ANT 3105 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Domestication, Fertile Crescent, Pleistocene
10 May 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Article: evolution, consequences, and future of plant and animal domestication (diamond. Plant and animal domestication most important development in the past 13,000 years: prerequisite to the rise of civilization, transformed global demography. The origins of domestication involved unforeseen consequences of two sets of changes: in plants and animals, and in human behavior. The differences between domestic plants and their wild ancestors evolved as a consequence of wild plants being selected and gathered, while the roots of animal domestication included the tendency to try to tame or manage wild animals (darwin) Hunter gatherer behaviour began to change at the end of the pleistocene because of increasingly unpredictable climate,decreases in big-game species that were hunters" first-choice prey, and increasing human occupation of available habitats. To decrease the risk of unpredictable variation in food supply, people broadened their diets to second and third choice foods, which included more small game, plus plant foods requiring much preparation.
