Archaeology of African Agro-systems: A Macro-Evolutionary Perspective

Augustin Ferdinand Charles Holl

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ija.20221001.12

| Peer-Reviewed

Archaeology of African Agro-systems: A Macro-Evolutionary Perspective

Augustin Ferdinand Charles Holl

Published in International Journal of Archaeology (Volume 10, Issue 1)

Received: 10 January 2022 Accepted: 24 January 2022 Published: 16 February 2022

Views: Downloads:

Download PDF

Share This Article

Twitter
Linked In
Facebook

Abstract

The neolithization processes – the shift from hunting-gathering to food production– was kicked off at the end of the Late Glacial Maximum and amplified at different pace in different places during the Holocene. The virtual simultaneity of these transformations in different parts of the world begs for explanation. The Early Holocene Global warming triggered profound environmental changes that offered new resources cohorts and subsistence opportunities to post-Pleistocene hunters-gatherers. Plants and animals’ domestication resulting from the long-term exploitation and manipulation of selected range of species took place in different parts of the world. Different hypotheses have been formulated to understand the forces driving this shift and the mechanisms sustaining these processes. The prime-movers in these reviewed models include climate change, population growth, the dynamic of exchange, feasting, or religions. This paper focuses on the genesis of African agro-systems in a macro-evolutionary perspective. Plant domestication and the ensuing agricultural system derived from the operation of co-evolutionary process involving nature, biological entities, and human agency in constant directional feed-back loops. The derived African agro-systems, their genesis, diversity, chronology, and long-term evolution are outlined and discussed. The domestication of Pearl-millet (Pennisetum glaucum) as well as its expansion in the continent are featured in a case-study showcasing the core Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES) assumptions that are: directionality, causality, targets of selection, mode of inheritance, and pace of evolution operating at micro as well as macro levels.

Published in	International Journal of Archaeology (Volume 10, Issue 1)
DOI	10.11648/j.ija.20221001.12
Page(s)	6-19
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Neolithization, Agriculture, Agro-systems, Agro-forestry, Macro-evolutionary, African Cerealiculture, Horticulture

