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Neolithic Transition (neolithic + transition)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences75%

Selected Abstracts

Contexts of Monumentalism: regional diversity at the Neolithic transition in north-west France

OXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 1 2002
Chris Scarre
The origins of funerary monumentalism in north-west France remain inextricably linked to questions surrounding the Neolithic transition in that region. Debate continues over the relative importance of influences from earlier Neolithic communities in north-east or southern France on the Mesolithic communities of western France. An alternative interpretation places these influences within the context of broad processes of change affecting indigenous communities throughout northern and western France during the fifth millennium BC. The evidence from several regions of northern and western France is reviewed in this perspective, with emphasis on the regional character of monument traditions. Though at one level these regional narratives must have been interrelated, the regional diversity of the process must also be underlined. The argument moves us away from simplistic notions of extraneous influences to a more nuanced understanding of change within the context of individual communities at the Mesolithic/Neolithic transition. [source]

Culture Matters in the Neolithic Transition and Emergence of Hierarchy in Thy, Denmark: Distinguished Lecture

AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Issue 1 2004
TIMOTHY EARLE
Abstract How did the emergence of hierarchical social structure that followed the domestication of plants and animals in the Neolithic actually come about? I suggest that material media were instrumental in this transformation, as culture was changed by incorporating such newmedia as landscape constructions and elaborate prestige objects. During the Neolithic transition in Thy, Denmark, local corporate groups formed, and, subsequently, Bronze Age chieftains came to power. Shifts in material culture suggest possible connections to these institutional changes, namely the materialization of property rights by burial monuments and permanent domestic architecture and the centralization of power through the controlled production of wealth objects. I conclude that, as part of social process, the nature of culture has been transformed by incorporating material culture with specific characteristics of scale, permanency, and control that were vital to institutional change. [source]

Deferred Harvests: The Transition from Hunting to Animal Husbandry

AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Issue 2 2001
Michael S. Alvard
We define animal husbandry as prey conservation. Conservation is rare among extant hunters and only likely to occur when prey are highly valued, private goods. The long-term discounted deferred returns from husbandry must also be greater than the short-term returns from hunting. We compare the returns from hunting and husbanding strategies as a function of prey body size. Returns from husbanding are estimated using a maximum sustainable yield (MSY) model. Following Charnov (1993), allometric analyses show that the MSY is nearly independent of prey body size. The opportunity costs of husbanding are measured as prey standing biomass times the discount rate. Since standing biomass scales positively with body size, the opportunity costs of husbanding are greater for larger animals. An evolutionary discount rate is estimated following Rogers (1994) to be between 2.4% and 6%. Using these values, the prey body size for which hunting and meat-only husbanding provide the same return is approximately 40kg. Animals greater than 40kg are predicted to be hunted, [animal husbandry, evolutionary ecology, allometry, hunting, Neolithic transition] [source]

Contexts of Monumentalism: regional diversity at the Neolithic transition in north-west France

OXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 1 2002
Chris Scarre
The origins of funerary monumentalism in north-west France remain inextricably linked to questions surrounding the Neolithic transition in that region. Debate continues over the relative importance of influences from earlier Neolithic communities in north-east or southern France on the Mesolithic communities of western France. An alternative interpretation places these influences within the context of broad processes of change affecting indigenous communities throughout northern and western France during the fifth millennium BC. The evidence from several regions of northern and western France is reviewed in this perspective, with emphasis on the regional character of monument traditions. Though at one level these regional narratives must have been interrelated, the regional diversity of the process must also be underlined. The argument moves us away from simplistic notions of extraneous influences to a more nuanced understanding of change within the context of individual communities at the Mesolithic/Neolithic transition. [source]

Paleopathology and the origin of agriculture in the Levant

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 1 2010
Vered Eshed
Abstract This study addresses changes in health which were consequential to the Neolithic transition in the southern Levant, judged on the basis of the study of specific and nonspecific stress indicators, trauma, and degenerative joint disease in 200 Natufian (hunter-gatherer) skeletons (10,500,8300 BC) and 205 Neolithic (agricultural) skeletons (8300,5500 BC) from the southern Levant. The comparison of the health profiles of pre-Neolithic (Natufian) and Neolithic populations reveals a higher prevalence of lesions indicative of infectious diseases among the Neolithic population, and an overall reduction in the prevalence of skull trauma among males. No change over time was observed in the prevalence of degenerative joint disease. These results indicate that in the southern Levant the Neolithic transition did not simply lead to an overall deterioration in health but rather resulted in a complex health profile which was shaped by 1) an increase exposure to disease agents, 2) changes in diet, 3) population aggregation in larger and denser settlements, 4) changes in activity patterns and the division of labor, and possibly 5) a higher resistant immunological system and response capacity to environmental aggressions (mainly infections). Am J Phys Anthropol 143:121,133, 2010. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

A bioeconomic view of the Neolithic transition to agriculture

CANADIAN JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS, Issue 1 2010
Arthur J. Robson
Recent data suggest that, because of this transition, humans initially were more disease prone, smaller, less nourished, and shorter-lived. To explain why individuals chose agriculture over hunting and gathering, this paper develops a simple model of the evolution of preferences over the quality and quantity of children, as would have been generated by our long history as a species. These preferences would have induced the choice of agriculture, but also would have led to these otherwise puzzling health effects. L'adoption de l'agriculture en remplacement de la chasse et de la cueillette a été une condition préalable dramatique pour toutes les civilisations modernes. Des données récentes suggèrent cependant que, en conséquence de cette transition, les humains sont devenus, dans les premiers temps après la transition, davantage vulnérables à la maladie, ont vu leur espérance de vie diminuer, ont été moins bien nourris, et sont devenus plus petits. Pourquoi alors est-ce que des individus qui avaient le choix entre deux systèmes économiques ont choisi l'agriculture? Pour expliquer ce choix, ce mémoire développe un modèle simple de l'évolution des préférences quant à la qualité et la quantité des enfants. Celles-ci auraient été engendrées par notre longue histoire en tant qu'espèce. Ces préférences auraient engendré le choix de l'agriculture, mais auraient aussi entrainé d'autre part ces effets déconcertants sur la santé. [source]