This course will examine the role of agricultural subsistence at a crucial stage in human history, when post-hunter-gatherer populations in various regions began to lay the foundations of the present distributions of peoples, cultures and languages across the tropical and temperate latitudes of the earth. It is argued that without agricultural production none of the great civilizations of history could have existed. The course will examine both archaeological and linguistic data.

Two essays and in-class test.

Normally offered in alternate years
2 hours of lectures and  1 hour of tutorial per week

Bellwood, P. First Farmers, Blackwell, 2005.
Smith, B. The Emergence of Agriculture, Smithsonian, 1995.