Reviews

The origin, spread, and impact of agriculture

  • Xiaoqiang LI
Expand
  • 1. Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044
    2. College of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049

Received date: 2021-08-13

  Revised date: 2021-11-17

  Online published: 2022-12-19

Abstract

The origins of agriculture is one of the most significant events in human prehistory and the foundation of ancient cultures. At 10000 BP, agriculture emerged almost independently in western and eastern Asia and Central America at the same time. Mesopotamia in western Asia was thought to be the origin of wheat, barley and oats, while corn, potato, peanuts, etc. were firstly cultivated in Central America. China was featured by two independent agricultural systems, namely rice in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and millet in the Yellow River Basin. During the process of early crop development, agriculture spread widely from its origin centers to most parts of the world, building an important bridge for cultural exchange and integration in the Eurasia. After Columbus discovered the Americas at the end of the 15th century, the opening of new shipping routes and emergence of numerous trade routes accelerated the spread and integration of crops in the New and Old worlds. The origin of agriculture has changed the ability of human beings to transform or adapt to our environment, and has made an significant impact on human society and the natural environment. Agriculture not only promoted the emergence of a settled lifestyle, but also led to major changes in population structure, division of labor and commodity exchanges. Agriculture improved production efficiency, provided a stable food supply and storage, and increased the intensity and scope of human activities, largely impacting the global ecology and natural environment.

Cite this article

Xiaoqiang LI . The origin, spread, and impact of agriculture[J]. Acta Anthropologica Sinica, 2022 , 41(06) : 1097 -1108 . DOI: 10.16359/j.1000-3193/AAS.2022.0013

