Ebook Diet and Health Changes at the End of the Chinese Neolithic: The Yangshao/Longshan Transition in Shaanxi Province
Considerable climate change following a pro-longed mid-Holocene climatic optimum (8,000–5,000 BP) is documented worldwide around 5,000 BP (Shi et al., 1993, 1994; Cohen, 1998; Thompson et al., 1995; Bond et al., 1997; Lamb, 1995; Sandweiss et al., 1996; Krishnamurthy et al. 1995; Sun and Chen, 1991; Jinqi, 1991). The signature of this change is not always clear and varies with the different methods used to track paleoclimate. Whether the change was rapid or slower and preceded by oscillations is not certain. DeMenocal et al. (2000) suggested that the onset of colder and drier climate worldwide was rapid and took place circa 5,000 BP. However, there is evidence for a prolonged period of climatic oscillations in China with very cold episodes during the fifth millennium BP (Shi et al., 1993).
In this paper we focus on subsistence adaptations of millet farmers from northern China that were established during the period of climatic optimum, as well as the adjustments made to the suggested period of oscillations and instability and subsequent onset of colder and more arid climate. The Yangshao culture (7,000–5,000 BP) developed during the time of the climatic optimum. For the two millennia of its existence, the Yangshao population remained sparse and static. Little evidence of social stratification is found for this time, and the Yangshao society is assumed to be egalitarian (Chang, 1986; Liu, 1996a). The later phase of this culture must have been affected by the weather oscillations that preceded Yangshao demise circa 5,000 BP. The period of colder and drier weather was accompanied by the rise of a new dominant culture in northern China, Longshan (5,000–4,000 BP), the predecessor of early dynasties.
The steady decline of Yangshao and rapid population growth of the chiefdom-like society of Longshan were probably related to environmental changes at the end of the fifth millennium BP (Liu, 1996a; Underhill, 1994; Cohen, 1998). Environmental deterioration at that time reduced the availability of wild food sources. Millet, a crop with a high tolerance to cold and aridity, was ideal under the new weather conditions. Further agricultural intensification in response to proposed climate change increased the caloric base, which permitted rapid population growth at the Yangshao-Longshan transition. As people aggregated into larger centers, their access to wild food resources became even more limited and their diet narrowed.
Stable isotope analysis of human bone has suggested that the proportion of millet in the diet increased from 58% to 70% from the Yangshao to Longshan periods (Cai and Qui, 1984). However, our data (Pechenkina and Ambrose, unpublished findings) suggest that millet constituted approximately 75% of the Yangshao diet, based on the analysis of bone specimens from the sites we discuss here.
A poorer diet due to reduced availability of animal protein, vitamins, and minerals, the result of proposed agricultural intensification during Longshan, would have negatively impacted community health. The decline of sanitation due to increased population density in Longshan villages should have further exacerbated this problem. Health deterioration with agricultural intensification has been documented for a vide range of populations worldwide (reviewed in Cohen, 1989, 1997; Larsen, 1995, 1997). Dietary changes are evaluated in this study from dental wear, oral pathology, and indicators of masticatory stress, such as osteoarthritis of the temporomandibular joint and exostosis formations. The consequences of the Yangshao-Longshan transition for community health are evaluated by analysis of anemia indicators (porotic hyperostosis and cribra orbitalia), achieved adult stature, and the frequency of growth disruption lines in dental enamel.
Posted in :
