Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T20:54:29.607Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - The Transition to Sedentism

from Part II - Sedentism and Agriculture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2023

Gregory K. Dow
Affiliation:
Simon Fraser University, British Columbia
Clyde G. Reed
Affiliation:
Simon Fraser University, British Columbia
Get access

Summary

We build on the model of Chapter 3 to explain how sedentism could have developed in response to better climate conditions involving higher means and lower variances for temperature and rainfall. Sedentism is defined to mean a willingness of human populations to stay at the same site for multiple generations despite occasional periods of low productivity in relation to other sites. We identify three causal channels leading to sedentism. First, there is a short-run channel where climate improvement leads agents to remain at sites when weather there is temporarily bad, because when conditions are harsh, they are less harsh than they were under the previous climate regime. Second, there is a long-run channel where better climate leads to higher regional population. This causes some people to remain at sites where weather is temporarily bad because sites with good weather are now more heavily occupied than before. Finally, there is a very-long-run channel where higher regional population leads to the use of previously latent resources and technological innovation. These mechanisms help to explain the rise of large sedentary communities in southwest Asia during the Epi-Paleolithic and in Japan during the early Holocene.

Type
Chapter
Information
Economic Prehistory
Six Transitions That Shaped The World
, pp. 110 - 156
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

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 Dropbox.

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.

Available formats
×