HIS109Y1 Final: ANT200 Final Exam Notes
ANT200 FINAL EXAM NOTES
PART ONE: Basic history of archaeological ideas about the origins of agriculture
How do archaeologists recognize domestication of plants and animals archaeologically?
- TEOSINTE: a wild grass found in the highlands of Mexico; the wild ancestor of maize
o Produces two rows of small, triangular-shaped seeds encased in a think glume
o Maize seeds are usually several times larger and grow in four or more rows
o Genetic analysis of modern populations suggests
o Used AMS (Accelerated Mass Spectrometry) carbon dating to date identifiable remains
- MAIZE:
o Larger seeds than teosinte, grows in 4+ rows
▪ Increase in size of corn cobs and number of kernels
o Probably domesticated in highlands of Mexico
▪ A heartier rachis, reduces risk of loss before harvest by humans
o Earliest domesticated maize was 6,250 YA
o From Tesonite to Maize: changes in stalk, inflorescence (tassel), developed husks, softer
glumes
- Evidence for early domestication of plants in Mesoamerica comes mostly from excavations of
highland caves
o TEHUACAN: a valley in the Mexican highlands where excavations recovered some of
the earliest evidence of domesticated palnts in Mesoamerica; 2,500 YA
▪ Excellent preservation of plants
▪ Earliest maize dated to 5,500 YA
▪ Shows gradual increase over time of size of cobs and number of seeds s
o OXACA VALLEYS: cave site in Oxaca Valley that shows early domestication of plants
- SQUASH: identified as the earliest plant to be domesticated in Mexico;
o Seeds recovered at the Oxaca Valley dates to around 8000 YA
o Increase in thickness and colours (green to orange) of the ring = distinguish wild from
domesticate
- THE THREE SISTERS: group of foods spread throughout American North East, South, and
South West
o Corns, beans, squash = three main agricultural crops
o Native American groups are still hunting and fishing = don’t need protein
o Adoption of beans may be more of a cultural presence
- ANIMAL DOMESTICATION
o Don’t really see evidence of this until Formative period
o Turkeys were the only domesticated animal in Mesoamerica
o Early bones found well outside natural range
▪ Look at distribution of wild animals
o Evidence for animal domestication:
▪ Overrepresentation of the bones of young males
▪ Discovery of animals outside of their natural range
▪ In some cases, difficult to tell the difference between wild and domestic
- Can use ISOTOPE ANALYSIS to study the diet through chemical signature of bones; effective
in tracing the spread of maize through agriculture
- Differences in sizes and quantity determine difference b/w wild and domesticate plants and
animals
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How do we distinguish between different kinds of early agricultural societies? Make sure you can
comment of the contributions that particular archaeologists have made on this topic (particularly V.
Gordon Childe).
- LEWIS HENRY MORGAN (domestication as a result of conscious human action): A 19th
century American anthropologist who viewed the transition to agriculture as marking the
boundary between the period of “savagery” and “barbarianism”
o Ancient Societies, 1877 = Levels
▪ Savagery (Hunter Gatherers)
▪ Barbarism (Farmers)
▪ Civilization (State Level, if not at least Chiefdom)
o “Absolute control of the production of food”
o Devoted a lot of time in documenting and thinking about indigenous societies
o Conscious decision in a way to dominate natural world
o Barbarianism: invention of pottery, domestication of animals and plants, construction of
buildings out of mud brick = transition is progress to humanity
- V GORDON CHILDE (domestication as a result of conscious human action): In the 1940s
Childe synthesized the existing archaeological information to reformulate Morgan’s ideas about
the origin of agriculture, Neolithic revolution
o Coined the term NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION: used to describe the transition to
agriculture as an event that affected every aspect of human society (Technology, relations
between people, between animals, production, food etc.)
