Paul Lane
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
Definition
to breed or train (an animal) to need
and accept the care of human beings to
tame (an animal)
to grow (a plant) for human use
to train (someone) to behave in an
appropriate way at home (such as by
using good manners, being polite,
being helpful, etc.)
Consequences of human control
of wild plants and animals
A 'Neolithic revolution' leading
to:
Increase in population
Sedentism
Eventually urbanization
Plants: Conscious cultivation of plants
with desired traits
Animals: Genetic change that makes
animal more amenable to human control Selective breeding of Teosinte
Rapid Spread
Several ‘routes’
Genetic evidence for new
populations
Interactions with but
also eradication of
Mesolithic HGFs
http://www.smm.org/catal/media/pdf/mysteries/neolithic_revolution.pdf
Social Evolutionism
‘Savagery’ –
hunter-gatherer-
fishers
‘Barbarism’ –
farmers, herders
‘Civilization’ –
city states
Unilineal Evolution
Progress through stages
Victorian anthropologists
W.B. Tyler and L.H. Morgan
Steven Mithen Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 2010 368:5249-5274
Steven Mithen Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 2010 368:5249-5274
WF16, a pise-walled, semi-subterranean
buildings
Remnant of brushwood
hut at Ohalo II
Free-standing, stone-walled PPNB
buildings of Ghuwayr I
Dated to around 9500
Close to the settlement located in the
base of the wadi, there is a large,
amorphous structure
Cistern used to capture the wadi flow to
provide drinking water
Could have held up to 60 m3 of water,
sufficient for a few dozen people with
their livestock
Many of the PPNB villages abandoned
c. 8500 years ago
appearance of smaller and more
dispersed sites
Pottery Neolithic – wells, cisterns,
channels
Sha’ar Hagolan
c. 8300
c. 11,000 BP
http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/archaeology/photos/gobekli-
tepe/#/gobekli-full_35417_600x450.jpg
PN site, c. 9400–7500 BP
At its height covered over 13 hectares
Population between 3500-8000
Multiple phases, rebuilding
No distinct chiefly or ceremonial
structures or centres
Domesticated cereals & sheep, goats, wild
cattle
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/294/5550/2278.full
http://www.sapiens.org/culture/the-myth-of-the-virgin-rainforest/
An Alternative Perspective Species do not have to be discernibly
altered, morphologically or
genetically, before they can be
domesticated;
Morphological and genetic changes
that sometimes may be taken as
"signs of domestication" take time to
develop, consequently they show up,
if at all, after the fact of
domestication by human beings;
Saying that only plants and animals
exhibiting plainly detectable signs of
human use and cultivation can be
called "domesticated" risks
underestimating the generality and
force of human domestication in the
world we live in.
ETORO
Deliberately allow their
‘domestic’ sows to roam widely
& breed with wild/feral males
SAAMI
Herders allow the herd
animals to retain their
inherent social structure
The world's largest rainforest is the
Amazon rainforest
Tropical forests presently cover about 2.4
billion hectares or about 16 percent of
Earth's land surface
An estimated 50 percent of terrestrial
biodiversity is found in rainforests
Rainforests are thought to store at least
250 billion tons of carbon
Deforestation and degradation of
tropical forests account for roughly 10
percent of global greenhouse emissions
from human activities
The Amazon Rainforest
“implies all intentional and non-intentional practices and activities of humans that
transform the environment into a productive landscape for humans and other species”
(Erikson 2008: 158)
Cultivated Forests and Domesticated
Landscapes
Pre-Colombian ‘Geoglyphs’ Earthworks with a precise
geometric plan
Connected by straight
orthogonal roads
Formed by ditches about 11m
wide
and up to a few metres deep,
lined by earthen banks up to a
metre or more high
Diameters ranging from 100 to
300 meters
Located on hills above the river
valleys
Human labour investment
Remote sensing & land
clearance
Image: Washington Post
Location of key landscape historical
ecology studies
Region of seasonally flooded
savannas, wetlands, and forest
islands
Low earthen walls zigzag
across the savannas between
forest islands, associated with
ponds
Native peoples of Baures
shaped the environment into a
productive landscape capable
of providing sufficient protein
to sustain large populations
High biodiversity is clearly
related to past human activities
such as opening up the forest,
burning, and gardening
Clark Erickson,
University of
Pennsylvania
Photograph of several groups of raised fields together
with associated earthworks.
Inset: Profile of a canal.
