New Perspectives on Agricultural Origins

The niche constructing activities of humans are revealed quintessentially in agricultural origins, in which numerous species of plants and animals evolved into a domesticated category while human societies and demographics adapted to these new domesticatory relationships. The expansion of archaeological evidence, from many more regions of the world and through improved methodologies of archaeobotanical and faunal investigation, now offer an enriched basis for comparing and contrasting the pathways towards domestication and the transition to agricultural economies. The diversity of regional datasets raises new questions of 'how' and 'why' agriculture emerged in certain places at certain times, as well as providing a basis for the interrogation of different explanatory frameworks proposed to address these questions. The present session brings together studies from across the globe drawing on new data, new approaches to analysis and new explanatory frameworks to assess how far we have come in understanding agricultural origins and the priorities for further research.