IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-02153094.html

Theories about the commencement of agriculture in prehistoric societies: A critical evaluation

Author

Listed:
  • Serge Svizzero

    (CEMOI - Centre d'Économie et de Management de l'Océan Indien - UR - Université de La Réunion)

  • Clement Allan Tisdell

    (UQ [All campuses : Brisbane, Dutton Park Gatton, Herston, St Lucia and other locations] - The University of Queensland)

Abstract

The commencement of agriculture in the Holocene era is usually seen as heralding the beginning of a chain of events that eventually resulted in the Industrial Revolution and in modern economic development. The purpose of this paper is to outline and critically review theories about why and how agriculture first began. It also classifies these theories according to whether they are based on agriculture's development as a response to food deprivation, to a food surplus, or neither of these factors. Because agriculture began independently in several different geographical centres, it seems unlikely that the switch of early societies from hunting and gathering to agriculture was the result of the same cause in all of these locations. Moreover, the paper provides some new suggestions as to why hunters and gatherers were motivated to commence or increase their dependence on agriculture in some locations. Views about the role of natural resources and institutions in the development of agriculture are also discussed.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Serge Svizzero & Clement Allan Tisdell, 2014. "Theories about the commencement of agriculture in prehistoric societies: A critical evaluation," Post-Print hal-02153094, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02153094
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://univ-reunion.hal.science/hal-02153094v1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://univ-reunion.hal.science/hal-02153094v1/document
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Serge Svizzero, 2016. "Foraging Wild Resources: Evolving Goals of an Ubiquitous Human Behavior," Post-Print hal-02147756, HAL.
    2. Svizzero, Serge & Tisdell, Clement, "undated". "Barter and the Origin of Money and Some Insights from the Ancient Palatial Economies of Mesopotamia and Egypt," Economic Theory, Applications and Issues Working Papers 291788, University of Queensland, School of Economics.
    3. Clement Allan Tisdell & Serge Svizzero, 2015. "The Collapse of Some Ancient Societies Due to Unsustainable Mining Development," Working Papers hal-02152043, HAL.
    4. Clement Allan Tisdell & Serge Svizzero, 2017. "Optimization Theories of the Transition from Foraging to Agriculture: A Critical Assessment and Proposed Alternatives," Post-Print hal-02145490, HAL.
    5. Serge Svizzero & Clement A. Tisdell & Duncan Watson, 2016. "Economic evolution, diversity of societies and stages of economic development: A critique of theories applied to hunters and gatherers and their successors," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(1), pages 1161322-116, December.
    6. Tisdell, Clement A. & Svizzero, Serge, "undated". "Economic Theory, Phoenician Pre-coinage External Trade, Changes in the Economic Surplus and its Appropriation - An Initial Perspective," Economic Theory, Applications and Issues Working Papers 291441, University of Queensland, School of Economics.
    7. Serge Svizzero, 2017. "Persistent Controversies about the Neolithic Revolution," Post-Print hal-02145483, HAL.
    8. Svizzero, Serge & Tisdell, Clem, "undated". "Inequality and Wealth Creation in Ancient History: Malthus' Theory Reconsidered," Economic Theory, Applications and Issues Working Papers 183285, University of Queensland, School of Economics.
    9. Tisdell, Clem & Svizzero, Serge, "undated". "Rent Extraction, Population Growth and Economic Development: Development Despite Malthus' Theory and Precursors to the Industrial Revolution," Economic Theory, Applications and Issues Working Papers 204256, University of Queensland, School of Economics.
    10. Serge Svizzero, 2016. "Foraging Wild Resources and Sustainable Economic Development," Post-Print hal-02146473, HAL.
    11. Serge Svizzero & Clement Allan Tisdell, 2016. "Economic evolution, diversity of societies and stages of economic development: A critique of theories applied to hunters and gatherers and their successors," Post-Print hal-02147753, HAL.
    12. Serge Svizzero, 2015. "Trade, immiserising growth and the long-term neolithisation process of the Pitted Ware Culture," Post-Print hal-02148984, HAL.
    13. Sergio Cesaratto, 2019. "Heterodox economics and Economic Anthropology: reflections prompted by two books," Department of Economics University of Siena 807, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    14. Tisdell, Clem & Svizzero, Serge, "undated". "The Failure of Neoclassical Economics Modelling and Human Behavioural Ecology to Satisfactorily Explain the Evolution of Neolithic Society," Economic Theory, Applications and Issues Working Papers 197550, University of Queensland, School of Economics.
    15. Svizzero, Serge & Tisdell, Clem, 2015. "The Role of Palatial Economic Organization in Creating Wealth in Minoan and Mycenaean States," Economic Theory, Applications and Issues Working Papers 206552, University of Queensland, School of Economics.
    16. Sergio Cesaratto, 2024. "Surplus Approach and Institutions: Where Sraffa Meets Polanyi," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(3), pages 988-1010, July.
    17. Tisdell, Clem & Svizzero, Serge, "undated". "Different Behavioral Explanations of the Neolithic Transition from Foraging to Agriculture: A Review," Economic Theory, Applications and Issues Working Papers 229769, University of Queensland, School of Economics.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development
    • N00 - Economic History - - General - - - General
    • P00 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - General - - - General
    • P52 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Comparative Economic Systems - - - Comparative Studies of Particular Economies

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02153094. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.