What do we know about domestication in eastern Asia? (original) (raw)

Abstract

The body of data based on new work on genetics and DNA, plus a growing number of radiocarbon ages which are independent of dates based on cultural associations has broadened our knowledge of domestication in eastern Asia. Here we review the situation for several plant and animal species that were domesticated locally or imported to east Asia. Major centres of plant domestication in China have been in the Yellow and Yangtze river basins, and in Yunnan. For animals it appears that the Yellow River region, the area around Xi'an and the south-east have been important centres. Many adopted domesticates have entered China through the north-west and later through ports such as Canton (Guangzhou). It appears that while there are outliers to extended ranges of wild plants and animals, sometimes not securely dated, widespread deliberate movement of plants and animals outside their natural ranges coincided with reduced hunting and gathering around 5–4 kyr in the Longshan cultural period. The adoption of agriculture has resulted in large scale landscape transformation; forests and woodlands have been replaced by crop and grazing lands and this is evident in many late Holocene sedimentary records. This transformation continues and the patterns are changing as diets are shifting and much grain is now used to feed chicken and beef, and in addition this has placed increased pressure on water resources.

Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to provide a starting point of the current general status of what is known about domestication and landscape transformation by humans across eastern Asia. The following provides analysis of new material which expands on previous reviews and aims to broaden our understanding of the topic. A key element in the development of modern societies was the domestication of plants and animals. This led to a shift of hunter-gatherer groups to settled communities. Hunter-gatherer groups were mobile, necessarily small bands and generally unable to accumulate large quantities of material goods. It can be argued that settled communities had crops and animals to tend which led to predictable and hence reliable food supplies and land ownership. Also shorter breeding cycles meant that population growth was more rapid and a greater diversification of tasks was possible. The latter most likely fostered greater complexity of cultural, religious and political systems, and more rapid technological advancements. Indeed the makings of many modern societies was rooted in the development of domestication and agricultural systems.

The development of domestication apparently began in several distinct places, and the Levant and Eastern Asia were amongst the earliest of these. Diamond (2002) asked why this occurred so late in the history of modern humans. Of course we don't know the answer to this but it may have been related to the onset of milder and more steady climates as the Holocene period opened a little over 10,000 years ago (Richerson et al., 2001). Presumably under more stable climate exploitable species ranges and the living environment for humans became predictable over many generations.

The early phases of domestication were based on local species, and hence differed in detail from place to place. A few widespread species, such as pigs (Sus sp.) may have been independently domesticated in several centres. When more extensive trading and technological exchanges were developed useful domesticates and technologies were transported to new areas.

The process of domestication is generally one where selection of species characteristics is made on the basis of their usefulness to humans. This results in a simplification of the gene pool in the domesticated species. A simplified gene pool makes for a more vulnerable population, and as agricultural societies often rely on fewer species compared to hunter gatherers it is important that the largest possible gene pool is preserved as insurance against loss of a domesticate. The process of domestication is continuing and indeed has speeded up through application of new gene technology.

There have been several excellent reviews on domestication over the last few decades (e.g. Crawford, 1992, Zohary and Hopf, 2000, Gupta, 2004, Ucko and Dimbelby, 2007, Larson et al., 2014) which have established the broad patterns we continue to recognise today. In the last few year's greater availability of evidence from archaeological excavations and a gradual shift from dating by archaeological context to more objective AMS radiocarbon analyses on seeds, residues and bones has provided new and more refined insights into data. In addition there has been a rapid expansion of genetic data and the application of stable isotopes which has greatly broadened our understanding for several key species; and bringing all this together it is now possible to offer more refined discussions on the impacts of domestication on people, cultures, landscapes and ecosystems.

In this paper focus is on eastern Asia, where the evidence often predates modern states such as China. A summary account of selected early domesticated plants and animals is given here and some of the mid to late Holocene imports of domesticates into and from eastern Asia is presented. The gaps in knowledge remain large; however it is clear that bridging these will help define the challenges of sustainability for the well-being of societies today.

Section snippets

Environmental background

The late Pleistocene environment of eastern Asia was like most parts of the temperate world emerging from the Last Glacial Maximum. Temperate areas were several degrees cooler than today, with stronger seasonality, and a punctuation of high magnitude events known variously as Heinrich Events with the youngest of these known as the Younger Dryas. These probably originated from events in the North Atlantic and lasted decades to centuries and their scales were such that major redistributions of

Millets

Two main species of millet are cultivated in China: Panicum miliaceum (common or broom corn millet) and Setaria italic ssp. italic (foxtail millet). These are indigenous to northern China and thus their cultivation is thought to have originated there. The timing of domestication and routes of dispersal are unknown (Lu et al., 2009) but the earliest claimed site, which remains contentious, is at Cishan in northern China (CPAM Hebei Province, 1981, and confirmed by Lu et al., 2009) where husk

Dogs

Dogs may have been the first domesticated animals, and DNA analysis suggests that the ancestor was the European grey wolf which shares 99.9% of its DNA with domestic dogs (Thalmann et al., 2013). In 1977 a puppy from a grave in Israel caused great interest when an age of about 12,000 years was published (see Clutton-Brock, 1995). Later dog remains of about 16,000 years ago were reported from Russia and Germany (Larson et al., 2012, Grimm, 2015). An age of 32,000 years on a skull from Belgium

Wheat, barley

Barley and wheat were first domesticated after the Younger Dryas in western Asia (Haldorsen et al., 2011), and are now known from charred remains from Kazakhstan from about 2800–2300 BC (Spengler et al., 2014). The oldest dates in China are from Shandong, charred wheat seeds were directly dated to 2500 BC in Zhaojiazhuang site of Longshan culture (Jin et al., 2011). By 1700 BC remains become more widespread in China (e.g. Flad et al., 2010, Dodson et al., 2013). The route to China was over some

Impact of domestication

Domestication was a key process that enabled many societies to move from a hunter-gather lifestyle to a more settled one. The early phases of this were probably a combination of gathering productive wild foods and selecting off-spring for improved qualities for replanting and breeding of animals for human utility. The investment in these activities led to ownership of outcomes and settled societies would have had a desire to care for the outcomes. Managed areas may have gradually led to land

Conclusion

Eastern Asia was one of the main centres of domestication of many plant and animal species. It has also imported many species from elsewhere and in return exported some of the most important crops and fruit to other parts of the world. While the framework for these changes is understood much detail awaits further research. Domestication is a work in progress and modern genetic tools promise a greatly quickening pace in engineering this. Degradation of environmental systems due to agriculture is

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the thoughtful comments of two reviewers.

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