References

[1] Bellwood PS. First Farmers: the Origins of Agricultural Societies[M]. London: Blackwell Publishing, 2005
[2] Lev-Yadun S, Gopher A, Abbo S. Archaeology-The cradle of agriculture[J]. Science, 2000, 288(5471): 1602-1603
[3] Tanno K, Willcox G. How fast was wild wheat domesticated?[J]. Science, 2006, 311(5769): 1886
[4] 布赖恩·海登. 驯化的模式[J]. 译者:陈淳. 农业考古, 1994(1): 25-40
[5] Harris D. Origins of agriculture in western central Asia[D]. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum, 2010
[6] Zohary D, Hopf M. Domestication of Plants in the Old World (4th edition)[M]. Oxford: Clarenden Press, 2012
[7] 严文明. 再论中国稻作农业的起源[J]. 农业考古, 1989(1): 85-93
[8] 张光直. 中国东南海岸的“富裕的食物采集文化”[A]. 见:中国考古学会(主编).中国考古学论文集[C]. 北京: 生活·读书·新知三联书店, 1999: 190-205
[9] Childe VG. The Most Ancient East[M]. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1928
[10] Darwin C. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life[M]. London: John Murray, 1859
[11] Pumpelly R. Explorations in Turkestan, Expedition of 1904: Prehistoric Civilizations of Anau: Origins, Growth, and Influence of Environment[M]. Washington DC: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1908, 65-66
[12] Childe G. Man Makes Himself[M]. New York: New American Library, 1951
[13] Wittfogel K. Oriental Despotism[M]. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1957
[14] Braidwood RJ. The agricultural revolution[J]. Scientific American, 1960, 203(3): 130-141
[15] Binford L. Post-pleistocene adaptations[A]. In: Binford S, Binford L (Eds.). New Perspectives in Archaeology[M]. Chicago: Aldine, 1968, 313-341
[16] Harlan JR. Crops and Man[M]. Madison: American Society of Agronomy, 1975
[17] Diamond J. Evolution, consequences and future of plant and animal domestication[J]. Nature, 2002, 418(6898): 700-707
[18] Cohen MN, Armelagos GJ. Paleopathology at the origins of agriculture[M]. Orlando: Academic Press, 1984
[19] Rosenberg M. The mother of invention: Evolutionary heory, territoriality, and the origins of agriculture[J]. American Anthropologist, 1990, 92(2): 399-415
[20] Fernandez-Armesto F. Civilizations:Culture, Ambition, and the Transformation of Nature[M]. London: Basingstoke and Oxford, 2000
[21] Tudge C. Neanderthals, bandits, and farmers: How agriculture really began[M]. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998
[22] Olsson O. The rise of Neolithic agriculture[J]. Working Papers in Economics, 2001, 196(6): 647-648
[23] Boserup E. The Conditions of Agricultural Growth[M]. London: Allen and Unwin, 1965
[24] Cohen MN. The Food Crisis in Prehistory[M]. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977
[25] Bar-Yosef O, Belfer-Cohen A. The origins of sedentism and farming communities in the Levant[J]. Journal of World Prehistory, 1989, 3(4): 447-498
[26] Bar-Yosef O. Climatic fluctuations and early farming in West and East Asia[J]. Current Anthropology, 2011, 52(S4): S175-S193
[27] McCorriston J, Hole F. The ecology of seasonal stress and the origins of agriculture in the Near East[J]. American Anthropologist, 1991, 93(1): 46-69
[28] Sage RF. Was low atmospheric CO2 during the Pleistocene a limiting factor for the origin of agriculture?[J]. Global Change Biology, 1995, 1(2): 93-106
[29] Richerson PJ, Boyd R, Bettinger RL. Was agriculture impossible during the Pleistocene but mandatory during the Holocene? A climate change hypothesis[J]. American Antiquity, 2001, 66(3): 387-411
[30] 肯特·弗兰纳利. 美索不达米亚早期食物生产的生态学——史前农人与牧人开发一系列位置相邻却差异显著的气候区[J].译者:潘艳.校对:陈淳. 南方文物, 2008(4): 135-141+133
[31] Flannery KV. Guilá Naquitz: Archaic Foraging and Early Agriculture in Oaxaca, Mexico[M]. Orlando: Academic Press, 1986
[32] MacNeish RS. Ancient Mesoamerican civilization[J]. Science, 1964, 143(3606): 531-537
[33] MacNeish RS. Reflections on my search for the beginnings of agriculture in Mexico[A]. In: Wolley GR. Archaeological Researches in Retrospect[M]. Washington DC: University Press of America, 1974
