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Chapter 11 - Movable Feasts

Food Producers and Migrations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 March 2023

John J. Shea
Affiliation:
State University of New York, Stony Brook
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Summary

ch 11: This chapter considers the relationship between food production and migration. Before Holocene times (> 12 Ka) archaeological evidence consistently shows that human population movements were dispersals and not migrations. People moved into new habitats either as individuals or in small groups, reconfiguring their economies and social identities in their destinations. From mid-Holocene times onward (after 4–8 Ka), however, the archaeological record begins to show increasing evidence for migrations. Migrating humans took their food and their culture, their “movable feasts,” with them. This chapter argues that recent human migrations result from food production using domesticated plants and animals. It describes how food production altered some of humanity’s responses to the basic six survival problems in ways that not only encourage migrations but also make them easier for archaeologists to detect, albeit within a limited chronological “window of visibility.” A case study from sub-Saharan Africa shows that archeologists can detect prehistoric migrations, but we have to ask different questions about them than traditional “who questions.”

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The Unstoppable Human Species
The Emergence of Homo Sapiens in Prehistory
, pp. 230 - 255
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Movable Feasts
  • John J. Shea, State University of New York, Stony Brook
  • Book: The Unstoppable Human Species
  • Online publication: 16 March 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108554060.012
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  • Movable Feasts
  • John J. Shea, State University of New York, Stony Brook
  • Book: The Unstoppable Human Species
  • Online publication: 16 March 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108554060.012
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Movable Feasts
  • John J. Shea, State University of New York, Stony Brook
  • Book: The Unstoppable Human Species
  • Online publication: 16 March 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108554060.012
Available formats
×