1. The Origins of Farming

2. Definitions
Farming: The domestication of plants and animals for human purposes
Domestication: The control of plant and animal species for human benefit
Q: What were the consequences for plants and animals?
A: They switched from being naturally selected to culturally selected
Q: What plants or animals have we NOT been able to domesticate?

3. What Needs to Happen for Farms to Work?
Settlements-need people nearby to work on the farm, so homes are built
Food-processing technologies: planting seeds, sowing and harvesting crops with special tools, grain has to be ground into flour, etc.
Investment in landscape: Irrigation ditches, fences, cut down trees, soil needs tilling and fertilization, etc.
Sense of pride in property: People invest a lot so they have a more developed sense of property

4. Plant Domestication
Split into 2 groups and answer one of the following questions:
What do we get from plants?
What do we not get from plants (that we need)?

5. Plant Domestication
Domesticated plants being harvested are bigger than their wild predecessors. Example: Corn on the Cob!
Most domesticated plant species are easier to harvest than their wild predecessors. Example: We select for seeds that are easier to separate from the plant.
What must farmers do to protect their crop, for example grain?

6. Animal Domestication
In order to make it worth your money to domesticate animals, they must have:
A relatively good disposition with humans
A short life span with large numbers of children
A flexible diet, because they must eat whatever you give them
Smaller horns and other dangerous structures
A little smaller than their wild counterparts so that the offspring are easier to handle

7. Horticulture
Horticuluture: Many different definitions, but it is basically a low-intensity form of domestication, and generally refers to farming on a smaller scale, with simpler technologies
-Many refer to it as gardening, rather than intensive seeding and harvesting
Horticulture preceded farming, but in many areas, it is still thriving today.

8. Horticulture vs. Farming
Uses digging sticks
Farm small plots and use simple irrigation.
Domesticate plants that do not require long term storage
Uses plows driven by power or animals
Farm large areas of land
Domesticate plants on a large-scale that require long-term storage

9. Slashing and Burning
Slashing and burning is also known as shifting horticulture.
It is the practice of clearing heavily vegetated land to make an agricultural field
This land is then used from 1-5 years for harvest, and then you burn off the stubble
You let the land lie for several years, as you move onto another section of land that has previously been used.
Why would you do this?

10. Farming More intense Larger-scale Domestication of plants and animals
Practiced by people living in civilizations
Also referred to as State Farming

11. How Else is State Farming Different?
It is intensified: larger fields, more crops, more technology
It is systematized: the state regulates units of measure, approval of crops, and takes a cut in the form of taxes!
It is economically integrated: the activities of the state and the citizens must adjust to accommodate the farming schedule
It is commodified: farmers do not only grow staple foods, but also grow cash crops for export

12. Location Domesticated
Animal Domestication
Animal
Location Domesticated
Date
Dog
East Asia
15,000 BC
Sheep
Western Asia and East
10, 000 BC
Cat
Fertile Crescent
Before 9,000 BC
Goat
Pig
Be 9,000 BC
Cattle
8, 000 BC
Guinea Pig
Peru
3, 000 BC
Chicken
South Asia
Horse
Central Asia
5, 000 BC
Llama
Donkey
Egypt
Bactrian Camel
Dromedary Camel
Saudi Arabia
Yak
East central Asia
Reindeer
Northwest Asia (Siberia)
Turkey
Mexico
2, 500 BC

13. Farming Facilities and Tools
Granaries: for sorting harvested vegetal matter, such as dried grain
Ovens: for cooking food
Food-production yards: areas for separating seeds from plant cells, etc.

14. Early Farming Tools
Sickles: for harvesting plant matter, blades made of stone, bone, or antler
Pottery: for storage and cooking vegetal foods
Mortar and pestle: for grinding/pounding vegetal foods to small pieces or powder
Threshing tools: for separating the seeds from the plant
Axes: for clearing forested areas to convert it to farmland

15. Secondary Products
After humans started domesticating plants and animals for food, they started to domesticate them for secondary products as well
Secondary products: non-food resources
Can you think of any secondary products we get from plants?

16. Secondary Products Fibers-to make wool and cotton
Machine-pulling and transportation-use the animals to help you on the farm!
Plant tissue-to make writing paper
Plant extracts-to make medicines, adhesives, pigments, etc.
Milk-to make butter or cheese, does not require killing the animal, so its considered secondary
Blood-animal blood has nutritional value: The Maasi of Eastern Africa mix it with milk to make a rich froth

17. Why Farm in the First Place?
The population pressure theory argues that as populations increased after the ice ages, population pressures forced people to devise new ways of making a living. However, foraging populations are very careful not to allow their populations to grow to a size that the landscape can not sustain.
The climate change theory argues that as climates changed after the last ice age, humans invented new ways to survive, including a shift from foraging to domesticating. However, this theory still does not explain why they invented it...

18. In the East
The world’s first domestication seems to have taken place in a region called the Fertile Crescent of the Near East, from Israel up to Turkey, across to Iraq. This was about 12, 000 years ago.
They domesticated wheat and barley, and goats and sheep (rather than antelope and deer)
Eventually, they domesticated wheat, barley, peas, chickpeas, lentils, fava beans, carrots, beets, safflower, olives, figs, and dates.

19. In Africa
The domestication of plants, and some animals, occurred in Africa about 7,000-10,000 years ago.
They domesticated wheat, wild aurochs into cattle, sorghum, millet, tef, cow pea, oil parms, watermelon, and okra.

20. In East Asia People were cultivating wild rice 9,000 years ago
Today, rice supplies about 20% of the world’s calories
Also domesticated pigs, chickens, cattle, dogs, and ducks
Plants include apricots, peaches, cucumbers, sesame, radishes, turnips, canola, tea, and water chestnuts

21. In the Western Pacific
By 10,000 years ago, the people of New Guinea were cultivating several plants, including taro and bananas.
Major Western Pacific domesticates include breadfruit, yam, coconut, banana, dogs, pigs, chickens, grapefruit, mango, lemon, cloves, and arrowroot

22. In the Americas
First domesticated corn, squash, and sunflowers 10,000 years ago.
Agriculture in Mexico is only 5,000 to 7,000 years old
Other domesticates in the Americas include llamas, turkeys, beans, peppers, mint, chiles, and the potato (which was taken back to the “Old World” after conquistadores discovered it in the 16th century