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Class Readings and Plans for Thursday, Oct 29, 2015
Origins and Intensification of Agriculture
Class Plan
Everyone should read Smith, Federoff, and Reply to Federoff.
You will be assigned to one of four groups, and members of each group should read the article(s) assigned to your group below. When you have finished your group readings, by 9:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 28, please post one question of your own about how your group readings relate to some of these broad questions:
- In what ways did the transition to managed food production (horticulture and agriculture) set humans on a fundamentally new trajectory, and in what ways not?
- How did agriculture affect human population growth and health? Was it a ÒgoodÓ thing or a ÒbadÓ thing for human societies and why?
- What are some of the legacies of the turn to food production we live with today?
- How might control over food production intersect with political dynamics in societies of the past and present?
- What is it about food production that facilitates feeding people? What is it about food production that facilitates manipulating people?
- Is it possible to imagine equality in an agricultural context, and if so, what would be needed? Is it a worthy goal to pursue?
Readings
- General Readings
- Group 1
Alvard, M.S., L. Kuznar (2001) Deferred harvests: the transition from hunting to animal husbandry. American Anthropologist 103(2):295-311.
- Group 2
- Group 3
Johnston, K.J. (2003) The intensification of pre-industrial cereal agriculture in the tropics: Boserup, cultivation lengthening, and the Classic Maya. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 22(2):126-161
- Group 4
Cordain, L., Eaton, S. B., Sebastian, A., Mann, N., Lindeberg, S., Watkins, B. A., ... & Brand-Miller, J. (2005). Origins and evolution of the Western diet: health implications for the 21st century. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 81(2), 341-354.
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