The bittersweet harvest of the green revolution

Keith Griffin. The Political Economy of Agrarian Change: An Essay on the Green Revolution. Cambridge‐. Harvard University Press, 1974. xv + 264 pp. Tables and index. $11.00.     

秋收季:味觉要旅行

<正>秋天是出门旅行的最佳季节。自古以来,人们便有秋高气爽之时行吟于山水之间的雅兴。特别是在此刻,盛夏的暑气渐渐消散、秋风送来缕缕凉意之时,慵懒了许久的脚步已经迫不及待地要步入天地之间。秋天还是丰收的季节,此时物产的丰富也注定了我们的旅途不会寂寞。在旅途中,     

Late-Holocene Dungeness crab (Cancer magister) harvest at an Oregon coast estuary

Coastal peoples worldwide harvested and consumed a wide variety of shellfish. Most archaeological analyses of shellfish remains tend to focus on bivalves such as clams and mussels while other shellfish such as gastropods, barnacles, and crabs have received much less attention. Here we examine the use of Dungeness crabs (Cancer magister) at a late-Holocene village on Netarts Bay, northern Oregon Coast. Ethnographic and ethnohistoric records suggest that crabs were both individually hunted as well as gathered, often en masse. We employ allometric scaling of Dungeness claws (propal fingers) recovered from several household middens to estimate crab body size and age. These data indicate that while a wide age range of crabs were collected, most harvesting efforts focused on juveniles and young adults. This suggests that most Dungeness crabs at the site were gathered (not individually hunted) in Netarts Bay, most likely in shallow subtidal areas where cockles (Clinocardium nuttalli) were also being regularly taken. As such, Dungeness crabs were part of a foraging strategy that involved the efficient mass harvest of small prey using minimal technology.     

Six seasons of wild pea harvest in Israel: bearing on Near Eastern plant domestication

Harvest experiments of wild crop relatives are essential for our understanding of the biology of wild plants embodied in the economy of ancient forager communities. Most of the previous experimental harvest reports spanned a single season and therefore are unable to address questions concerning long-term yield potential. Herein we report on six consecutive harvest seasons taking place at four sites in Israel that harbour wild pea populations: three typical Pisum fulvum sites and one typical Pisum elatius site. Three out of the four sites showed no indication of a decline in grain yield as a result of repeated harvest and the removal of a considerable portion of mature seeds. Site-specific factors seem to have a strong influence on the grain yield as no seasonal yield similarity was observed between adjacent and ecologically similar sites harbouring the same wild pea taxon. The erratic year-to-year wild pea yield we observed calls for a reassessment of the presumed role of grain legume species in Near Eastern hunter–gatherers' diet. Combined with published data on cultivation of wild pea, our results are inconsistent with models suggesting protracted domestication of Near Eastern grain legumes or with the preliminary attempts to apply Niche Construction Theory to the study of plant domestication in the Near East.     

Wild lentil and chickpea harvest in Israel: bearing on the origins of Near Eastern farming

Several small seeded plants were domesticated as grain crops in the Near East and other domestication centers. In this study we investigate the potential of small seeded wild lentils, and chickpea as a food source for hunters-gatherers. The yield potential and the return in terms of grams of seeds per hour of collection time were evaluated in several wild populations in Israel. The yield figures never exceeded 50 g/h, and in most cases were below 20 g/h. These data reaffirm Ladizinsky's claim that wild lentils are unlikely to have been a staple resource for hunter-gatherers prior to plant domestication. The result presented herein may be significant vis-a-vis the role attributed to small seeded (‘inefficient’) plants in the Broad Spectrum hypothesis concerning late Paleolithic, pre-agricultural societies. It may also contribute to a more careful interpretation of plant remains recovered from pre-agricultural sites.     

Clam growth-stage profiles as a measure of harvest intensity and resource management on the central coast of British Columbia

Examination of growth-stage profiles of shells from nine Northwest Coast shell midden sites shows a majority of senile-stage shells at longer-term residential sites and a majority of mature-stage shells at shorter-term encampments. This pattern indicates less intensive harvest in the vicinity of residential sites, which is consistent with management and conservation of resources for anticipated future needs. Consideration of environmental and taphonomic factors does not account for the observed inter-site variability. Shellfish conservation in the vicinity of residential sites is evident for the period of the past 7000 years.     

The escape from famine in the Northern Netherlands: a reconsideration using the 1690s harvest failures and a broader Northwest European perspective

A long historiography has concluded that the Northern Netherlands was famine free by the seventeenth century. However, this view has been established on limited grain price data and an unclear chronology, lacking a broader comparative perspective, and relying heavily on the explanation that Amsterdam was the centre point of the international grain trade. Using newly compiled burials data for the Northern and Southern Netherlands and Northern France, and integrating these with rye prices, we confirm empirically that price spikes had reduced mortality effects in the Northern Netherlands compared to the Southern Netherlands and Northern France, though the escape was greater in the cities than the countryside. The only time in the period 1551–1699 that a strong and generalized association between price spikes and mortality occurred across wide areas of the Northern Netherlands was in the famine of 1556/7. However, the international grain trade cannot explain everything. Markets in the Northern Netherlands were no more effective at smoothing out food crises than in the Southern Netherlands or Northern France. We offer alternative explanations: the reduced role of famine-related diseases spread by warfare, and the interaction (especially in the cities) between wages and poor relief.     

Domestic cattle mobility in early farming villages in southern Africa: harvest profiles and strontium (87Sr/86Sr) isotope analyses from Early Iron Age sites in the lower Thukela River Valley of South Africa

Several researchers have suggested that Early Iron Age (i.e., first millennium ad) farmers in the mountainous valleys along the southeastern seaboard of southern Africa moved their livestock in a transhumant or seasonal fashion between grazing areas in order to take advantage of differentiation in availability of pasture. Until now, there have been no data to systematically test this hypothesis. This study presents new zooarchaeological and preliminary strontium isotope data from the Early Iron Age sites of Ndondondwane, Mamba I and Wosi in the lower Thukela River Valley of South Africa. Harvest profiles of domestic stock suggest that herds were present year-round in the valley bottom, despite the advantages of a transhumant pastoral system. In order to resolve the discrepancy between the harvest profiles and the expected mobility patterns, a pilot isotopic study collected modern baseline strontium data in an effort to establish the local valley signature. The isotopic signatures from the zooarchaeological cattle specimens from the three sites show variation between sites, which is indicative of both limited and variable patterns of mobility throughout the valley. In addition, the strontium data suggest that some cattle may have been moved through social and/or economic exchanges from outside the valley.