HPSC20002 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Fertile Crescent, Ecological Relationship, Coevolution
24 May 2018
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Department
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DAY 1: DOMESTICATION + AGRICULTURE
TRANSITION TO ARGICULTURE AND URBANISATION
• History is linked with conceptions and attitudes of nature
Palaeolithic Period (200,000-12,000BP)
• Time of hunter gatherers
• Longest period in human history
• Ecological relationship: extensive, seasonal migration involving large amounts of land,
very intensive
• Art, symbolic thinking and language emerge during this period
o Accelerated technological change brought about by language and culture
Human Origins
• 2 main competing theories:
o Out of Africa: spread globally, and wiped our pre-human theories
o Multiregional Hypothesis: modern humans emerged at the same time in several
areas
Human Migrations
• Used land bridges and coastal routes – influenced by climatic changes (much evidence
now underwater)
• By 30,000ya, humans existed in every ecosystem (minus Antarctica)
• Relationship to nature mainly guessed, predicted they saw themselves as part of nature
Domestication of Dog
• Domesticated from the Wolf, before agriculture – dogs considered a type of wolf, not
separate species
• Used as a hunting companion
• May have been domesticated in 2 regions: central Asia or east Asian – from the Asian Wolf
o Occurred at least 15,000ya
• Hypothesis: wolves scavenged from human campsites, more human tolerant individual got more food, human
tolerance led to greater interaction with humans (thus more food)
o Inadvertent selection for wolves that could interact with humans
Neolithic Period
• Invention of agriculture and subsistence techniques
o First forms of agriculture 12-10,000ya
• 6,000ya: first complex societies and cities
Agriculture
• A relationship to nature which involves the growth of species in return for services and food
• Early forms took place in several locations around the same time period
o Fertile Crescent (near East) beginnings of agriculture – 10,000BP
• Aligned with the beginnings of cities and monument building (excess food allowed pop. increases and free labour)
o Cities changed peoples’ ideas of nature as being something out there – removed from the land
• Occurred due to inadvertent selection: variations of wheat with more seeds were more likely to be grown by nomadic
societies – they accidentally dropped wheat which was grown by the time they returned
• Agricultural Revolution: long process of experimentation, intensification of work, domestication of plants etc.
Domestication
• Effect on humans, changed way of life:
o Nomadic to sedentary
o Worked harder and longer, changed what was digestible
o Adapted to our domesticated organisms, behaviourally, culturally and biologically
o Cities and urban life
• Process of domestication was coevolution – animals, plants and humans all changed together
Themes of Nature
• Nature as sublime, a wild nature,
associated with spirituality
• Nature as being a part of something
bigger than ourselves
• Nature as something of human
dominion
• Nature as a source of abundance,
nature v nurture
• Nature as hostile and threatening
• Nature as gendered
• Nature as revengeful
How we domesticated
animals
• No plan, humans not primarily a
hunting species
• Hunters less successful than
gatherers – 95% of protein
gathered
• Humans considered animals as
food source or potential threat,
then evaluated
Document Summary
History is linked with conceptions and attitudes of nature. Ecological relationship: extensive, seasonal migration involving large amounts of land, very intensive. Art, symbolic thinking and language emerge during this period: accelerated technological change brought about by language and culture. 2 main competing theories: out of africa: spread globally, and wiped our pre-human theories, multiregional hypothesis: modern humans emerged at the same time in several areas. Used land bridges and coastal routes influenced by climatic changes (much evidence now underwater) By 30,000ya, humans existed in every ecosystem (minus antarctica) Relationship to nature mainly guessed, predicted they saw themselves as part of nature. Domesticated from the wolf, before agriculture dogs considered a type of wolf, not separate species. Used as a hunting companion: may have been domesticated in 2 regions: central asia or east asian from the asian wolf. Nature as sublime, a wild nature, associated with spirituality. Nature as being a part of something bigger than ourselves.
