Why Foragers Become Farmers: Development and Dispersal of Food Producing Economies in Comparative Perspective

Zimmermann, Andreas

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Title: Why Foragers Become Farmers: Development and Dispersal of Food Producing Economies in Comparative Perspective

Abstract:

To understand the transformation from foragers to farmers it seems promising to integrate several theoretical approaches. To do so it is first necessary to distinguish different conceptions of evolution. Next, we have to think about what food producing is. Is it already burning the forest to improve hazelnut harvest or is it only dealing with domesticates like maize and wheat? In the end, we have to care for a debate between two important theoretical directions of today. Processual Archaeologists identified adaptation and political economy as important behaviors during this transformation. For Postprocessual Archaeologists what matters is agency. The proposition to reconcile these seemingly conflicting positions is to develop an integrative and comparative perspective within a Hermeneutical approach. In this respect, Johann Gustav Droysen stimulated the following paper with his textbook ‘Historik’ from 1882

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