Beyond Boundaries: Nature, Culture and a Holistic Approach to Domestication in the Levant

Author: Verhoeven, Marc

Source: Journal of World Prehistory, Volume 18, Number 3, September 2004 , pp. 179-282(104)

Publisher: Springer

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Abstract:

The main objective of this paper is to suggest an alternative approach for the investigation of domestication in the Levant. First, basic data regarding domestication in the Levant are presented. Then the various traditional approaches towards domestication in the prehistoric Levant, labeled (1) environmental, (2) social and anthropological, and (3) cognitive, are briefly reviewed. This discussion forms the basis for a proposal of a “holistic approach,” in which domestication is regarded as a long-term, multidimensional and multirelational phenomenon, including many elements—such as plants, animals, humans, material culture and ancestors—with increasing human manipulation of these various constituents. After a presentation of the theoretical framework, a growth metaphor is used to reconstruct the process of domestication (ca. 20,000–6500 B.P.) as a number of phases: (1) germination in the Kebaran; (2) development in the Early Natufian; (3) retreat/dormancy in the Late/Final Natufian; (4) growth in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A; (5) florescence in the Early- and Middle Pre-Pottery Neolithic B: (6) further development in the Late Pre-Pottery Neolithic B; (7) dispersal in the Final Pre-Pottery Neolithic B and the Pottery Neolithic. In each of these phases, relations between the various elements are dealt with, special attention being paid to symbolical relations, as evidenced by “art” and ritual.

Keywords: domestication; Levant; Epipaleolithic; Neolithic; nature and culture; holism; ritual; symbolism

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10963-004-4361-9

Affiliations: 1: The University Museum, The University of Tokyo, Hongo 7-3-1, Bunkyo-ku, 113-0033, Tokyo, Japan, Email: marcverh@um.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Publication date: 2004-09-01