Abstract
A brief summation of the issue’s articles is presented. This leads to a discussion of thematic issues of concepts, methods, and theory that crosscut the articles. These include use of the EnvCalc2.1 program, some issues of terminology, the theoretical approaches of niche construction as opposed to human behavioral ecology (HBE), and the linkage between technology and subsistence change, notably the difference between biface and microblade production.
Highlights
I have long preferred the language of human behavioral ecology (HBE), whose hypotheses entail expectations such as an increase or decrease in diet breadth, which can be measured by relative changes in the range of food resources evidenced in archaeological assemblages; whether it entails a decline in efficiency and/or an increase in productivity
niche construction theory (NCT) is an important addition to our understanding of the origins of agriculture, in both primary and secondary settings, but its legitimate concern with the effects of human behavior on the environment and their subsequent effects on subsistence choices falls comfortably within HBE, which provides a sounder foundation in evolutionary theory
From an outsider’s perspective, the Near East has dominated our understanding of the origins and development of agricultural and of early agricultural society
Summary
Let me first make clear that I am an expert on neither Asian archaeology nor the origins of agriculture. I cannot comment on the specifics of particular Asian archaeological sites or on the botanical histories of the various plants involved in the transition from foraging to agriculture in Asia. I do know something about hunter-gatherers, and about how archaeologists have been thinking about the origins of agriculture in North America, where, as in these Asian cases, we have both domesticated indigenous plants (in the eastern US, e.g., Chenopodium) and already-domesticated imports Result from taking a step back from the specifics of the papers to look more at methods, data, and theoretical constructs. First I make some observations on the individual contributions
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