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Cited by 134Archaeology and ancient environmental studiesLanguage and cultural evolutionPleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology

Cultivation of cereals by the first farmers was not more productive than foraging.

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Bowles, Samuel·2011·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
DOI 10.1073/pnas.1010733108PMC PMC3064343
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Abstract

Did foragers become farmers because cultivation of crops was simply a better way to make a living? If so, what is arguably the greatest ever revolution in human livelihoods is readily explained. To answer the question, I estimate the caloric returns per hour of labor devoted to foraging wild species and cultivating the cereals exploited by the first farmers, using data on foragers and land-abundant hand-tool farmers in the ethnographic and historical record, as well as archaeological evidence. A convincing answer must account not only for the work of foraging and cultivation but also for storage, processing, and other indirect labor, and for the costs associated with the delayed nature of agricultural production and the greater exposure to risk of those whose livelihoods depended on a few cultivars rather than a larger number of wild species. Notwithstanding the considerable uncertainty to which these estimates inevitably are subject, the evidence is inconsistent with the hypothesis that the productivity of the first farmers exceeded that of early Holocene foragers. Social and demographic aspects of farming, rather than its productivity, may have been essential to its emergence and spread. Prominent among these aspects may have been the contribution of farming to population growth and to military prowess, both promoting the spread of farming as a livelihood.

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  • A recent study indicated that Neolithic foragers were no less productive than early farmers in obtaining food.

    “This view is consistent with Sahlins’ [47] proposition that Pleistocene hunter-gatherers enjoyed an “original affluence,” spending only a moderate amount of time on subsistence work each day, as well as a recent study indicating that Neolithic foragers were no less productive than early farmers in obtaining food [48].”

    From Hunter-gatherer energetics and human obesity (2012) · cites this paper as [48]

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Authors
Bowles, S.
Affiliations
University of Siena (IT)
Corresponding author
Bowles, Samuel
ORCID
Bowles, Samuel
Venue
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences
Published
2011-03-07
Volume
108
Issue
12
Pages
4760-4765
ISSN
  • 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
  • 1091-6490
DOI
10.1073/pnas.1010733108
PMC
PMC3064343
OpenAlex
W2130305088
Cited by
134
References
70
Citations by year
2025: 2 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 30 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 29 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 7
FWCI
5.34
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • National Science Foundation
  • Russell Sage Foundation
  • Sage Foundation
  • Santa Fe Institute
  • Università degli Studi di Siena
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Archaeology and ancient environmental studies
  • Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Language and cultural evolution
  • Social Sciences › Anthropology › Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
Keywords
origins of agriculture, cereal cultivation, crop risk, population growth, spread of farming, hunter-gatherers
MeSH terms
Agriculture, Anthropology, Cultural, Edible Grain, Humans, Crops, Agricultural, History, Ancient

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