Domestication as innovation
The Entanglement of Techniques, Technology and Chance in the Domestication of Cereal Crops
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3919065 |
|---|---|
| Authors | D Q Fuller (0000-0002-4859-080X, Museum of London Archaeology), Robin Allaby (0000-0001-5046-002X, University of Warwick), Robin G Allaby, Craig Stevens (0000-0002-2669-5715), Chris Stevens |
| Year | 2010 |
| Volume | 42 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 13-28 |
| Publication date | 2010-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | World Archaeology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0043-8243 • E-ISSN: 1470-1375 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00438240903429680 |
| OpenAlex | W2118916028 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 71 |
| References cited | 43 |
The origins of agriculture involved pathways of domestication in which human behaviours and plant genetic adaptations were entangled. These changes resulted in consequences that were unintended at the start of the process. This paper highlights some of the key innovations in human behaviours, such as soil preparation, harvesting and threshing, and how these were coupled with genetic ‘innovations’ within plant populations. We identify a number of ‘traps’ for early cultivators, including the needs for extra labour expenditure on crop-processing and soil fertility maintenance, but also linked gains in terms of potential crop yields. Compilations of quantitative data across a few different crops for the traits of non-shattering and seed size are discussed in terms of the apparently slow process of domestication, and parallels and differences between different regional pathways are identified. We highlight the need to bridge the gap between a Neolithic archaeobotanical focus on domestication and a focus of later periods on crop-processing activities and labour organization. In addition, archaeobotanical data provide a basis for rethinking previous assumptions about how plant genetic data should be related to the origins of agriculture and we contrast two alternative hypotheses: gradual evolution with low selection pressure versus metastable equilibrium that prolonged the persistence of ‘semi-domesticated’ populations. Our revised understanding of the innovations involved in plant domestication highlight the need for new approaches to collecting, modelling and integrating genetic data and archaeobotanical evidence. Keywords: Neolithicagricultural originscultivationgeneticsarchaeobotany Acknowledgements This paper was written while the first author was a visiting scholar at the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature in Kyoto, and he thanks Professor Y.-I. Sato for continuing his education on rice. The revised manuscript benefited from the comments of David Harris, George Willcox and two additional anonymous reviewers
Agriculture · Agroforestry · Biology · Crop · Domestication · Economics · Evolutionary biology · Geography · Parallels · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Biotechnology · Ecology · Genetic diversity and population structure · Genetic Mapping and Diversity in Plants and Animals
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| Unique citing works | 71 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 4,44 |
| Citation span | 2010 - 2026 (17) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 68 |