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://www.catalhoyuk.com/

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