[34] Flannery KV. The origins of the village as a settlement type in Mesoamerica and the Near East:A comparative study[A]. In: Ucko PJ, Tringham R, Dimbleby GW (Eds.). Man, Settlement and Urbanism[M]. London: Duckworth, 1972, 23-53
[35] Piperno D, Ranere AJ, Holst I, et al. Starch grains reveal early root crop horticulture in the Panamanian tropical forest[J]. Nature, 2000, 407(6806): 894-897
[36] Piperno DR. Identifying manioc (Manihot esculenta Crantz) and other crops in pre-Columbian tropical America through starch grain analysis:A case study from Panama[A]. In: Zeder M, Emschwiller E, Bradley D, et al (Eds.). Documenting Domestication: New Genetic and Archaeological Paradigms[M]. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006, 46-67
[37] 严文明. 中国稻作农业的起源[J]. 农业考古, 1982(1): 19-31
[38] 吕厚远. 中国史前农业起源演化研究新方法与新进展[J]. 中国科学(地球科学), 2018, 48(2): 181-199
[39] Li XQ, Dodson J, Zhou XY, et al. Early cultivated wheat and broadening of agriculture in Neolithic China[J]. The Holocene, 2007, 17(5): 555-560
[40] Zhang JP, Lu HY, Wu NQ, et al. Phytolith analysis for differentiating between foxtail millet (Setaria italica) and green foxtail (Setaria viridis)[J]. PLoS ONE, 2011, 6(5):e19726
[41] Fuller DQ, Castillo C. Rice:Origins and development[A]. In: Smith, Claire (Eds.). Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology[M]. New York: Springer, 2014
[42] Huan XJ, Lu H, Wang C, et al. Bulliform phytolith research in wild and domesticated rice paddy soil in South China[J]. PloS ONE, 2015, 10(10): e0141255
[43] Ball T, Chandler-Ezell K, Dickau R, et al. Phytoliths as a tool for investigations of agricultural origins and dispersals around the world[J]. Journal of Archaeological Science, 2016, 68: 32-45
[44] Zheng Y, Crawford GW, Jiang L, et al. Rice domestication revealed by reduced shattering of archaeological rice from the Lower Yangtze valley[J]. Scientific Reports, 2016, 6(1): 1-9
[45] 何炳棣, 马中. 中国农业的本土起源[J]. 农业考古, 1984(2): 43-52
[46] 安志敏. 中国的史前农业[J]. 考古学报, 1988(4): 369-381
[47] Lu HY, Zhang JP, Liu KB, et al. Earliest domestication of common millet (Panicum miliaceum) in East Asia extended to 10,000 years ago[J]. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2009, 106(18): 7367-7372
[48] Crawford G, Underhill A, Zhao Z, et al. Late Neolithic plant remains from northern China: Preliminary results from Liangchengzhen, Shandong[J]. Current Anthropology, 2005, 46(2): 309-317
[49] 赵志军. 植物考古学及其新进展[J]. 考古, 2005(7): 42-49+2
[50] Underhill AP. Current issues in Chinese Neolithic archaeology[J]. Journal of World Prehistory, 1997, 11(2): 103-160
[51] 严文明. 农业发生与文明起源[M]. 北京: 科学出版社, 2000
[52] Liu L, Bestel S, Shi J, et al. Paleolithic human exploitation of plant foods during the last glacial maximum in North China[J]. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2013, 110(14): 5380-5385
[53] Yang XY, Wan ZW, Perry L, et al. Early millet use in northern China[J]. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2012, 109(10): 3726-3730
[54] Hadiarto T, Tran LSP. Progress studies of drought-responsive genes in rice[J]. Plant Cell Reports, 2011, 30(3): 297-310
[55] 严文明. 我国稻作起源研究的新进展[J]. 考古, 1997(9): 71-76
[56] 顾海滨. 湖南澧县城头山遗址出土的新石器时代水稻及其类型[J]. 考古, 1996(8): 81-89+104
[57] 朱乃诚, 中国史前稻作农业概论[J]. 农业考古, 2005(1): 26-32
[58] 郑云飞, 蒋乐平. 上山遗址出土的古稻遗存及其意义[J]. 考古, 2007(9): 19-25+99+2
[59] 赵志军, 蒋乐平. 浙江浦江上山遗址浮选出土植物遗存分析[J]. 南方文物, 2016(3): 109-116
[60] Fuller DQ, Qin L, Zheng Y, et al. The domestication process and domestication rate in rice: spikelet bases from the Lower Yangtze[J]. Science, 2009, 323(5921): 1607-1610
[61] 赵志军. 中国稻作农业起源研究的新认识[J]. 农业考古, 2018(4): 7-17
[62] 秦岭. 中国农业起源的植物考古研究与展望[J]. 考古学研究, 2012: 260-315
[63] Oka HI. Origin of Cultivated Rice[M]. Elsevier, 2012
[64] Chang TT. The origin, evolution, cultivation, dissemination, and diversification of Asian and African rice[J]. Euphytica, 1976, 25(1): 425-441
