The Neolithic Demographic Transition And Its Consequences

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Using cemetery data, it has been possible to identify the signature of a previously unknown demographic process associated with the transition from a hunter-gatherer to an agricultural economy. Characterized by a dramatic increase in the birth rate, and consequently of the population growth rate, over a period of less than a millennium following the transition to agriculture, this global demographic process has been termed the Neolithic Demographic Transition (NDT). The NDT signature has so far been detected in Europe, North America, Mesoamerica and South America. The methodological innovation which has made possible the identification of the NDT is the use of a relative chronology, fixed to the local onset of the Neolithic. That is, events are considered not in terms of their absolute calendar dates, but rather in terms of their relation to the local date of the transition to agriculture. This volume presents and discusses the consequences and implications of the NDT on a global scale. Topics include: - The causes of the NDT at its onset; - Indicators of economic intensification as related to the NDT; - Settlement and village practices associated with the pace of the NDT; - The emergence of social practices associated with larger population concentrations; - The effects of increased population density on human health.

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The Neolithic Demographic Transition and its Consequences Jean-Pierre Bocquet-Appel · Ofer Bar-Yosef Editors The Neolithic Demographic Transition and its Consequences 123 Editors Jean-Pierre Bocquet-Appel National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) UPR2147 44 rue de L’Amiral Mouchez 75014 Paris France [email protected] ISBN: 978-1-4020-8538-3 Ofer Bar-Yosef Harvard University Department of Anthropology Peabody Museum 11 Divinity Cambridge, MA 02138 USA [email protected] e-ISBN: 978-1-4020-8539-0 Library of Congress Control Number: 2008931585 c 2008 Springer Science+Business Media B.V. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 springer.com Contents Prehistoric Demography in a Time of Globalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jean-Pierre Bocquet-Appel and Ofer Bar-Yosef 1 Part I Demographic and Economic Dimensions of the NDT The Expansions of Farming Societies and the Role of the Neolithic Demographic Transition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Peter Bellwood and Marc Oxenham Explaining the Neolithic Demographic Transition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Jean-Pierre Bocquet-Appel The Signal of the Neolithic Demographic Transition in the Levant . . . . . . . 57 Emma Guerrero, Stephan Naji and Jean-Pierre Bocquet-Appel The Nature and Timing of the Neolithic Demographic Transition in the North American Southwest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Timothy A. Kohler and Matt Glaude The Neolithic Demographic Transition in Mesoamerica? Larger Implications of the Strategy of Relative Chronology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Richard G. Lesure An