Ebook204 pages3 hours
From Colonization to Domestication: Population, Environment, and the Origins of Agriculture in Eastern North America
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
()
About this ebook
Winner of the Don D. and Catherine S. Fowler Prize.
Eastern North America is one of only a handful of places in the world where people first discovered how to domesticate plants. In this book, anthropologist Shane Miller uses two common, although unconventional, sources of archaeological data—stone tools and the distribution of archaeological sites—to trace subsistence decisions from the initial colonization of the American Southeast at the end of the last Ice Age to the appearance of indigenous domesticated plants roughly 5,000 years ago.
Miller argues that the origins of plant domestication lie within the context of a boom/bust cycle that culminated in the mid-Holocene, when hunter-gatherers were able to intensively exploit shellfish, deer, oak, and hickory. After this resource “boom” ended, some groups shifted to other plants in place of oak and hickory, which included the suite of plants that were later domesticated. Accompanying these subsistence trends is evidence for increasing population pressure and declining returns from hunting. Miller contends, however, that the appearance of domesticated plants in eastern North America, rather than simply being an example of necessity as the mother of invention, is the result of individuals adjusting to periods of both abundance and shortfall driven by climate change.
Eastern North America is one of only a handful of places in the world where people first discovered how to domesticate plants. In this book, anthropologist Shane Miller uses two common, although unconventional, sources of archaeological data—stone tools and the distribution of archaeological sites—to trace subsistence decisions from the initial colonization of the American Southeast at the end of the last Ice Age to the appearance of indigenous domesticated plants roughly 5,000 years ago.
Miller argues that the origins of plant domestication lie within the context of a boom/bust cycle that culminated in the mid-Holocene, when hunter-gatherers were able to intensively exploit shellfish, deer, oak, and hickory. After this resource “boom” ended, some groups shifted to other plants in place of oak and hickory, which included the suite of plants that were later domesticated. Accompanying these subsistence trends is evidence for increasing population pressure and declining returns from hunting. Miller contends, however, that the appearance of domesticated plants in eastern North America, rather than simply being an example of necessity as the mother of invention, is the result of individuals adjusting to periods of both abundance and shortfall driven by climate change.
Related to From Colonization to Domestication
Related ebooks
Holocene Hunter-Gatherers of the Lower Ohio River Valley Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsForaging in the Past: Archaeological Studies of Hunter-Gatherer Diversity Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Of Caves and Shell Mounds Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLate Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers and Farmers of the Jornada Mogollon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOn Land and Sea: Native American Uses of Biological Resources in the West Indies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Soils, Climate and Society: Archaeological Investigations in Ancient America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLithic Technologies in Sedentary Societies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Ascent of Chiefs: Cahokia and Mississippian Politics in Native North America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSunWatch: Fort Ancient Development in the Mississippian World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsArchaeology of Frontiers & Boundaries Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIndigenous Life around the Great Lakes: War, Climate, and Culture Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFeeding Cahokia: Early Agriculture in the North American Heartland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bioarchaeology of Virginia Burial Mounds Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTibes: People, Power, and Ritual at the Center of the Cosmos Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Emergence of the Moundbuilders: The Archaeology of Tribal Societies in Southeastern Ohio Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers: The Emergence of Cultural Complexity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Imagining Head Smashed In: Aboriginal Buffalo Hunting on the Northern Plains Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Cahokia's Complexities: Ceremonies and Politics of the First Mississippian Farmers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLandscape Beneath the Waves: The Archaeological Exploration of Underwater Landscapes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReconstructing Ontario Iroquoian Village Organization — Ontario Iroquois Tradition Longhouses Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSurviving Sudden Environmental Change: Answers From Archaeology Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Early Farming and Warfare in Northwest Mexico Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFarmers at the Frontier: A Pan European Perspective on Neolithisation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMcIntyre Site: Archaeology, Subsistence and Environment Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMining and Quarrying in Neolithic Europe: A Social Perpsective Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Bison Hunters: The Paleo-Indian Series: Folsom Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDevil in the Mountain: A Search for the Origin of the Andes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Land Made from Water: Appropriation and the Evolution of Colorado's Landscape, Ditches, and Water Institutions Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Study of Southwestern Archaeology Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bloody Meadows: Investigating Landscape of Battle Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Social Science For You
Men Explain Things to Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Come As You Are: Revised and Updated: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A People's History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All About Love: New Visions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Like Switch: An Ex-FBI Agent's Guide to Influencing, Attracting, and Winning People Over Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dumbing Us Down - 25th Anniversary Edition: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Witty Banter: Be Clever, Quick, & Magnetic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Close Encounters with Addiction Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Denial of Death Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row (Oprah's Book Club Selection) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just Mercy: a story of justice and redemption Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You're Not Listening: What You're Missing and Why It Matters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Human Condition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lonely Dad Conversations Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Reset: And the War for the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for From Colonization to Domestication
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
0 ratings
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
From Colonization to Domestication - D. Shane Miller
Enjoying the preview?
Page 1 of 1