[65] Sato YI, Ishikawa R, Morishima H. Nonrandom association of genes and characters found in indica × japonica hybrids of rice[J]. Heredity, 1990, 65(1): 75-79
[66] Londo JP, Chiang YC, Hung KH, et al. Phylogeography of Asian wild rice, Oryza rufipogon, reveals multiple independent domestications of cultivated rice, Oryza sativa[J]. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2006, 103(25): 9578-9583
[67] 王象坤, 才宏伟, 孙传清, 等. 中国普通野生稻的原始型及其是否存在籼粳分化的初探[J]. 中国水稻科学, 1994, 8(4): 205-210
[68] Gross BL, Zhao Z. Archaeological and genetic insights into the origins of domesticated rice[J]. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2014, 111(17): 6190-6197
[69] Fuller DQ, Van Etten J, Manning K, et al. The contribution of rice agriculture and livestock pastoralism to prehistoric methane levels: An archaeological assessment[J]. The Holocene, 2011, 21(5): 743-759
[70] Fuller DQ, Asouti E, Purugganan MD. Cultivation as slow evolutionary entanglement: Comparative data on rate and sequence of domestication[J]. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, 2012, 21(2): 131-145
[71] Bellwood P. Examining the farming / language dispersal hypothesis in the East Asian context[A]. In: Blench R, Laurent S, Alicia S (Eds.). The Peopling of East Asia: Putting Together Archaeology, Linguistics and Genetics[M]. Routledge, 2005: 17-30
[72] Ammerman AJ, Cavalli-Sforza LL. Measuring the rate of spread of early farming in Europe[J]. Man, 1971, 6(4):674-688
[73] Liu XY, Jones PJ, Matuzeviciute GM, et al. From ecological opportunism to multi-cropping: Mapping food globalisation in prehistory[J]. Quaternary Science Reviews, 2019, 206: 21-28
[74] Jones MK, Liu XY. Origins of agriculture in East Asia[J]. Science, 2009, 324(5928): 730-731
[75] Zhou XY, Yu JJ, Spengler RN, et al. 5200-year-old cereal grains from the eastern Altai mountains redate the trans-Eurasian crop exchange[J]. Nature Plants, 2020, 6(2): 78-87
[76] 赵志军. 小麦传入中国的研究—植物考古资料[J]. 南方文物, 2015, (3): 44-52
[77] Dodson JR, Li XQ, Zhou XY, et al. Origin and spread of wheat in China[J]. Quaternary Science Reviews, 2013, 72: 108-111
[78] Zhou XY, Li XQ, Dodson J, et al. Rapid agricultural transformation in the prehistoric Hexi corridor, China[J]. Quaternary International, 2016, 426: 33-41
[79] Yang QJ, Zhou XY, Spengler RN, et al. Prehistoric agriculture and social structure in the southwestern Tarim Basin: Multiproxy analyses at Wupaer[J]. Scientific Reports, 2020, 10(1): 1-11
[80] 张居中, 程至杰, 蓝万里, 等. 河南舞阳贾湖遗址植物考古研究的新进展[J]. 考古, 2018, (4): 100-110
[81] Jin GY, Wu WW, Zhang KS, et al. 8000-year-old rice remains from the north edge of the Shandong Highlands, East China[J]. Journal of Archaeological Science, 2014, 51: 34-42
[82] Jin GY, Chen S, Li H, et al. The Beixin Culture: Archaeobotanical evidence for a population dispersal of Neolithic hunter-gatherer-cultivators in northern China[J]. Antiquity, 2020, 94(378): 1426-1443
[83] Zhang JP, Lu HY, Wu NQ, et al. Phytolith evidence for rice cultivation and spread in Mid-Late Neolithic archaeological sites in central North China[J]. Boreas, 2010, 39(3): 592-602
[84] Deng ZH, Hung H, Fan XC, et al. The ancient dispersal of millets in southern China: New archaeological evidence[J]. The Holocene, 2018, 28(1): 34-43
[85] Yang XY, Wang W, Zhuang Y, et al. New radiocarbon evidence on early rice consumption and farming in South China[J]. The Holocene, 2017, 27(7): 1045-1051
[86] Chen GH, Zhou XY, Wang J, et al. Kushan period rice in the Amu Darya Basin: Evidence for prehistoric exchange along the southern Himalaya[J]. Science China Earth Sciences, 2020, 63(6): 841-851
[87] He KY, Lu HY, Zhang JP, et al. Prehistoric evolution of the dualistic structure mixed rice and millet farming in China[J]. The Holocene, 2017, 27(12): 1885-1898
[88] Wang J, Zhou XY, Xu H, et al. Relationship between C4 biomass and C4 agriculture during the Holocene and its implications for millet domestication in Northeast China[J]. Geophysical Research Letters, 2021(48): e2020GL089566