Raised Fields in Bolivian Amazonia
Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 38, Issue 3, 2011, 502 - 512
Agricultural fields built in the
Yacuma and San Ramon-Bella Vista
regions
Seem to have been built with the
sole purpose of improving drainage
The ditches between the fields
are neither embanked nor
connected to other canals that
could have brought nutrient-rich
water to the fields
No standing water in the ditches
during the dry season, nor
additional inputs of nutrients
from white water rivers
‘Archaeological Dark Earths’ (ADE) Terra preta - organic-rich soils
Terra mulata – brown earths
A human-created A horizon, or
anthrosol, built on top of existing
nutrient-poor soils by addition of ash,
charcoal and other organic residues -
biochar
Found in many areas within the
Amazon rainforest; mostly created
between 2500 and 500 BP
One ADE patch on the Jamari River in
the Madeira basin of south-eastern
Amazonia has been dated to between
4,800 and 2,600 years ago
Possibly enhanced local biodiversity
post-abandonment
Patches of highly fertile soils, which
were created by Pre-columbian people
to allow reasonable levels of crop
growing
Potential today for carbon sequestration
Locations of previously published terra preta
and terra preta-free sites
McMichael C H et al. Proc. R. Soc. B 2014;281:20132475
Slash-and-char NOT slash and burn
Kuikuro Landscape – Ancient & Modern
M J Heckenberger et al. Science 2008;321:1214-1217
Red lines for road
and plaza berms
and black lines for
ditches
Hatched lines are projected from mapped village earthworks
Pronounced
anthropogenic
“scarring” is found
around areas of
prehistoric sites
Source: TIME AND COMPLEXITY IN HISTORICAL ECOLOGY STUDIES IN THE-
NEOTROPICAL LOWLANDS
Themes A ‘pristine’ forest
Low human impacts
The rich biodiversity is of ‘natural’ origin
Predominantly hunting and gathering – as evidenced by current subsistence strategies
of modern Amerindian inhabitants
Under threat from the forces of ‘modernisation’ and ‘globalisation’
These significant landscape changes impact us all – major contribution to climate
change
Humans are primary agents of these changes and the threats they pose -
anthropogenic climate change
Counter evidence – ‘archaeological dark earth (ADE) soils’; cultivated forests; long
history of human modification of ecology; sustainable land uses; complex not simple
societies and socio-economic organisation
Spanish & Portuguese Conquest & ‘the
Columbian Exchange’
Smallpox
Measles
Malaria
Yellow fever
Influenza
Chicken Pox
Common New World Diseases included:
Syphilis
Polio
Hepatitis
Encephalitis
Two types of Ancient Maya
agriculture: Extensive systems
- primarily represented by
milpas.
A slash and burn method
requiring large tracts of
available land because fields
need to be left fallow after a
few years of cultivation
Intensive systems – these
included kitchen gardens,
terrace systems, raised fields,
drainage canals, tree cropping,
and alluvial valley systems.
All of these systems are
still in use today
Ancient Mayan Agriculture
Chinampas consist of elevated
rectangular platforms made of mud,
sediment, and decaying vegetation built
above the water level of shallow lakes
or perennial wetlands
Surrounded by water all year around and
associated with causeways, canals and
aqueducts which contributed to regulate
water salinity
Permitted agriculture on marginal land
Ensured very high yields on a continuous
cropping basis by producing and retaining
nutrients in the canals
Indigenous Agro-
ecologies
A traditional intercropping
system of regional staples &
vegetables
Involves two years of cultivation
and eight years of fallow, or
secondary growth, to allow for
natural regeneration of
vegetation
Indigenous farmers do not use the word “weed.”
Rather, they have a concept that translates into “good
herb/bad herb,” http://exploringsolutionspast.org/
El Pilar
500 BC to 1000 AD
El Pilar, Belize – Heritage Management
Self-organising ecosystem post-abandonment
Physical and biogeochemical
heterogeneity in flat, marshy
environments
Left a mosaic of well-drained islands
in a flooded matrix
Now driven by ecosystem engineers
(ants, termites, earthworms, and
woody plants) that occur
preferentially on abandoned raised
fields
Ecological mutualism
‘Natural’ maintenance of the human-initiated
concentration of resources in these structures
Map of the Maya lowlands on the
Yucatán Peninsula showing the
location of the Puuc sub-region.
Present-day nation boundaries
are indicated for orientation.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2012.06.018
Stephan Barthel , Christian Isendahl Ecological Economics, Volume 86, 2013, 224 - 234
PRECLASSIC
Early Preclassic (2500 – 1000 B.C.)
Middle Preclassic (1000 – 300 B.C.)
Late Preclassic (300 B.C. – A.D.
300)
Urban gardens, agriculture, and water management: Sources of
resilience for long-term food security in cities
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/maya-maps-1.htm
CLASSIC
Early to Late Classic Period (A.D. 300 – 800)
Terminal Classic and Early Postclassic
periods (A.D. 800 – 1200)
POSTCLASSIC
Late Postclassic (A.D. 1200-1502)
SPANISH CONQUEST A.D. 1502-1697
Schematic model of the dispersed settlement pattern of a Classic Maya city.
Urban sprawl was interspersed with garden areas around each farmstead.
Larger open spaces were devoted to short-fallow or permanent infield
agriculture. Garden and farming areas are shaded.
Ecological Economics, Volume 86, 2013, 224 - 234
Urban Agriculture
Diversity of sub-
species adapted to
different growing
conditions –
agricultural
resilience
https://oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/how-archaeology-holds-the-key-to-climate-change-adaptation-in-
bolivia/
Today, the ∼0.3 million km2 of irrigated land in China account for ∼20% of the
global total methane emissions
Rice agriculture across China by 4000
years ago
Methane trends during the last 8000
years of the Holocene from
Antarctic Dome C
Ellis EC, Fuller DQ, Kaplan JO, Lutters WG (2013)
http://www.elementascience.org/article/info:doi/10.12952/journal.elementa.000018
http://gerrymarten.com/human-ecology/chapter10.html
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