Foraging and Farming

The Evolution of Plant Exploitation

David R. Harris, Gordon C. Hillman, David R. Harris, Gordon C. Hillman

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781138816015
• eBook ISBN: 9781317598282
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Archaeology
• Index: Social Sciences

This book is one of a series of more than 20 volumes resulting from the World Archaeological Congress, September 1986, attempting to bring together not only archaeologists and anthropologists from many parts of the world, as well as academics from contingent disciplines, but also non-academics from a wide range of cultural backgrounds. This volume develops a new approach to plant exploitation and early agriculture in a worldwide comparative context. It modifies the conceptual dichotomy between "hunter-gatherers" and "farmers", viewing human exploitation of plant resources as a global evolutionary process which incorporated the beginnings of cultivation and crop domestication. The studies throughout the book come from a worldwide range of geographical contexts, from the Andes to China and from Australia to the Upper Mid-West of North America. This work is of interest to anthropologists, archaeologists, botanists and geographers. Originally published 1989.

Index*

Abelmoschus 300

aboriginal peoples of Australia: agronomy 61–2, 129; antiquity of land use 145–7; hunter-gatherer systems, stability of 133; plant classsification 42; proto-horticulture 64; see also proto-cultivation; planting by hunter-gatherers; response to colonial agricultural development 52; seed-gathering 305–14; view of agriculture 129

Abu Hureyra 208, 214, 221–2, 229, 240–68, 380, 386, 628, 629, 632, 635; AMS dates 241, 628; dietary diversity at 240–68

Acacia 176, 220, 226; Australian species 61, 99–104, 109, 112, 313; distribution, effect of fires 103; edible seeds 100, 107–9, 219–21, 231; seed collection/storage 107; seed grinding 109; seed processing time 313; seed toxicity 109; spiny 336; A. ligulata, wood ash for pituri 61; A. nilotica 219, 221, 231

accelerator mass spectrometry 1, 214–15, 241, 245, 499, 559, 628, 656, 661

Acer 258–9

achira 484, 486, 491–2

achis 327

acorns 20, 160, 163, 176–8, 185, 199, 225, 256, 561, 563, 611, 633; flour of 163; planting of 163; remains of 256; transplanting of 20

Acrocomia 102–4, 109, 528, 542

adaptation, coastal 650–66

Adonis 253–4

Aegilops 638–9

Aellenia 262

afeso 84

afezu 84

Agave 164; Kumeyaay fire management and planting of 164

agricultural conservatism, Black Sea region 619

agricultural implements, in Chinese Neolithic 647–8

agricultural systems, evolution 5, 28–39

agricultural origins; cultural selection model 28; ecosystem management vs. replacement 482; equilibrium model 37; evolutionary model...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Foreword
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• The Evolution of Plant Exploitation: Concepts and Processes
• Plant Exploitation in Non-Agrarian Contexts: The Ethnographic Witness
• Plant Exploitation in Pre-Agrarian Contexts: The Archaeological Evidence
• Agrarian Plant Exploitation: The Domestication and Diffusion of Crops and Crop Assemblages
• Agrarian Plant Exploitation: The Evolution of Agricultural Systems
• Index