Cultural transmission and ecological opportunity jointly shaped global patterns of reliance on agriculture
The evolution of agriculture improved food security and enabled significant increases in the size and complexity of human groups. Despite these positive effects, some societies never adopted these practices, became only partially reliant on them, or even reverted to foraging after temporarily adopti...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Cambridge University Press
2020-01-01
|
| Series: | Evolutionary Human Sciences |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2513843X20000559/type/journal_article |
| _version_ | 1811156373220622336 |
|---|---|
| author | Bruno Vilela Trevor Fristoe Ty Tuff Patrick H. Kavanagh Hannah J. Haynie Russell D. Gray Michael C. Gavin Carlos A. Botero |
| author_facet | Bruno Vilela Trevor Fristoe Ty Tuff Patrick H. Kavanagh Hannah J. Haynie Russell D. Gray Michael C. Gavin Carlos A. Botero |
| author_sort | Bruno Vilela |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The evolution of agriculture improved food security and enabled significant increases in the size and complexity of human groups. Despite these positive effects, some societies never adopted these practices, became only partially reliant on them, or even reverted to foraging after temporarily adopting them. Given the critical importance of climate and biotic interactions for modern agriculture, it seems likely that ecological conditions could have played a major role in determining the degree to which different societies adopted farming. However, this seemingly simple proposition has been surprisingly difficult to prove and is currently controversial. Here, we investigate how recent agricultural practices relate both to contemporary ecological opportunities and the suitability of local environments for the first species domesticated by humans. Leveraging a globally distributed dataset on 1,291 traditional societies, we show that after accounting for the effects of cultural transmission and more current ecological opportunities, levels of reliance on farming continue to be predicted by the opportunities local ecologies provided to the first human domesticates even after centuries of cultural evolution. Based on the details of our models, we conclude that ecology probably helped shape the geography of agriculture by biasing both human movement and the human-assisted dispersal of domesticates. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T04:50:27Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-673ffce7aae347178b87db38695fd7e2 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2513-843X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T04:50:27Z |
| publishDate | 2020-01-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Evolutionary Human Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-673ffce7aae347178b87db38695fd7e22023-03-09T12:32:19ZengCambridge University PressEvolutionary Human Sciences2513-843X2020-01-01210.1017/ehs.2020.55Cultural transmission and ecological opportunity jointly shaped global patterns of reliance on agricultureBruno Vilela0Trevor Fristoe1Ty Tuff2Patrick H. Kavanagh3Hannah J. Haynie4Russell D. Gray5Michael C. Gavin6Carlos A. Botero7https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0955-2795Department of Biology, Washington University in Saint Louis, St Louis, MO, USA Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Salvador, Bahia, BrazilDepartment of Biology, Washington University in Saint Louis, St Louis, MO, USA Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, GermanyDepartment of Biology, Washington University in Saint Louis, St Louis, MO, USA Department of Biology, McGill University, Quebec, CanadaDepartment of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USADepartment of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA Department of Linguistics, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO, USADepartment of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for The Science of Human History, Jena, GermanyDepartment of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for The Science of Human History, Jena, GermanyDepartment of Biology, Washington University in Saint Louis, St Louis, MO, USAThe evolution of agriculture improved food security and enabled significant increases in the size and complexity of human groups. Despite these positive effects, some societies never adopted these practices, became only partially reliant on them, or even reverted to foraging after temporarily adopting them. Given the critical importance of climate and biotic interactions for modern agriculture, it seems likely that ecological conditions could have played a major role in determining the degree to which different societies adopted farming. However, this seemingly simple proposition has been surprisingly difficult to prove and is currently controversial. Here, we investigate how recent agricultural practices relate both to contemporary ecological opportunities and the suitability of local environments for the first species domesticated by humans. Leveraging a globally distributed dataset on 1,291 traditional societies, we show that after accounting for the effects of cultural transmission and more current ecological opportunities, levels of reliance on farming continue to be predicted by the opportunities local ecologies provided to the first human domesticates even after centuries of cultural evolution. Based on the details of our models, we conclude that ecology probably helped shape the geography of agriculture by biasing both human movement and the human-assisted dispersal of domesticates.https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2513843X20000559/type/journal_articleBiogeography of human agriculturecultural evolutioncomparative studies of human culturespread of human culture |
| spellingShingle | Bruno Vilela Trevor Fristoe Ty Tuff Patrick H. Kavanagh Hannah J. Haynie Russell D. Gray Michael C. Gavin Carlos A. Botero Cultural transmission and ecological opportunity jointly shaped global patterns of reliance on agriculture Evolutionary Human Sciences Biogeography of human agriculture cultural evolution comparative studies of human culture spread of human culture |
| title | Cultural transmission and ecological opportunity jointly shaped global patterns of reliance on agriculture |
| title_full | Cultural transmission and ecological opportunity jointly shaped global patterns of reliance on agriculture |
| title_fullStr | Cultural transmission and ecological opportunity jointly shaped global patterns of reliance on agriculture |
| title_full_unstemmed | Cultural transmission and ecological opportunity jointly shaped global patterns of reliance on agriculture |
| title_short | Cultural transmission and ecological opportunity jointly shaped global patterns of reliance on agriculture |
| title_sort | cultural transmission and ecological opportunity jointly shaped global patterns of reliance on agriculture |
| topic | Biogeography of human agriculture cultural evolution comparative studies of human culture spread of human culture |
| url | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2513843X20000559/type/journal_article |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT brunovilela culturaltransmissionandecologicalopportunityjointlyshapedglobalpatternsofrelianceonagriculture AT trevorfristoe culturaltransmissionandecologicalopportunityjointlyshapedglobalpatternsofrelianceonagriculture AT tytuff culturaltransmissionandecologicalopportunityjointlyshapedglobalpatternsofrelianceonagriculture AT patrickhkavanagh culturaltransmissionandecologicalopportunityjointlyshapedglobalpatternsofrelianceonagriculture AT hannahjhaynie culturaltransmissionandecologicalopportunityjointlyshapedglobalpatternsofrelianceonagriculture AT russelldgray culturaltransmissionandecologicalopportunityjointlyshapedglobalpatternsofrelianceonagriculture AT michaelcgavin culturaltransmissionandecologicalopportunityjointlyshapedglobalpatternsofrelianceonagriculture AT carlosabotero culturaltransmissionandecologicalopportunityjointlyshapedglobalpatternsofrelianceonagriculture |