Disruption, Preference Cascades, Contagion, and the Transition to Agriculture in Northern Europe

Peter Bogucki

doi:10.1515/opar-2020-0155

Abstract

Abstract The transition to agriculture in northern Europe around 4000 BC presents an unresolved question. Explanations have vacillated between the adoption of Neolithic things and practices by indigenous foragers to the displacement of Mesolithic populations by immigrant farmers. The goal of this article is to articulate some thoughts on this process. First, it would have been necessary to introduce food production practices, by acculturation or immigration, to disrupt not only the forager economy but also their values of sharing and social relations. The use of milk for dairy products is a prime candidate for such a disruptive technology. The attraction of Neolithic ways may have been initially concealed from others, and only the realization of their widespread appeal caused fellow foragers to change their preferences. Second, it was necessary for foragers to commit to these changes and for the changed values to spread through mechanisms of social contagion. Immigrant farmers may have been especially influential in this regard, with increased sedentism and interaction being catalysts for completing the transition to agriculture.

Highlights

The spread of agriculture across Europe from its Near Eastern roots was a complicated interplay between the diaspora of the farming population and uptake by indigenous hunter-gatherers
In the basins of the Baltic and North Seas as well as along the Atlantic Façade, Mesolithic populations continued to live as foragers during much of the fifth millennium BC
The basic time frame is what might be called the “long fifth millennium BC,” recognizing that long-term developments began in the preceding millennia and continued past 4000 BC

Summary

Introduction

The spread of agriculture across Europe from its Near Eastern roots was a complicated interplay between the diaspora of the farming population and uptake by indigenous hunter-gatherers. Arguments have been made for northward colonization events by continental agricultural peoples into southern Scandinavia during the late fifth millennium BC (e.g., Sørensen, 2017, 2020; Sørensen & Karg, 2014) on a scale larger than hitherto imagined These recent proposals would appear to overturn the “inside job” model of the uptake of Neolithic things and practices and even relegate the indigenous hunter-gatherers to bystanders as immigrant farmers introduced a novel way of life. They must remain part of any discussion of the establishment of farming communities in this area.

The Fifth Millennium Borderland in Northern Continental Europe

Forager Practices and Values

Disrupting Forager Lifeways

Preference Falsification and Preference Cascades

Contagious Agriculture

Conclusion