[89] Luo W, Gu C, Yang Y, et al. Phytoliths reveal the earliest interplay of rice and broomcorn millet at the site of Shuangdun (ca. 7.3-6.8 ka BP) in the middle Huai River valley, China[J]. Journal of Archaeological Science, 2019(102): 26-34
[90] Jones M, Hunt H, Lightfoot E, et al. Food globalization in prehistory[J]. World Archaeology, 2011, 43(4): 665-675
[91] Liu XY, Jones MK. Food globalisation in prehistory: Top down or bottom up?[J]. Antiquity, 2014, 88(341): 956
[92] Yao Y, Wang X, Guo W, et al. Environment human activity and their relationship with Buddhism during the 9th-13th centuries at Turpan, Xinjiang on the ancient Silk Road[J]. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, 2020(29): 539-552
[93] 张波, 张纶. 中国绿洲-东西亚古代农事交流的纽带[J]. 中国农史, 1993(4): 7-12
[94] 王思明. 丝绸之路农业交流对世界农业文明发展的影响[J]. 内蒙古社会科学(汉文版), 2017(3): 1-8
[95] Chen T, Wang B, Power R, et al. The first archaeobotanical evidence of Medicago sativa L. in China: Hay fodder for livestock[J]. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 2020(12): 2
[96] 刘东生. 走向“地球系统”的科学:地球系统科学的学科雏形及我们的机遇[J]. 中国科学基金, 2006(5): 266-271
[97] Ruddiman WF, Guo Z, Zhou X, et al. Early rice farming and anomalous methane trends[J]. Quaternary Science Reviews, 2008, 27(13-14): 1291-1295
[98] Crutzen PJ. Geology of mankind[J]. Nature, 2002, 415(1): 23
[99] Diamond J, Bellwood P. Farmers and their languages: The first expansions[J]. Science, 2003, 300(5619): 597-603
[100] Zong Y, Chen Z, Innes JB, et al. Fire and flood management of coastal swamp enabled first rice paddy cultivation in east China[J]. Nature, 2007, 449(7161): 459-462
[101] Li XQ, Dodson J, Zhou J, et al. Increases of population and expansion of rice agriculture in Asia, and anthropogenic methane emissions since 5000 BP[J]. Quaternary International, 2009, 202(1-2): 41-50
[102] Kirch PV. Archaeology and global change: The Holocene record[J]. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 2005(30): 409-440
[103] Rollefson G, Kohler-Rollefson I. Early Neolithic exploitation patterns in the Levant: cultural impact on the environment[J]. Population and Environment, 1992(13): 243-254
[104] Liu B, Wang, NY, Chen MH, et al. Earliest hydraulic enterprise in China, 5100 years ago[J]. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2017, 114 (52): 13637-13642
[105] Zheng YF, Sun GP, Li Q, et al. Rice fields and modes of rice cultivation between 5000 and 2500 BC in east China[J]. Journal of Archaeological Science, 2009, 36(12): 2609-2616
[106] Li XQ, Sun N, Dodson J, et al. The impact of early smelting on the environment of Huoshiliang in Hexi Corridor, NW China, as recorded by fossil charcoal and chemical elements[J]. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 2011, 305(1-4), 329-336
[107] Ruddiman WF. The anthropogenic greenhouse era began thousands of years ago[J]. Climatic Change, 2003, 61(3): 261-293
[108] Ruddiman WF. The Anthropocene[J]. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 2013(41): 45-68
[109] Ruddiman WF, Ellis EC, Kaplan JO, et al. Defining the epoch we live in[J]. Science, 2015, 348(6230): 38-39
[110] Zalasiewicz J, Waters CN, Ellis EC, et al. The Anthropocene: Comparing its meaning in geology (chronostratigraphy) with conceptual approaches arising in other disciplines[J]. Earth’s Future, 2021(9): e2020EF001896
[111] Yu YY, Guo ZT, Wu HB, et al. Reconstructing prehistoric land use change from archeological data: Validation and application of a new model in Yiluo valley, northern China[J]. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 2012(156): 99-107
[112] Guo ZT, Zhou X, Wu HB. Glacial-interglacial water cycle, global monsoon and atmospheric methane changes[J]. Climate Dynamics, 2012, 39(5): 1073-1092
[113] Fuller DQ, Van Etten J, Manning K, et al. The contribution of rice agriculture and livestock pastoralism to prehistoric methane levels: An archaeological assessment[J]. The Holocene, 2011, 21(5): 743-759
Outlines

/