Interpreting Long-term Trends in the Transition to Farming

Description

This study examines the socio-economic transition from foraging to farming in Bruce County, Ontario. The near complete excavation of the Nodwell village site determined that it had both the form and contents representative of a small-scale farming community, and was therefore distinct from the earlier forager habitations in the region. This transition occurred in a maximum of 350 years. Until recently, it was explained using a migration model suggesting that an intact horticultural community migrated into Bruce county in the mid-fourteenth century and replaced the indigenous foragers. This study re-evaluates the transition within a much broader historical and regional framework and demonstrates that the socio-economic transition from foraging to farming was a long-term process influenced by events occurring both internally and externally. The historical approach used here provides a valuable explanatory framework which can be applied in other regions and will help to highlight the diversity of cultural behaviour in prehistory.