Cattle and People in China From the Neolithic to the Present

Abstract

Cattle have played a central role in the subsistence and culture of China for five millennia. We use an interdisciplinary approach that draws from zooarchaeology, environmental history, and environmental sociology to trace the history of cattle in China from their earliest appearance to the present. Zooarchaeological and genetic data from prehistoric Chi- nese archaeological sites show that domestic cattle populations introduced from West Asia gradually replaced indige- nous wild aurochs populations. Cattle held a variety of roles in Neolithic and Bronze Age societies, serving as important ritual animals for divination and sacrifice, and providing new sources of bone raw materials used in bone workshops. As human populations have grown over the past 2,000 years, cattle were increasingly used as beasts of burden, helping farmers transform most of China’s natural habitats into farmland. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, national programs aimed at increasing beef and milk production have led to the replacement of local breeds with commercial breeds, causing a surge in the consumption of cattle products and significant environmental degradation.