Niche construction efforts by small-scale human societies that involve ‘wild’ species of plants and animals are organized into a set of six general categories based on the shared characteristics of the target species and similar patterns of human management and manipulation: (i) general modification of vegetation communities, (ii) broadcast sowing of wild annuals, (iii) transplantation of perennial fruit-bearing species, (iv) in-place encouragement of economically important perennials, (v) transplantation and in-place encouragement of perennial root crops, and (vi) landscape modification to increase prey abundance in specific locations Case study examples, mostly drawn from North America, are presented for each of the six general categories of human niche construction These empirically documented categories of ecosystem engineering form the basis for a predictive model that outlines potential general principles and commonalities in how small-scale human societies worldwide have modified and manipulated their ‘natural’ landscapes throughout the Holocene

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General patterns of niche construction and the management of ‘wild’ plant and animal resources by small-scale pre-industrial societies

Recent advances in the use of summed probability distribution (SPD) of calibrated 14C dates have opened new possibilities for studying prehistoric demography. The degree of correlation between climate change and population dynamics can now be accurately quantified, and divergences in the demographic history of distinct geographic areas can be statistically assessed. Here we contribute to this research agenda by reconstructing the prehistoric population change of Jomon hunter-gatherers between 7,000 and 3,000 cal BP. We collected 1,433 14C dates from three different regions in Eastern Japan (Kanto, Aomori and Hokkaido) and established that the observed fluctuations in the SPDs were statistically significant. We also introduced a new non-parametric permutation test for comparing multiple sets of SPDs that highlights point of divergences in the population history of different geographic regions. Our analyses indicate a general rise-and-fall pattern shared by the three regions but also some key regional differences during the 6th millennium cal BP. The results confirm some of the patterns suggested by previous archaeological studies based on house and site counts but offer statistical significance and an absolute chronological framework that will enable future studies aiming to establish potential correlation with climatic changes.

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Summed Probability Distribution of 14C Dates Suggests Regional Divergences in the Population Dynamics of the Jomon Period in Eastern Japan.

Six episodes—the Jomon, Yayoi, Tohoku Yayoi, Satsumon and Ainu, Okhotsk, and Gusuku—of agricultural development are examined. These events involve both indigenous adaptations as well as migration and diffusion to and within the Japanese archipelago. All but Jomon subsistence adaptations began as a result of migration and diffusion. Jomon populations engaged in niche construction/anthropogenesis that ranged from annual plant encouragement and probably management, lacquer tree (Toxicodendron verniciflua) and nut tree (Castanea crenata and Aesculus turbinata) management, and probable domestication of barnyard millet and soybean as well as cultivation of bottle gourd and hemp and possible cultivation of Perilla and adzuki. These characteristics place the Jomon in a middle ground that is neither hunting and gathering nor traditionally conceptualized agriculture. A brief comparison with China shows late Upper Paleolithic and Early Neolithic/Early Jomon similarities that can inform discussions about agricultural...

Advances in understanding early agriculture in Japan

Publisher Summary
This chapter discusses the aspects of hunter–gatherer complexity. The archeology of hunter–gatherers has generally relied on rather simplistic models to describe preagricultural adaptations. A misplaced reliance upon ethnographically known groups has precluded an appreciation of the diversity of hunting–gathering adaptations. Foragers in more temperate and fertile areas of the world were replaced by farmers long before written documents recorded their way of life. Hunter–gatherers surviving to the ethnographic present do so in the most marginal areas of the planet. Cultural complexity, in the context of hunter–gatherer adaptations, is the major concern of this volume. Although a variety of terms—developed, advanced, elaborate, sophisticated—have been employed to describe this phenomenon, they are semantically weighted with a teleological notion of progress. Each of the above contributions emphasizes certain characteristics of increasing complexity. Intensification has been discussed in terms of a variety of factors: environment, resource availability, subsistence, sedentism, linear settlement, technology, storage, population, exchange, conflict, competition, social organization, territoriality, style, labor organization, craft specialization, inequality, and status differentiation.

1 – Aspects of Hunter–Gatherer Complexity

Two articles in World Archaeology (2006) raise issues regarding the long-standing classification of the Jomon as collectors and affluent foragers. Crops and food production have not played a significant role in understanding Jomon settlement systems, population density, complexity and their regional variation despite the reports of crops from numerous Jomon sites. A misunderstanding of one of my publications provides an opportunity to assess why the Jomon is understood the way it is in some circles. I also critically assess the affluent forager/collector model and the role that analogies with the Ainu play in the model. Agricultural origins theory tends to eschew classifying people as hunter-gatherers/foragers or agricultural and I argue that such should be the case for the Jomon. By acknowledging a significant role for food/resource production among Jomon populations we may arrive at a better understanding of Jomon populations and how they interacted with the environment. The comparative potenti...

The Jomon in early agriculture discourse: issues arising from Matsui, Kanehara and Pearson

The emergence of food production in Neolithic Japan

In the Japanese Islands, small sedentary villages sustained by hunting, gathering, fish- ing and cultivation emerged around 10 000 years ago. This life style of the Jomon people continued for around 7000 years without any drastic changes in material culture, subsistence strategy and vil- lage size until the diffusion of continental civilization into Japan approximately 2500 years ago. This indicates that the incipient sedentary society of the Jomon Period was very stable, a state which is not indicative of civilized society after that time. After the prehistoric situation in Japan, we are able to classify sedentary society into two phases; sedentism with stability and sedentism with instability (civilized society). Therefore it is possible to say that the emergence of sedentism and cultivation are not direct factors which promote the emergence of civilization.

Another Neolithic in Holocene Japan

Even today, historical and/or archaeological arguments on the origins of agriculture have been deeply affected by themythical stories of archaic societies. If we wish to change this argument to a scientific one we have to establish ecological approaches on this theme. From the ecological standpoint agriculture and/or cultivation is a kind of symbiotic relationship which are observed between manykinds of creatures. In the ecological sense, the basic models on the origins of agriculture and/or cultivation should be applicable to a wider range of symbiotic relationships which are practiced by many kinds of creatures include humans.

Masaki Nishida

Papers

The emergence of food production in Neolithic Japan

Another Neolithic in Holocene Japan

Origins of Cultivation from Ecological Standpoints