Domesticating Earth: Rethinking the Origins of Agriculture

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of Failure" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The origins of agriculture have long been depicted as one of the greatest innovations of humanity, a humanist approach that rose to prominence in archaeology during the latter half of the twentieth century. During this time, a wide range of push and pull models for the origins of agriculture were developed, all of which were formulated as responses to the question of “why humans invented farming.” This conscious view of agriculture continued to dominate discourse despite scholars, such as David Rindos, presenting coherent alternative narratives, which relied on ecological principles. Over the past 20 years the prevailing views have drastically changed, and in 2009, Dorian Fuller declared that a paradigm shift was under way. Despite the recognition of an overarching change in views, there have been few discussions regarding what this new “paradigm” entails and what aspects of the origins of agriculture debates should be rejected or retained. While most of the scholars embracing the ecological perspective would agree that the process was unconscious and protracted, discussions over the great why question still persist. In this talk, I will look at some of the assumptions that persist from the view of farming as a great innovation.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Archaeology of Failure   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38803.0