▪ Most important role of the revolution = allowed people to control production of
food increase population resulting in the development of settled villages
- DAVID RINDOS (domestication as an unconscious process): An archaeologist who saw
agriculture as the result of a co-evolutionary process involving symbiotic relationship between
plant and animal species
o Three modes of domesticated behaviour:
▪ Specialized mode: modifications to the landscape
1. Protection, reproduction (domestication)
2. Technology: tools for harvesting and processing storage
3. Community: settles villages
- TIM INGOLD (domestication as an unconscious process): An anthropologist who views the shift
from hunting to agriculture as a shift from trust to domination
o Hunter-Gatherer and animal relationships are based on trust in a powerful natural world
believe there to be no distinction b/w animals and humans
o Agricultural Societies = animals are dependent, herder makes life/death decisions for the
animals similar to social life of humans with development of owned property and
social hierarchy
▪ Stresses that shift does not mean involve separation of humanity from nature
not until industrialization of agriculture is when animals were seen as objects of
human control
- MARSHALL SAHLINS: an anthropologist who described hunter0gatherers as the “original
affluent society”
o Found that hunter-gatherers spend less time working for their food than agriculturalists,
far more leisure
o Increased crowding in permanent villages = disease and poor diet
- ESTER BOSERUP: an economist whose research suggests that increased population size might
have been the cause of the shift to agriculture
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o Subsistence systems (ways people get their money) tend to be the result of population
pressures
In particular, make sure that you understand the complex relationship between agriculture,
sedentism, social relations and cosmology.
- AGRICULTURE: cultivation and breeding of animals, plants and fungi to sustain and enhance
human life
o Iroquoian predates sedentism were agriculturalists but moved around every 20-30
years
- SEDENTISM: practice of living in one place for long periods of time
o Ex// Mesopotamia, Egypt
- SOCIAL RELATIONS
- COSMOLOGY: ideas about the universe as an ordered system and how people play into the
universe/their role
o Ex// Stonehenge cosmology theory
PART TWO: In the Americas, origins and spread of maize agriculture
- Guila Naquitz Cave
o Squash at that site is the ancestor of most squash today
o One of the earliest places where the earliest signs of Maize were found (6250 years ago)
tough rachis, 4 rows of kernels, hard for seeds to separate from chap = requires human
intervention
- Tesointe to Maize
o Differences in stalk, tassel, development of husks, maize has 2o rows compared to just 2,
softer glumes
o Maize was found in Lowland Mexico at the time it was much drier, as climates began
to shift, they had to modify the landscape in order to grow maize more effectively (canals
were constructed, raised fields – all aspects of Mayan farming)
o Foundation of providing food for civilization
- Maize was part of the “three sisters”
- Origins of Agriculture, North of Mexico
o Primary centre – eastern woodland agricultural complex, spread of maize
o secondary centre – spread of three sisters in American Southwest
o managed landscapes (burning found in the archaeological record)
- American Southwest
o Maize and squash from 3400 years ago
o Definitive date for farming
o Maize could have possibly come earlier through trade/immigration
o From highland Mexico
o Southwest settlements (3000 years ago) had mostly wild resources, some maize (suggests
some form of farming)
o Milagro Site 2900 years ago, maize found near Tuscon in addition to other wild plants
- Ancestral Pueblo maize and squash 3200 years ago (form of agriculture stays and is used in
different forms) more maize is grown as the civilization and space grows
- Eastern Agricultural Complex 5000 years ago, but later came Mesoamerican three sisters
- Middle Woodland in the Eastern Woodlands
o 1800-2200, Tennessee
o isotopic signature will differ from local grass
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Document Summary
Part one: basic history of archaeological ideas about the origins of agriculture. Maize: larger seeds than teosinte, grows in 4+ rows. The three sisters: group of foods spread throughout american north east, south, and. South west: corns, beans, squash = three main agricultural crops, native american groups are still hunting and fishing = don"t need protein, adoption of beans may be more of a cultural presence. In some cases, difficult to tell the difference between wild and domestic. Can use isotope analysis to study the diet through chemical signature of bones; effective in tracing the spread of maize through agriculture. Differences in sizes and quantity determine difference b/w wild and domesticate plants and animals. Make sure you can comment of the contributions that particular archaeologists have made on this topic (particularly v. V gordon childe (domestication as a result of conscious human action): in the 1940s.
