Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T17:17:57.938Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Agrarian ecology in the Greek Islands: time stress, scale and risk

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2013

Paul Halstead  and
Glynis Jones
Paul Halstead
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield
Glynis Jones
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

A botanical study of crop processing was undertaken on the semi-arid, southern Aegean islands of Karpathos and Amorgos. The present article provides details of the crop processing activities, and some contextual information concerning the wider agricultural economy. Attention is drawn to three aspects of this wider economy (time stress, scale and risk) which are of particular significance for understanding both recent ‘traditional’ and ancient farming practice in the region. Amorgos is discussed in greater detail as the period of fieldwork was longer.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 109 , November 1989 , pp. 41 - 55
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1989

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.)

References

This paper owes much to the knowledge, patience and hospitality of farmers on Amorgos and Karpathos. Particular thanks are due to Δημητράκης Νομικός and family, Μανόλης Νικιτίδης and the Arkesini agricultural policeman (ο δραγάτης) on Amorgos; to ΗλίαςΦιλιππάκης and family on Karpathos; and to Richard Catling, Molly MacKenzie, Jan West and ΜανόληςΦιλιππάκης, who guided us to our two study areas. Fieldwork was funded by grants from the Dept. of Education and Science (to G.J.), the British Academy and King's College, Cambridge (to P.H.). Thanks are 2 Cf. A. Sarpaki and G.Jones, 'Ancient and modern also due to Steve Hodkinson and Anaya Sarpaki, for bibliographic leads; to Paul Buckland, for entomological advice; to an anonymous reviewer (with an unmistakeably intimate knowledge of Methanite farming), for numerous valuable suggestions and pertinent criticisms; and to Gordon Hillman, whose encouragement and infectious enthusiasm led us, for better or worse, into this undertaking.

1 Jones, G., ‘Interpretation of archaeological plant remains: ethnographic models from Greece’ in van Zeist, W. and Casparie, W. A. (eds), Plants and ancient man (Rotterdam 1984) 43–61;Google ScholarJournal of Archaeological Science xiv (1987) 311–23Google Scholar.

2 Cf. A. Sarpaki and G. Jones, ‘Ancient and modern cultivation of Lathyrus clymenum L. in the Greek islands’ (forthcoming).

3 Usher, G., A dictionary of plants used by man (London 1974)Google Scholar.

4 Sarpaki and Jones (n. 2).

5 Polunin, O., Flowers of Europe (London 1969) 197Google Scholar.

6 Authors' field notes (1987).

7 Townsend, C. C. and Guest, E. (eds), Flora of Iraq, iii: Leguminales (Baghdad 1974) 554Google Scholar.

8 E. Melas, pers. comm. (1980).

9 Sutton, S., Migrant regional associations: an Athenian example and its implications (Ph.D. dissertation, University of North Carolina 1978) 86, 62Google Scholar.

10 Thompson, K., Farm fragmentation in Greece: the problem and its setting (Athens 1963)Google Scholar.

11 Sutton (n. 9).

12 Cf. Forbes, H. A., Expedition xix (1976) 5–11Google Scholar.

13 For a comprehensive account of crop processing in Turkey, see Hillman, G., ‘Reconstructing crop husbandry practices from charred remains of crops’ in Mercer, R. J. (ed.) Farming practice in British prehistory (Edinburgh 1981) 123–62Google Scholar; ‘Interpretation of archaeological plant remains: the application of ethnographic models from Turkey’ in van Zeist and Casparie (n. 1) 1–41; Bulletin on Sumerian Agriculture i (1984) 114–52;Google ScholarBulletin on Sumerian Agriculture ii (1985) 1–31;Google Scholar also Lerche, G., Tools and Tillage i I (1968) 33–49;Google ScholarRasmussen, H., Tools and Tillage i 2 (1969) 93–104;Google ScholarSteensberg, A., Tools and Tillage i 4 (1971) 241–56Google Scholar.

14 Museum, Benaki, Παρδοσιακές καλλιέργιες (Athens 1978) 27 Plate 19Google Scholar.

15 Benaki Museum (n. 14) 31 Plate 27.

16 Theokharis, D. R., Neolithic Greece (Athens 1973)Google Scholar Plate 158.

17 Benaki Museum (n. 14) 36 Plate 36.

18 Benaki Museum (n. 14) 38 Plate 43.

19 Benaki Museum (n. 14) 44 Plate 51.

20 Sanders, G. D. R., ABSA lxxix (1984) 259Google Scholar.

21 Sanders (n. 20) 253.

22 Torrence, R., ‘Time budgeting and hunter-gatherer technology’ in Bailey, G. (ed.) Hunter-gatherer economy in prehistory (Cambridge 1983) 14Google Scholar.

23 Bell, R. H. V., Scientific American ccxxv (1971) 86–93CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

24 E.g. Delille, G., Agricoltura e demografia nel regno di Napoli nei secoli xviii e xix (Naples 1977) 127–9Google Scholar.

25 Cf. Sigaut, F., L'agriculture et le feu Cahiers des Études Rurales i (Paris 1975)Google Scholar.

26 Halstead, P., JHS cvii (1987) 77–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

27 Cf. Staple, W. J., ‘Significance of fallow as a management technique in continental and winter-rainfall climates’, in Plant-water relationships in arid and semi-arid conditions xv (Paris 1960) 205–14;Google ScholarFrench, R.J., South Australian Journal of Agriculture lxvii (1963) 42–8, 76–9Google Scholar.

