Project description
Population changes in Holocene hunter-gatherer societies
Since the end of the ice age, more favourable climatic conditions in the Holocene have brought about novel subsistence strategies and demographic increases. However, the prevailing story of the evolution from foraging to farming is overly simplistic in that many behaviours associated with agriculture actually emerged prior to agriculture, while forager societies also contributed greatly to population increases. The ERC-funded FORAGER project explores demographic dynamics in Holocene hunter-gatherer societies in order to review traditional understandings of human history over the past 10 000 years. It analyses data from four temperate areas of the Northern Hemisphere to reveal unnoticed cultural diversity and work with indigenous partners on unexploited potentials of industrial agriculture.
Objective
After the end of the last Ice Age, warmer and more stable climates of the Holocene led to the development of entirely new kinds of food systems which in turn triggered population booms across mid-latitude environments globally. These momentous changes are often reduced to a simple linear narrative that tracks progression from mobile foraging to settled farming and from there to urbanisation and state formation. This ‘agri-centric’ narrative is problematic because in most cases behaviours typically attributed to farming societies, e.g. storage, sedentism, and social complexity developed well before agriculture and remained the most dominant social-ecological system for much of the Holocene. Moreover, such forager systems of various scales, and with different subsistence bases and social structures, were capable of triggering population booms of a similar magnitude to farming. FORAGER therefore seeks to change the paradigm of human history over the last 10,000 years by bringing together demographers, climate scientists, lab-based bioarchaeologists and cultural anthropologists to understand the drivers and consequences of population expansion and decline in Holocene hunter-gatherer societies. Working at unprecedented scale, thanks to the rich legacy data that already exists, these issues will be addressed systematically and synergistically across four temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. We will generate comparative insights into major patterns of cultural diversity long overlooked by progressive linear narratives of cultural change. The project will co-create new knowledge with Indigenous partners to elucidate existential possibilities long eclipsed by the recent historical penetration of industrialised farming into much of the temperate world. FORAGER will shed new light on a ‘lost chapter’ of demographic change, periods of great upheaval and resilience, highlighting the potential of alternative and perhaps more sustainable social-ecological systems.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- humanities history and archaeology history
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC-SYG - HORIZON ERC Synergy Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2025-SyG
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YO10 5DD YORK NORTH YORKSHIRE
United Kingdom
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.