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Subsistence intensification, innovation and change have long figured prominently in explanations for the development of social complexity among foragers and horticulturalists, and the rise of chiefly societies and archaic states, yet there is considerable debate over the actual mechanisms that promote these processes. Traditional approaches to the "intensification question" emphasize population pressure, climate change, bureaucratic management, or even land degradation as prerequisites for the onset of new or changing strategies, or the construction and maintenance of agricultural landscapes. Most often these factors are modeled as external forces outside the realm of human decision-making, but recent archaeological research presents an alternative to this suggesting that subsistence intensification is the result of human driven strategies for power, prestige and status stemming from internal conditions within a group. When responding to environmental adversity, human groups were less frequently the victims, as they have been repeatedly portrayed. Instead human groups were often vigorous actors, responding with resilience, ingenuity, and planning, to flourish or survive within dynamic and sometimes unpredictable social and natural milieux.

Agricultural intensification --- Agriculture, Prehistoric. --- Agriculture, Ancient. --- Indians --- History. --- Agriculture. --- Ancient agriculture --- Prehistoric agriculture --- Prehistoric peoples --- Intensification of agriculture --- Agriculture --- Food --- Anthropology. --- Archaeology. --- Ecology. --- Community & Population Ecology. --- Balance of nature --- Biology --- Bionomics --- Ecological processes --- Ecological science --- Ecological sciences --- Environment --- Environmental biology --- Oecology --- Environmental sciences --- Population biology --- Archeology --- Anthropology --- Auxiliary sciences of history --- History --- Antiquities --- Human beings --- Ecology --- Community ecology, Biotic. --- Biocenoses --- Biocoenoses --- Biogeoecology --- Biological communities --- Biomes --- Biotic community ecology --- Communities, Biotic --- Community ecology, Biotic --- Ecological communities --- Ecosystems --- Natural communities --- Primitive societies --- Social sciences

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The eight case studies in this book -- each a synthesis of available knowledge about the origins of agriculture in a specific region of the globe -- enable scholars in diverse disciplines to examine humanity's transition to agricultural societies. Contributors include: Gary W. Crawford, Robin W. Dennell, and Jack R. Harlan.

Plant remains (Archaeology) --- Prehistoric peoples --- Agriculture, Prehistoric --- Agriculture --- Archaeobotanical assemblages --- Archaeobotanical material --- Archaeobotanical remains --- Archaeobotany --- Archaeological plant remains --- Archaeology, Botanical --- Assemblages, Archaeobotanical --- Botanical archaeology --- Botany in archaeology --- Material, Archaeobotanical --- Phytoarchaeology --- Remains, Archaeobotanical --- Remains, Plant (Archaeology) --- Remains, Vegetal (Archaeology) --- Vegetal remains (Archaeology) --- Archaeology --- Paleobotany --- Anthracology --- Cavemen (Prehistoric peoples) --- Early man --- Man, Prehistoric --- Prehistoric archaeology --- Prehistoric human beings --- Prehistoric humans --- Prehistory --- Human beings --- Antiquities, Prehistoric --- Prehistoric agriculture --- Farming --- Husbandry --- Industrial arts --- Life sciences --- Food supply --- Land use, Rural --- Food --- Origin --- Methodology --- Primitive societies

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This innovative volume is the first collective effort by archaeologists and ethnographers to use concepts and models from human behavioral ecology to explore one of the most consequential transitions in human history: the origins of agriculture. Carefully balancing theory and detailed empirical study, and drawing from a series of ethnographic and archaeological case studies from eleven locations-including North and South America, Mesoamerica, Europe, the Near East, Africa, and the Pacific-the contributors to this volume examine the transition from hunting and gathering to farming and herding using a broad set of analytical models and concepts. These include diet breadth, central place foraging, ideal free distribution, discounting, risk sensitivity, population ecology, and costly signaling. An introductory chapter both charts the basics of the theory and notes areas of rapid advance in our understanding of how human subsistence systems evolve. Two concluding chapters by senior archaeologists reflect on the potential for human behavioral ecology to explain domestication and the transition from foraging to farming.

Human evolution. --- Human ecology. --- Human behavior. --- Agriculture, Prehistoric. --- Agriculture --- Evolution (Biology) --- Physical anthropology --- Evolutionary psychology --- Human beings --- Ecology --- Environment, Human --- Human environment --- Ecological engineering --- Human geography --- Nature --- Action, Human --- Behavior, Human --- Ethology --- Human action --- Human biology --- Psychology --- Social sciences --- Psychology, Comparative --- Prehistoric agriculture --- Prehistoric peoples --- Origin of agriculture --- Agriculture, Prehistoric --- Domestication --- Origin. --- Origin --- Social aspects --- Effect of environment on --- Effect of human beings on --- Behavior --- Food --- History --- agriculture. --- andes. --- animal domestication. --- arabia. --- archaeology. --- arizona. --- cumberland. --- domestic animals. --- early civilization. --- ecology. --- environment. --- food production. --- foraging. --- fremont. --- hbe. --- highlands. --- history. --- human behavior. --- human behavioral ecology. --- hunting and gathering. --- indigenous culture. --- indigenous people. --- land use. --- madagascar. --- maize. --- mikea. --- neotropics. --- new guinea. --- nonfiction. --- oceania. --- pacific coast. --- plant domestication. --- rain barrier. --- science. --- valencia. --- wild animals.