28 Geological map of Greece, 1: 50,000. Amorgos-Donoussa sheet (Athens 1985)Google Scholar.

29 Forbes, H. A., Strategies and soils: technology, production and environment in the peninsula of Methana, Greece (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania 1982)Google Scholar.

30 Buckland, P. C., Journal of Stored Products Research xvii (1981) 1–12;CrossRefGoogle ScholarReynolds, P. J., Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society xl (1974) 118–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

31 Cf. Forbes, H. A., ‘Of grandfathers and grand theories: the hierarchised ordering of responses to hazard in a Greek rural community’ in Halstead, P. and O'Shea, J. (eds) Bad year economics: cultural responses to risk and uncertainty (Cambridge 1989) 87–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

32 Jameson, M., ‘Famine in the Greek world’ in Garnsey, P. D. A. and Whittaker, C. R. (eds) Trade and famine in classical antiquity (Cambridge Philological Society Supplementary Volume viii [1983]) 6–16Google Scholar.

33 Sutton (n. 9).

34 For interesting parallels, see especially Forbes (n. 12); Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences cclxviii (1976) 236–50;Google Scholar 1982 (n. 29); Hillman 1981 (n. 13); 1984 bis (n. 13); 1985 (n. 13).

35 See also Aschenbrenner, S., ‘A contemporary community’ in McDonald, W. A. and Rapp, G. R. (eds) The Minnesota Messenia expedition (Minneapolis 1972) 47–63Google Scholar.

36 E.g. Wagstaff, M. and Augustson, S., ‘Traditional land use’ in Renfrew, C. and Wagstaff, M. (eds) An island polity: the archaeology of exploitation in Melos (Cambridge 1982) 106–33Google Scholar.

37 E.g. White, K. D., Antiquity xxxix (1965) 102–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

38 E.g. Keller, D. R. and Rupp, D. W. (eds) Archaeological survey in the Mediterranean area (British Archaeological Reports Int. Series civ [Oxford 1983])Google Scholar; Garnsey, P. D. A., Proceedings of Cambridge Philological Society ccv (1979) 1–25;CrossRefGoogle ScholarVergopoulos, K., Το αγροτικό ʒήτημα στην Ελλάδα. Κοινωνική ενσωμάτωση της γεωργίας2 (Athens 1975)Google Scholar.

39 G. Jones, ‘Phytosociology and the archaeological recognition of crop husbandry’ in Festschrift for W. van Zeist (Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, special volume).

40 Halstead (n. 26).

41 E.g. Forbes 1976 (n. 34).

42 Cf. Jasny, N., The wheats of classical antiquity (Baltimore 1944)Google Scholar; Faure, P., ‘Les legumineuses de la Crete minoenne’ in Πεπραγμένα του Ε′ διεθνούς Κρητολογικού συνεδρίου τόμος Α (Heraklion 1985)Google Scholar.

43 Forbes (n. 29).

44 Allan, W., The african husbandman (Edinburgh 1965)Google Scholar.

45 Gamble, C., ‘Surplus and self-sufficiency in the Cycladic subsistence economy’ in Davis, J. L. and Cherry, J. F. (eds) Papers in Cycladic prehistory University of California, Institute of Archaeology Monograph xiv (Los Angeles 1979) 122–34;Google Scholar‘Leadership and “surplus” production’, in Renfrew, C. and Shennan, S. (eds) Ranking, resource and exchange (Cambridge 1982) 100–5;Google Scholar C. Renfrew, ‘Polity and power’ in Renfrew and Wagstaff (n. 36) 264–90.

46 Cf. P. Halstead, ‘The economy has a normal surplus: economic stability and social change among early farming communities of Thessaly, Greece’, in Halstead and O'Shea (n. 31) 68–80.

47 Cf. also Grmek, M. D., Les maladies a l'aube de civilisation occidentale (Paris 1983) 324–5Google Scholar.

48 Halstead, P., ‘From determinism to uncertainty: social storage and the rise of the Minoan palace’ in Sheridan, A. and Bailey, G. (eds) Economic archaeology (British Archaeological Reports International Series xcvi [Oxford 1981]) 187–213;Google ScholarABSA lxxxii (1987) 71–83;Google ScholarCherry, J. F., ‘Pastoralism and the role of animals in the pre-and proto-historic economies of the Aegean’ in Whittaker, C. R. (ed.) Pastoral economies in classical antiquity (Cambridge Philological Society Supplementary Volume xiv [1988]) 6–34;Google Scholar S. Hodkinson, ‘Animal husbandry in the Greek polis’, in Whittaker (op. cit.) 35–74.

49 Wagstaff and Augustson (n. 36).

50 Renfrew (n. 45).

51 E.g. Garnsey, P. D. A., Gallant, T. W. and Rathbone, D., JRS lxxiv (1984) 30–44Google Scholar.

52 E.g. Vergopoulos (n. 38).

53 Cf. Austin, M. M. and Vidal-Naquet, P., Economic and social history of ancient Greece (London 1977) 58–72Google Scholar.

54 E.g. Richards, A. I., Land, labour and diet in Northern Rhodesia (Oxford 1939)Google Scholar.

55 P. Garnsey and I. Morris, ‘Risk and the polis: the evolution of institutionalised responses to food supply problems in the ancient Greek state’ in Halstead and O'Shea (n. 31) 98–105; Halstead (n. 46).