On the Neolithic Edge: Predicting Crop Adoption by Paleolithic Foragers of Taiwan

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeology on the Edge(s): Transitions, Boundaries, Changes, and Causes" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The adoption of agricultural crops by intensified foragers occurred throughout Southeast Asia, resulting in mixed and low-level economies. Behavioral ecology provides models for evolutionary decision-making for mixed forager-gardener economies. The Paleolithic to Neolithic transition in Taiwan is represented by a small but growing number of sites. The tempo and mode of adoption of individual crop types is not yet well understood. I use ethnoarchaeological research about ancient crop types still in cultivation in Taiwan to assess a prediction that crops were not adopted en bloc by foragers. In observing differing costs and benefits of individual cultivars, foragers would initially have valued characteristics such as adaptation to local conditions and resilience to stressors that were compatible with mobility needed to maintain access to wild mountain and aquatic resources, rather than crop productivity by weight. This paper will feature a listing of Neolithic Taiwan crop types in hypothesized rank order of adoption, and archaeological implications.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Archaeology on the Edge(s): Transitions, Boundaries, Changes, and Causes   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22836