References

[1]	Holl, A. F. C. 2004 Holocene Saharans: An Anthropological Perspective. London. Continuum.
[2]	Holl, A. F. C. 2009 L’Apparition de l’Agriculture en Afrique. In Jean-Paul Demoule, editor. La Revolution Neolithique dans le Monde. Pp. 49-64. Paris; CNRS Editions.
[3]	Holl, A. F. C. 2015a “Revolution of Symbols”, Cognition, and the Neolithic Revolution. In B. Putova and V. Soukup, editors, The Genesis of Creativity and the Origin of the Human Mind. Pp. 288-305. Prague; Charles University Karolinum Press.
[4]	Holl 2015b The Neolithization Processes in the Americas. UNESCO World Heritage Papers 42: 94-117.
[5]	Holl, A. F. C. 2018 Diffusion de l’Agriculture en Afrique. In Une Histoire des Civilisations. In J. P. Demoule, D. Garcia and A. Schnapp, editors. Pp. 213-218. Paris; Editions La Decouverte/Inrap.
[6]	Childe, G. V. 1929 The Most Ancient East: Oriental Prelude to European Prehistory. New York; A. Knopf; Childe, G. V. 1951 Man Makes Himself. New York; New American Library.
[7]	Larson, G. et al 2014 current perspectives and the future of domestication studies. Proceedings of National Academy of Science 111 (17): 6139-46.
[8]	Schreiber, M., N. Stein and M. Mascher 2018 Genomic approaches for studying crop evolution. Genome Biology 19: 140.
[9]	Childe, G. V. 1951 Man Makes Himself. New York; New American Library.
[10]	Demoule, J. P. 2018 Les Premieres societies agricoles. In J. P. Demoule, D. Garcia, and A. Schnapp, editors. Une Histoire des Civilisations. Pp. 158-181. Paris; La decouverte/Inrap.
[11]	Price, T. D. and O. Bar-Yosef 2011 The Origins of Agriculture: New Data, New Ideas. Current Anthropology 52 (supplement 4): 163-74.
[12]	Braidwood, R. J. and Howe, B. 1960 Prehistoric Investigations in Iraqi Kurdistan. Chicago; University of Chicago Press.
[13]	Cohen, M. 1977 The Food crisis in Prehistory: overpopulation and the origins of Agriculture. New-Haven; Yale University Press.
[14]	Binford, L. R. 1968 Post-Pleistocene Adaptation. In S. R. Binford and L. R. Binford eds, New Perspectives in Archaeology. Pp. 313-41. Chicago; Aldine.
[15]	Bender, B. 1975 Farming in Prehistory from Hunter-Gatherer to Food-Producer. New-York: St. Martin’s Press.
[16]	Hayden, B. 1995 A new overview of domestication. In T. D. Price and B. Gebauer, eds. Last Hunters, First farmers: New perspectives on the prehistoric transition to Agriculture. Pp. 273-99. Santa Fe; School of American Research.
[17]	Cauvin, J. 1997 Naissance des divinités, naissance de l'agriculture. Paris. CNRS éditions.
[18]	Cauvin, J. 1972 Religions néolithiques de Syrie-Palestine. Paris: Librairie d'Amérique et d'Orient, Jean Maisonneuve.
[19]	Hodder, I. 2006 Catalhöyük, the Leopard's tale. London. Thames and Hudson.
[20]	Testart, A. 2012 Avant l’Histoire: L’évolution des sociétés de Lascaux à Carnac. Paris; Gallimard.
[21]	Chorin, D. and A. F. C. Holl 2013 Les Processus de Néolithisation: Socialiser la Nature et Naturaliser la Societe. European journal of Sociology 54 (2): 157 – 185.
[22]	Holl, A. F. C. 2015a The Neolithization Processes in the Americas. UNESCO World Heritage Papers 42: 94-117.
[23]	Rindos, D. 1984 The origins of Agriculture: An evolutionary Perspective. New York; Academic Press; Eldredge, N. and S. J. Gould 1972. Punctuated equilibria: An Alternative to Phyletic gradualism. In T. J. M. Schopf, ed, Models in Paleobiology. Pp. 82-115. San Francisco: Freeman Cooper; Endersby, J. 2009 Darwin: On the Origin of Species. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press; Gould, S. J. 1991 La vie est belle: Les surprises de l’évolution. Paris; Editions du Seuil.
[24]	Zeder, M. A. 2009 The Neolithic Macro-(R) evolution: Macroevolutionary Theory and the Study of Culture Change. Journal of Archaeological Research 17: 1-63.
[25]	Piperno, D. R. 2011 The origins of plant cultivation and domestication in the New World Tropics. Current Anthropology 52 (supplement 4): 453 – 470.
