An Edible History of Humanity Read Online Free PDF

gradually became more important, for the simple reason that
     proto-farmers could ensure its availability (by planting and subsequent storage) in ways they could not for other foods. Archaeological
     evidence from the Near East suggests that proto-farmers initially cultivated whatever wild cereals were at hand, such as einkorn
     wheat. But as they became more reliant on cereals they switched to more productive crops, such as emmer wheat, which produce
     more food for a given amount of labor.
    Population growth as a result of sedentism has also been suggested as a contributory factor in the adoption of farming. Nomadic
     hunter-gatherers have to carry everything with them when they move camp, including infants. Only when a child can walk unaided
     over long distances, at the age of three of four, can its mother contemplate having another baby. Women in settled communities,
     however, do not face this problem and can therefore have more children. This would have placed greater demands on the local
     food supply and might have encouraged supplemental planting and, eventually, agriculture. One drawback with this line of argument,
     however, is that in some parts of the world the population density appears to have increased significantly only after the
     adoption of farming, not beforehand.
    There are many other theories. In some parts of the world hunter-gatherers may have turned to farming as the big-game species
     that were their preferred prey declined in number. Farming may have been prompted by social competition, as rival groups competed
     to host the most lavish feasts; this might explain why, in some parts of the world, luxury foods appear to have been domesticated
     before staples. Or perhaps the inspiration was religious, and people planted seeds as a fertility rite, or to appease the
     gods after harvesting wild grains. It has even been suggested that the accidental fermentation of cereal grains, and the resulting
     discovery of beer, provided the incentive for the adoption of farming, in order to guarantee a regular supply.
    The important thing is that at no point did anyone make a conscious decision to adopt an entirely new lifestyle. At every
     step along the way, people simply did what made the most sense at the time: Why be a nomad when you can settle down near a
     good supply of fish? If wild food sources cannot be relied upon, why not plant a few seeds to increase the supply? The proto-farmers’
     slowly increasing dependence on cultivated food took the form of a gradual shift, not a sudden change. But at some point an
     imperceptible line was crossed, and people began to become dependent on farming. The line is crossed when the wild food resources
     in the surrounding area, were they to be fully exploited, are no longer enough to sustain the population. The deliberate production
     of supplementary food through farming is then no longer optional, but has become compulsory. At this point there is no going
     back to a nomadic, hunter-gatherer lifestyle—or not, at least, without significant loss of life.

    DID FARMERS SPREAD, OR DID FARMING SPREAD?
    Farming then poses a second puzzle. Once agriculture had taken root in a few parts of the world, the question then becomes:
     Why did it spread almost everywhere else? One possibility is that farmers spread out, displacing or exterminating hunter-gatherers
     as they went. Alternatively, hunter-gatherers on the fringes of farming areas might have decided to follow suit and become
     farmers themselves, adopting the methods and the domesticated crops and animals of their farming neighbors. These two possibilities
     are known as “demic diffusion” and “cultural diffusion” respectively. So was it the actual farmers or merely the idea of farming
     that spread?
    The idea that farmers spread out from the agricultural homelands, taking domesticated crops and knowledge of farming techniques
     with them as they went, is supported by evidence from many parts of the world.