Innovations, food storage and the origins of agriculture

Abstract

The global phenomenon of the birth of agriculture remains an enigma and challenges the role of food storage. Much has been written about their invention. A general explanation is needed for its progression in various parts of the world, which is both sociologically based and founded on the archaeological data. This task led Alain Testart to claim that it was by developing their existing skill sets (foraging, pottery, food storage and small-scale agriculture) that nomadic hunter-gatherers, burdened by an increasingly diverse set of tools and equipment, became sedentary. This sedentarism in turn allowed them to specialise in those activities, which had (literally) weighed them down: notably, breeding the first plant cultivars and, often, storing food.

Resilience of small-scale societies’ livelihoods: a framework for studying the transition from food gathering to food production

“…In addition, social, technological, and ecological changes may have been crucial for full reliance on agropastoralism. These changes might have ranged from the introduction of the ard and tilling technology for increasing productivity (Kerig 2013), irrigation in areas of limited rainfall (Kirch 1995, Doolittle 2014, and sophisticated storage techniques (de Saulieu and Testart 2015). Reorganization of social structures may also have been necessary to ensure food productivity and storage were reliable and available (Bar-Yosef 1998, Zapata et al 2004.…”

“…Technology may be viewed either as changing autochthonously in response to novel food opportunities, either environmentally generated or due to dietary shifts, or enabling new exploitive tasks through introduction. Many past archeological arguments about technological and dietary changes, especially among food producers, emphasized introductions of tools and techniques as critical (Kirch 1995, Doolittle 2014, de Saulieu and Testart 2015. Current understanding recognizes the potential complexities in identifying innovation, simple adoption, and modified use of new techniques in both archeology and ethnology.…”

Resilience of small-scale societies: a view from drylands

“…In fact, agent-based models suggest that the agricultural lifestyle all together would hardly have been viable without the development of consistent and systematic storage practices and technologies (Angourakis et al 2015). Finally, as production and storage capabilities increased above subsistence needs, the accumulation of surplus may have contributed in some measure to some of the major challenges inherited by contemporary societies, predominantly characterized by market-oriented farming: (1) the exponential spread of agricultural systems and related environmental transformations; (2) the transition to less cohesive societies, prompted in part by the accumulation of surplus (De Saulieu and Testart 2015); and (3) the progressive decoupling, in terms of perceived dependency between agricultural production and climate variability. Shared belief systems: the case of farmers in Doñana, Southwest Spain Doñana, a system of wetlands and sand dunes located in Southwest Spain, provides an example of climate-related collective action based on shared belief systems (López-Taillefert 1998).…”

Effects of developmental stage, cold acclimation and diet on the cold tolerance of three species of Cryptolestes (Coleoptera: Laemophloeidae)

“…They forage food in the summer or when food is available and store it to ensure availability when food is not available. This behavior is very common among animals and insects living in temperate regions where the winters are harsh and foraging is hard or impossible (de Saulieu and Testart, 2015;Pollok et al, 2000). When civilization started flourishing and humans started to cultivate crops, insects, rodents and many other higher animals competed for food (Dunkel, 1985;Kuijt and Finlayson, 2009;Levinson and Levinson, 1989).…”