[26]	Piperno, D. R. and D. M. Pearsall 1998 The origins of agriculture in the lowlands Neotropics. San Diego; Academic Press; Piperno, D. R. 2017 Assessing elements of an Extended Evolutionary Synthesis for plant domestication and agricultural origins research. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 114 (25): 6429-37.
[27]	Smith, B. D. 2001 Documenting plant domestication: the consilience of biological and archaeological approaches. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 98: 1324-26.
[28]	Leonardi, M., G. Barbujani, and A. Manica 2017 An Earlier Revolution: Genetic and genomic analysis reveal preexisting cultural differences leading to neolithization. Scientific Reports 7: 3525.
[29]	Zeder, M. A. 2006 Central questions in the domestication of plants and animals. Evolutionary Anthropology 15: 105-117; Zeder, M. A, 2015 Core questions in domestication research. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 112 (11): 3191-98.
[30]	Zeder, M. A. 2018 Why evolutionary biology needs anthropology: evaluating core assumptions of the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis. Evolutionary Anthropology 2018: 1-18.
[31]	Zeder, M. A. E. Emshwiller, B. D. Smith, and D. Bradley 2006 Documenting domestication: the interaction of genetics and agriculture. Trends in Genetics 22: 139 – 55.
[32]	Popper, K. 2002 Conjectures and Refutations: The growth of Scientific Knowledge. London /New-York; Routledge.
[33]	D’Andrade, R. 1995 The development of Cognitive Anthropology. Cambridge; Cambridge University Press.
[34]	Fauconnier, G. 1994 Mental spaces: Aspects of meaning construction in natural language. Cambridge; Cambridge University Press.
[35]	Holl, A. F. C. guest editor, 1998 The Dawn of African Pastoralisms. Special Issue, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 17.
[36]	Gremillon, K. J., L. Barton, and D. R. Piperno 2014 Particularism and the retreat from theory in the archaeology of agricultural origins. Proceedings of National Academy of Science 111 (17): 6171-77.
[37]	Gremillon, K. J. and D. R. Piperno 2009 Human behavioral ecology, Phenotypic (developmental) plasticity, and the origins of agriculture. Insights from the Emerging Evolutionary Synthesis. Current Anthropology 50 (5): 615-619.
[38]	Laland, K., J. Odling-Smee and S, Turner 2014 The role of internal constructive processes in evolution. The Journal of Physiology 592: 2413-22.
[39]	Larson, G. 2011 Genetics and domestication: Important Questions for New Answers. Current Anthropology 52, supplement 4: 485-89.
[40]	Bellwood, P. 2005 First farmers: the Origins of Agricultural Societies. Oxford; Blackwell Publishing.
[41]	Fuller, D. Q., A. Baron, L. Champion, C. Dupuy, D. Commelin, M. Raimbault, and T. Denham 2021 Transition from wild to domesticated Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) revealed in ceramic temper at 3 Middle Holocene Sites in Northern Mali. African Archaeological Review March 17 DOI: 10.1007/s10437-021-09428-8.
[42]	Li, Liu and C. Xingcan 2012 The Archaeology of China: From the Late Paleolithic to the Early Bronze Age. Cambridge; Cambridge University Press.
[43]	D’Alpoim- Guedes, J., Ming Jiang, Kunju He, Xiahong Wu and Zhanghua Jiang 2013 Site of Baodun yields earliest evidence for the spread of rice and foxtail millet agriculture in South-west China. Antiquity 87: 758-71.
[44]	Harlan, J, J. M. J. de Wet, et A. B. L. Stemler, Editors, 1976 Origins of African Plants Domestications. The Hague/Paris; Mouton Publishers.
[45]	Blench, R. M. and K. C. MacDonald, editors, 2000 The Origins and Development of African Livestock: Archaeology, genetics, Linguistics, and Ethnography. London; Routledge.
[46]	Ozainme, S., L. Lopez, A. Garnier, A. Ballouche, K. Neumann, O. Pays and E. Huysecom 2014 A Question of Timing: Spatio-temporal structure and mechanisms of early agriculture expansion in West Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science 50: 359-368.
[47]	Veen M. Van der, Editor, 1999 The Exploitation of Plant Resources in Ancient Africa. New York, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
[48]	Manning, K., R. Pelling, T. Higham, J. L. Schwenniger amd D. Q. Fuller 2011 4500 years old domesticated pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) from the Tilemsi valley, Mali: New Insights into alternative cereal domestication pathway. Journal of Archaeological Science 38 (2): 312 -322.
[49]	Winchell, F., C. J. Stevens, C. Murphy, L. Champion, and D. Q. Fuller, 2017 "Evidence for Sorghum Domestication in Fourth Millennium BC Eastern Sudan: Spikelet Morphology from Ceramic Impressions of the Butana Group," Current Anthropology 58 (5): 673-683. https://doi.org/10.1086/693898
[50]	Wendorf, F. and R. Schild 1998 Nabta Playa and Its Role in Northeastern Africa Prehistory. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 17: 97-123.
[51]	Wendorf, F., R. Schild, and Associates, Holocene Settlement of the Egyptian Sahara: Volume I: The Archaeology of Nabta Playa. New York; Springer; 2001.
[52]	Barich, B. E. 1987 editor, Archaeology and Environment in the Libyan Sahara: The Excavations in the Tadrart Acacus, 1978-1983. Oxford. British Archaeological Reports.
[53]	Barich, B. E. 1998 People, Water, and Grain: The Beginning of Domestication in the Sahara and the Nile. Roma. L’Erma di Bretschneider.
[54]	Cremaschi, M. et S. Di Lernia, eds, 1999 Wadi Teshuinat: Paleoenvironment and Prehistory in Southwestern Fezzan (Libyan Sahara). Firenze: Edizioni all’Insegna del Giglio.
[55]	Di Lernia, S. et M. Cremaschi 1996 Taming Barbary sheep: Wild animal management by early Holocene hunter-gatherers at Uan Afuda (Libyan Sahara). Nyame Akuma 46: 43-54.
[56]	Fuller, D. Q. et al 2014 Convergent evolution and parallelism in plant domestication revealed by an expanding archaeological record. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 111 (17): 6147-52.
[57]	Burgarella, C. et al 2018 A Western Sahara center of domestication inferred from pearl millet genomes. Nature Ecology and Evolution 2: 1377-80
[58]	Choi, J. Y., M. Zaidem, R. Gutaker, K. Dorf, R. K. Singh and M. D. Purugganan 2019 The Complex geography of domestication of the African rice Oryza glaberrima. PLoS Genetics 15 (3): e1007414.
[59]	Abrouk, M. et al 2020 Fonio millet unlocks African orphan crop diversity for agriculture in a Changing climate. Nature Communications 11: 4488.
[60]	Wang, X., S. Chen, X. Ma, A. E. J. Yssel, S. R. Chaluvadi, M. S. Johnson, P. Gangashetty, F. Hamidu, M. D. Sanogo, A. Zwaenepoel. J. Wallace, Y. Van de Peer, J. L. Bennetzen, and A. van Deyne 2021 Genome sequence and genetic diversity analysis of an under-domesticated orphan crop, White fonio (Digitaria exilis). GigaScience 10: 1-12.
[61]	Clotault, J, et al 2012 Evolutionary history of Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum L. R Br and selection of flowering genes since domestication. Molecular Biology and Evolution 29 (4): 1199-1212.
[62]	Robert, T., N. Khalfallah, E. Martel, F. Lamy, V. Poncet, C. Allinne, M.-S. Remigereau, S. Rekima, M. Leveugle, G. Lakis, S. Siljak-Yakovlev, and A. Sarr 2011 Pennisetum. In C. Kole, ed., Wild Crop Relatives: Genomic and Breeding Resources, Millets and Grasses. Pp: 217-255. Berlin Heidelberg; Springer-Verlag.
[63]	Kristler, L. et al 2018 Multiproxy evidence highlights a complex evolutionary legacy of maize in South America. Science 362: 1309-1313.
[64]	Lezine, A. M., A. F.-C. Holl, J. Lebamba, A. Vincens, C. Assi-Khaudjis, L. Fevrier, and E. Sultan 2013 “Temporal relationship between Holocene human occupation and vegetation change along the northwestern margin of the Central African rainforest”, Compte rendus de l’Academie des Sciences, Geo-Sciences: 1-10.

Cite This Article

Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Augustin Ferdinand Charles Holl. (2022). Archaeology of African Agro-systems: A Macro-Evolutionary Perspective. International Journal of Archaeology, 10(1), 6-19. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ija.20221001.12

Copy | Download

ACS Style

Augustin Ferdinand Charles Holl. Archaeology of African Agro-systems: A Macro-Evolutionary Perspective. Int. J. Archaeol. 2022, 10(1), 6-19. doi: 10.11648/j.ija.20221001.12

Copy | Download

AMA Style

Augustin Ferdinand Charles Holl. Archaeology of African Agro-systems: A Macro-Evolutionary Perspective. Int J Archaeol. 2022;10(1):6-19. doi: 10.11648/j.ija.20221001.12

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.ija.20221001.12,
  author = {Augustin Ferdinand Charles Holl},
  title = {Archaeology of African Agro-systems: A Macro-Evolutionary Perspective},
  journal = {International Journal of Archaeology},
  volume = {10},
  number = {1},
  pages = {6-19},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ija.20221001.12},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ija.20221001.12},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ija.20221001.12},
  abstract = {The neolithization processes – the shift from hunting-gathering to food production– was kicked off at the end of the Late Glacial Maximum and amplified at different pace in different places during the Holocene. The virtual simultaneity of these transformations in different parts of the world begs for explanation. The Early Holocene Global warming triggered profound environmental changes that offered new resources cohorts and subsistence opportunities to post-Pleistocene hunters-gatherers. Plants and animals’ domestication resulting from the long-term exploitation and manipulation of selected range of species took place in different parts of the world. Different hypotheses have been formulated to understand the forces driving this shift and the mechanisms sustaining these processes. The prime-movers in these reviewed models include climate change, population growth, the dynamic of exchange, feasting, or religions. This paper focuses on the genesis of African agro-systems in a macro-evolutionary perspective. Plant domestication and the ensuing agricultural system derived from the operation of co-evolutionary process involving nature, biological entities, and human agency in constant directional feed-back loops. The derived African agro-systems, their genesis, diversity, chronology, and long-term evolution are outlined and discussed. The domestication of Pearl-millet (Pennisetum glaucum) as well as its expansion in the continent are featured in a case-study showcasing the core Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES) assumptions that are: directionality, causality, targets of selection, mode of inheritance, and pace of evolution operating at micro as well as macro levels.},
 year = {2022}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - Archaeology of African Agro-systems: A Macro-Evolutionary Perspective
AU  - Augustin Ferdinand Charles Holl
Y1  - 2022/02/16
PY  - 2022
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ija.20221001.12
DO  - 10.11648/j.ija.20221001.12
T2  - International Journal of Archaeology
JF  - International Journal of Archaeology
JO  - International Journal of Archaeology
SP  - 6
EP  - 19
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-7595
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ija.20221001.12
AB  - The neolithization processes – the shift from hunting-gathering to food production– was kicked off at the end of the Late Glacial Maximum and amplified at different pace in different places during the Holocene. The virtual simultaneity of these transformations in different parts of the world begs for explanation. The Early Holocene Global warming triggered profound environmental changes that offered new resources cohorts and subsistence opportunities to post-Pleistocene hunters-gatherers. Plants and animals’ domestication resulting from the long-term exploitation and manipulation of selected range of species took place in different parts of the world. Different hypotheses have been formulated to understand the forces driving this shift and the mechanisms sustaining these processes. The prime-movers in these reviewed models include climate change, population growth, the dynamic of exchange, feasting, or religions. This paper focuses on the genesis of African agro-systems in a macro-evolutionary perspective. Plant domestication and the ensuing agricultural system derived from the operation of co-evolutionary process involving nature, biological entities, and human agency in constant directional feed-back loops. The derived African agro-systems, their genesis, diversity, chronology, and long-term evolution are outlined and discussed. The domestication of Pearl-millet (Pennisetum glaucum) as well as its expansion in the continent are featured in a case-study showcasing the core Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES) assumptions that are: directionality, causality, targets of selection, mode of inheritance, and pace of evolution operating at micro as well as macro levels.
VL  - 10
IS  - 1
ER  -

Copy | Download

Author Information

Augustin Ferdinand Charles Holl

Department of Anthropology and Ethnology, School of Sociology and Anthropology, Africa Research Center, Belt and Road Research Institute, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China

Download PDF

Sections

Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Augustin Ferdinand Charles Holl. (2022). Archaeology of African Agro-systems: A Macro-Evolutionary Perspective. International Journal of Archaeology, 10(1), 6-19. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ija.20221001.12

