The Living Fields Our Agricultural Heritage [Hardcover]

A readable account of how, where and when humans learned to domesticate plants and animals.All civilisations are founded on agriculture. This balanced account of one of the most fundamental aspects of humankind's march from prehistory to the present day considers the evidence for the origin and evolution of agriculture in various part of the world based on the archaeology, botany, genetics, ecology and anthropology of domesticates and their wild relatives. In a concluding chapter the present situation is reviewed and the possible risks of a system which relies on a relatively small number of species to provide most of our food are discussed.All civilisations are founded on agriculture. This balanced account of one of the most fundamental aspects of humankind's march from prehistory to the present day considers the evidence for the origin and evolution of agriculture in various part of the world based on the archaeology, botany, genetics, ecology and anthropology of domesticates and their wild relatives. In a concluding chapter the present situation is reviewed and the possible risks of a system which relies on a relatively small number of species to provide most of our food are discussed.All civilizations, ancient and modern, are founded on agriculture. In this fascinating account of one of the most fundamental aspects of humankind's march from prehistory to the present day, the author considers the evidence for the origin and evolution of agriculture in various parts of the world and presents a balanced view based on the archaeology, botany, genetics, ecology and anthropology of domesticates and their wild relatives. The book describes the basic agricultural systems that emerged from areas yielding traces of the earliest plant and animal domestication and considers their drastic modification in recent times. The present situation is reviewed and the possible risks of a system that now relies on a relatively small number of species to supply the majority of our foodlC…