Principia Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> bernard Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Principia Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > Curiosity:
> > >
> > >
> > > How did humans worldwide - within a span
> of
> > a
> > > couple of millennia - all pick up on the
> idea
> > of
> > > crop farming even though they were
> separated
> > by
> > > continents and oceans? What was so
> common in
> > their
> > > environments that would lead Africa,
> North
> > > America, Asia and Europe to a similar
> > activity?
> > > For Africa, Asia and Europe I can accept
> an
> > idea
> > > being transferred from tribe to tribe
> and
> > from
> > > region to region over a thousand years
> (it's
> > a
> > > long time), but how did it get to North
> > America?
> >
> > Did not:
> > Bruce D. Smith. 1992. “Prehistoric Plant
> Husbandry
> > in Easter North America,” in C.W. Cowan and
> P.J.
> > Watson, eds. The Origins of Agriculture,pp.
> > 101-119. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian
> >
> >
> > Initial domestication of eastern seed plants
>
> > 4000-3000 B.P. (2050-1050 B.C.
> > Bernard
>
> I don't get what you mean with 'did not'. And the
> above time frame (4-3000BP) is still within the
> frame of non-possible culture transfers between
> the last Berring crossing and the arrival of
> Vikings. The mid-to-late Holocene is when
> agriculture became a staple all over the world. I
> aksed how it got to North America if it was not
> possible to have tribe-to-tribe | region-to-region
> transfer of knowledge, and it looks like a natural
> outcome of population increase (with subfactors).
>
>
I thought the import of your post is that within 1000 years agriculture developed in Asia, the near east, Africa and North America. Thre are really a number of independent developments of agriculture- it doesn't have to all be diffusion . New Guinea 8000 BC is surely 1) a long time to North America 2000 BC 2) not due to diffusion from anywhere else.

Bernard

>