Early Sedentism in East Asia

From Late Palaeolithic to Early Agricultural Societies in Insular East Asia

Bibliographic Data

ID23460997
AuthorsJunko Habu (University of California, Berkeley, corresponding author)
EditorsColin Renfrew, Paul Bahn
Year2014
Pages724-741
Publication date2014-08-06
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenueCambridge World Prehistory 3 Volume Set (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherCambridge University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1017/cho9781139017831.051
OpenAlexW2498608290
ISBN9781139017831
LanguageEN
Citations received6

The Importance of Studying Early Sedentism in East Asia East Asia is a treasury of archaeological information when examining the origins and development of early sedentism in human societies. Since the early 20th century, conditions, causes and consequences of sedentism have been major research foci of anthropological archaeology. Traditional archaeological approaches, which were heavily based on data from Europe and the Near East, tended to view the beginning of food production as the direct cause of sedentism ( e.g. , Braidwood 1958, 1960; Childe 1942, 1951; MacNeish 1964, 1972). Developments in hunter-gatherer archaeology over the past several decades, however, have revealed that sedentism is not necessarily restricted to food-producing societies. In particular, the prehistory of the Japanese Archipelago and the Korean Peninsula (Map 2.4.1) does not fit into the conventional chronology of the “Palaeolithic-Neolithic-Bronze Age” sequence of West Eurasia: the Jomon Culture in Japan (c. 16,000–3000/2500 bp ) and the Chulmun Culture in Korea (c. 11,500–3300 bp ) are associated with large amounts of pottery but, unlike many other pottery-producing cultures, the primary subsistence strategy was hunting-gathering-fishing ( cf . Jordan & Zvelebil 2009). An examination of the development of early sedentism in these regions will help us understand why historically unique trajectories of human sociopolitical and economic systems developed in different parts of the world. Recent discussions on the origins of agriculture also indicate that the boundary between hunter-gatherers and agriculturalists is not as clear-cut as scholars once assumed. Many “hunter-gatherer” societies did/do practise plant cultivation or small-scale agriculture. The common practice of environmental management, in which important food resources, such as nut trees, are tended, is also known. The use of fire to periodically clear the land to maintain biodiversity is well documented as well ( e.g. , Pyne 1999). Archaeological data from East Asia are critical for tackling these issues ( e.g. , Bleed & Matsui 2010; Crawford 2006, 2008).

Agriculture · Ancient history · Archaeology · Archipelago · China · East Asia · Geography · Peninsula · Pottery · Prehistory · Subsistence agriculture · History · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology