Module 10 (HS6) - HORTICULTURAL SOCIETIES

0.  OBJECTIVES

In this module you will learn:

1.  INTRODUCTION

Horticulture (from Latin hortus = "garden") - animal husbandry and plant cultivation without the plow, using the hoe and the digging stick.
The first horticultural societies appeared ca. 8,000 BC.
This type of farming is also called "swidden" and "slash-and-burn" farming.

2.  CAUSES OF THE EMERGENCE OF HORTICULTURAL SOCIETIES

Contemporary view is that human societies were forced to (rather than chose to) shift from foraging to horticulture and animal husbandry around 8,000 BC because of environmental depletion caused by progress in hunting technology combined with global warming (making plant cultivation possible) following the end of the last ice age.

Q - What are the causes of the emergence of horticultural societies?  Is increasing human intelligence one of them?

3.  INVENTION OF METALLURGY

The invention of metallurgy (first copper, and later bronze) marks the transition from simple to advanced horticultural societies.
The invention of metallurgy may have been ultimately caused by the adoption of horticulture, following a long chain of causes and effects.

Q - Is it reasonable to argue that a principal indirect cause of the invention of metallurgy was the more sedentary lifestyle associated with horticultural technology?

4.  CHARACTERISTICS OF HORTICULTURAL SOCIETIES

Horticultural technology can be viewed as the primary cause of some of the common characteristics of horticultural societies.  These include: These characteristics may be causally interrelated as shown in the next exhibit:

The following sections look at some of the empirical evidence for common features of horticultural societies.

1.  Cultivation by Women

  Compared to agrarian societies (using plow technology), cultivation in horticultural societies is more often carried out by females.
 
Division of labor between the sexes by type of society (percent of societies)  (HS Table 6.2 p. 130)
Type of society:
Cultivation primarily a female responsibility
Both sexes share equally
Cultivation primarily a male responsibility
Total
N of societies
Horticultural
39
33
28
100
389
Agrarian
8
33
59
100
100

Q - How would one describe the division of labor between the sexes in horticultural societies with respect to plant cultivation?  Plant cultivation tends to be ... primarily men's work, shared equally by both sexes, primarily women's work?

2.  Matrilineality

Matrilineality - the tracing of descent through the maternal line (NOTE: matrilineality is not the same as matriarchy!)
 
Percentage of societies matrilineal, by type of society  (HS p. 131)
Type of society:
Percent matrilineal
Hunting and gathering
7
Simple horticultural
24
Advanced horticultural
12
Agrarian
4

 
Matrilineality among simple horticultural societies by percentage of subsistence from hunting and herding  (HS Table 6.3 p. 131)
Pecentage subsistence from hunting and herding
Percentage of societies matrilineal
N of societies
26 or more
14
29
16 to 25
24
54
15 or less
30
60
 

3.  Frequency of Warfare

 
Incidence of warfare by type of society (percent of societies)  (HS Table 6.4 p. 133) 
Type of society:
Warfare perpetual
Warfare common
Warfare rare or absent
Total
N societies
Hunting and gathering
0
27
73
100
22
Simple horticultural
5
55
41
100
22
Advanced horticultural
34
48
17
100
29

4.  Ancestor Worship

Ancestor worship is related to the central role of kinship based on clans (= extended kin groups).

5.  Slavery

Slavery is especially common among horticultural societies.

Q - Which of the following items of culture are more likely to be present in a horticultural society than in a hunting & gathering society, or vice-versa?  Which ones are no more likely in either type of society?

5.  THE ROLE OF HORTICULTURE IN MAJOR POPULATION MOVEMENTS & INTERSOCIETAL SELECTION

1.  The Diffusion of Indo-European Languages in Europe and Asia

In 1767, James Parsons noted similarities among numerals of several European languages, which he called "Japhetic".  In 1796, Sir William Jones, Chief Justice of India, postulated a common origin for Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit on the basis of the similarities he observed between these languages.

Later research indicated that many languages spoken in Europe and parts of Asia are descendent from a common ancestor language called (proto-)Indo-European (PIE).

A new and controversial hypothesis due to Colin Renfrew (1987.  Archaeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins.  Cambridge University Press) is that Indo European languages expanded from Anatolia into Europe together with horticultural technology beginning some time around 6,000 BC.  The traditional view places the expansion much later, around 3,500 BC (see Mallory, J. P.  1989.  In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology & Myth.  London: Thames & Hudson.)

Renfrew's theory (borrowed from Ammerman & Cavalli-Sforza) is that Indo-European languages and horticultural technology spread together as a "population wave of advance" caused by the higher population density allowed by horticultural technology compared to H&G technology.
 
 

Median population density by type of society  (HS Table 6.1 p. 125) 
Type of society:
Persons per square mile
N societies
Hunting and gathering
0.6
27
Simple horticultural
13.8
35
Advanced horticultural
42.7
38
Agrarian
100.0+
27

Q - According to Colin Renfrew, what mechanism is ultimately responsible for the spread of Indo-European languages in Europe?

Renfrew's theory is controversial.  Many archeologists today prefer an older theory originally proposed by V. Gordon Childe and identified today with the work of Maria Gimbutas.  According to this view PIE speaking populations expanded from an area situated north of the Black Sea (in today's Ukraine) around 3,500 BC.  The decisive technological advantage facilitating the expansion were domestication of the horse and perhaps the invention of animal-drawn wheeled vehicles.

2.  The Bantu Expansion in Africa

A similar episode of "demic expansion" based on advance in subsistence technology has been documented in the case of the Bantu expansion in Africa, from about 3,000 BC to 500 AD.  This historical episode has been reconstructed on the basis of genetic and linguistic data by Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza et al. (1994.  The History and Geography of Human Genes.  Princeton University Press.) and is also discussed in Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel.

3.  The Austronesian Expansion in the Pacific

The expansion of Austronesian-speaking populations took place from about 3,500 BC to 1,300 AD from a center on the South China coast and Taiwan over the whole Pacific ocean and west all the way to Madagascar near the coast of Africa.

4.  Demic Expansions and Intersocietal Selection

In a recent article Diamond and Bellwood (2003) discuss a number of additional episodes of linguistic expansion resulting from the adoption of farming.

From the point of view of ecological-evolutionary theory used in this course, these historical episodes constitute instances of intersocietal selection, in which hunting and gathering societies are destroyed (or displaced) by the expansion of technologically more advanced horticultural societies.

The next exhibits (repeated from Module 7) show the remarkable similarities between 3 theoretical models of the broad patterns of history:

These models are illustrated in the following exhibits

6.  THE EMERGENCE OF HORTICULTURE IN THE NEW WORLD

The first human settlements in the New World occurred 50K BP to 13K BP, through the land bridge at the Bering Strait (between Siberia & Alaska).  After the last glaciation, the land bridge was submerged and the New World cut off from the Old World.  These circumstances constitute a "natural experiment", since cultural diffusion was thereby precluded so that horticultural technology could not have diffused from the Old World.  Nevertheless, horticulture emerged independently in the New World.

The independent emergence of horticulture in the New World suggests that:

SIMILAR ENVIRONMENTS
+
SIMILAR TECHNOLOGIES
=
SIMILAR SOCIAL OUTCOMES

Q - What does the independent emergence of horticulture in the New World suggest?

Last modified 28 Sep 2004