Copy | Download

ACS Style

Augustin Ferdinand Charles Holl. Archaeology of African Agro-systems: A Macro-Evolutionary Perspective. Int. J. Archaeol. 2022, 10(1), 6-19. doi: 10.11648/j.ija.20221001.12

Copy | Download

AMA Style

Augustin Ferdinand Charles Holl. Archaeology of African Agro-systems: A Macro-Evolutionary Perspective. Int J Archaeol. 2022;10(1):6-19. doi: 10.11648/j.ija.20221001.12

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.ija.20221001.12,
  author = {Augustin Ferdinand Charles Holl},
  title = {Archaeology of African Agro-systems: A Macro-Evolutionary Perspective},
  journal = {International Journal of Archaeology},
  volume = {10},
  number = {1},
  pages = {6-19},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ija.20221001.12},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ija.20221001.12},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ija.20221001.12},
  abstract = {The neolithization processes – the shift from hunting-gathering to food production– was kicked off at the end of the Late Glacial Maximum and amplified at different pace in different places during the Holocene. The virtual simultaneity of these transformations in different parts of the world begs for explanation. The Early Holocene Global warming triggered profound environmental changes that offered new resources cohorts and subsistence opportunities to post-Pleistocene hunters-gatherers. Plants and animals’ domestication resulting from the long-term exploitation and manipulation of selected range of species took place in different parts of the world. Different hypotheses have been formulated to understand the forces driving this shift and the mechanisms sustaining these processes. The prime-movers in these reviewed models include climate change, population growth, the dynamic of exchange, feasting, or religions. This paper focuses on the genesis of African agro-systems in a macro-evolutionary perspective. Plant domestication and the ensuing agricultural system derived from the operation of co-evolutionary process involving nature, biological entities, and human agency in constant directional feed-back loops. The derived African agro-systems, their genesis, diversity, chronology, and long-term evolution are outlined and discussed. The domestication of Pearl-millet (Pennisetum glaucum) as well as its expansion in the continent are featured in a case-study showcasing the core Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES) assumptions that are: directionality, causality, targets of selection, mode of inheritance, and pace of evolution operating at micro as well as macro levels.},
 year = {2022}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - Archaeology of African Agro-systems: A Macro-Evolutionary Perspective
AU  - Augustin Ferdinand Charles Holl
Y1  - 2022/02/16
PY  - 2022
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ija.20221001.12
DO  - 10.11648/j.ija.20221001.12
T2  - International Journal of Archaeology
JF  - International Journal of Archaeology
JO  - International Journal of Archaeology
SP  - 6
EP  - 19
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-7595
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ija.20221001.12
AB  - The neolithization processes – the shift from hunting-gathering to food production– was kicked off at the end of the Late Glacial Maximum and amplified at different pace in different places during the Holocene. The virtual simultaneity of these transformations in different parts of the world begs for explanation. The Early Holocene Global warming triggered profound environmental changes that offered new resources cohorts and subsistence opportunities to post-Pleistocene hunters-gatherers. Plants and animals’ domestication resulting from the long-term exploitation and manipulation of selected range of species took place in different parts of the world. Different hypotheses have been formulated to understand the forces driving this shift and the mechanisms sustaining these processes. The prime-movers in these reviewed models include climate change, population growth, the dynamic of exchange, feasting, or religions. This paper focuses on the genesis of African agro-systems in a macro-evolutionary perspective. Plant domestication and the ensuing agricultural system derived from the operation of co-evolutionary process involving nature, biological entities, and human agency in constant directional feed-back loops. The derived African agro-systems, their genesis, diversity, chronology, and long-term evolution are outlined and discussed. The domestication of Pearl-millet (Pennisetum glaucum) as well as its expansion in the continent are featured in a case-study showcasing the core Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES) assumptions that are: directionality, causality, targets of selection, mode of inheritance, and pace of evolution operating at micro as well as macro levels.
VL  - 10
IS  - 1
ER  -

Copy | Download