early Plant and Animal
Domestication

Southwest Asia (A1), Central Africa (A2),
China (B1), Southeast Asia (B2), Mesoamerica
(C1), South America (C2), North America (C3)
Neolithic Technology
People developed scythes, forks, hoes,
and plows to replace their simple
digging sticks.
 Pestles and mortars were used for
preparation of grain.
 Plows were redesigned when
domesticated cattle became available
for use as draft animals.

Neolithic Pottery
Pottery vessels could be used for
storing small grain, seeds, and other
materials.
 Pottery was also used for cooking,
pipes, ladles, lamps, and other objects.
 Some cultures used large vessels for
disposal of the dead.
 Widespread use of pottery is a good
indication of a sedentary community.

Neolithic Clothing
For the first time in history, clothing
was made of woven textiles.
 Raw materials came from:
– flax and cotton from farming
– wool from domesticated sheep
– silk from silk worms
– spindle and loom from the human
mind
