Biological evolutionary insights into the origins of agriculture: Evidence from the origin of rice agriculture
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Zhijun Zhao
Abstract
The domestication of plants and animals was a unique evolutionary process influenced by human behavior. In the early stage of domestication, the morphological and genetic characteristics of plants and animals still exhibited wild traits, making the concept of the “earliest” crops and domestic animals relative. Human behavior, acting as an unconscious selection mechanism, influenced the process and rate of domestication, making it a crucial factor in identifying domestication. Archaeological evidence of early cultivation and a sedentary lifestyle indicates that the domestication of rice and the origin of rice agriculture in China spanned four to five thousand years, with significant advancements occurring approximately every two thousand years. The origin of rice agriculture began around 10,000 years ago, entered a critical stage around 8000 years ago, and was completed around 6000 years ago. After this period, farming replaced gathering and hunting as the core of the subsistence economy, leading to the establishment of agricultural societies where agricultural production became the driving economic force.
Postscript
The original article 农业起源研究的生物进化论视角 was published in Kaogu 考古 (Archaeology) 2023.2: 112–120 with 46 notes. This English version, translated by Tao Li 李涛, has removed the notes.
Further readings
Fuller, Dorian Q., et al. “Presumed domestication? Evidence for wild rice cultivation and domestication in the fifth millennium BC of the Lower Yangtze region.” Antiquity 81, no. 312 (2007): 316–331.10.1017/S0003598X0009520XSearch in Google Scholar
Fuller, Dorian Q., et al. “The domestication process and domestication rate in rice: Spikelet bases from the Lower Yangtze.” Science 323, no. 5921 (2009): 1607–1610.10.1126/science.1166605Search in Google Scholar
Jiang, Leping, and Liu Li. “New evidence for the origins of sedentism and rice domestication in the Lower Yangzi River, China.” Antiquity 80, no. 308 (2006): 355–361.10.1017/S0003598X00093674Search in Google Scholar
Zhao, Zhijun. “The Middle Yangtze region in China is one place where rice was domesticated: Phytolith evidence from the Diaotonghuan Cave, Northern Jiangxi.” Antiquity 72, no. 278 (1998): 885–897.10.1017/S0003598X00087524Search in Google Scholar
Zhao, Zhijun. “New archaeobotanic data for the study of the origins of agriculture in China.” Current Anthropology 52, no. 4 (2011): 295–306.10.1086/659308Search in Google Scholar
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- New archaeological discoveries
- Paleolithic site of Xuetang Liangzi in Shiyan, Hubei
- Sitai Neolithic site in Shangyi, Hebei
- Neolithic site of Nanzuo in Qingyang, Gansu
- Shang royal mausoleum area and its surroundings at Yinxu in Anyang, Henan
- Bronze Age site at Hebosuo in Kunming, Yunnan
- Xixia Suyukou porcelain kiln site in Helan, Ningxia
- Reports
- Dawenkou culture cemetery at the southern Gangshang site in Tengzhou, Shandong
- The excavation of the Tang tombs of Dai Zhou and his wife in Chang’an District, Xi’an
- Research
- The three grand cultural spheres of the Holocene Eurasian Continent
- Preliminary discussions on painted pottery in Neolithic China
- A comparative study on the jade drilling technology of ancient Mesoamerican civilizations and prehistoric China
- Seima-Turbino-type bronze spearheads from Xiawanggang in Xichuan and the implications for north-south cultural exchange
- “Export” of ninth- to tenth-century Chinese bronze mirrors: Shipwreck findings from the Java Sea
- Biological evolutionary insights into the origins of agriculture: Evidence from the origin of rice agriculture
