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Small Animals, Private Property, and the Agricultural Revolution

Project description

Why farming took root

Around 10 000 years ago, humanity underwent a dramatic transformation: the Neolithic Agricultural Revolution. This shift from hunting and gathering to farming laid the foundation for complex societies beyond kinship bonds. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the AGREVOLUTION project will examine whether an ecological imbalance (a greater number of small animals than large ones) discouraged cooperative hunting. In turn, this might have encouraged private property and uncooperative practices, two significant institutional shifts that could have tipped the scales towards agriculture. Overall, AGREVOLUTION seeks to shed new light on one of the most profound turning points in human history.

Objective

The Neolithic Agricultural Revolution marked the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture around 10,000 years ago. As humans began to cultivate crops, they could develop social organizations larger than kinship, with long-lasting consequences. Researchers from distinct disciplines have explored the causes of the Agricultural Revolution, focusing on ecological and institutional factors. This project proposes and tests an unexplored cause of this remarkable shift in mode of subsistence: the abundance of small relative to large animals, an ecological feature that may have encouraged uncooperative hunting and private property, an institutional development posited to have favored the shift to agriculture.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships

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Call for proposal

(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01

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Coordinator

FONDAZIONE COLLEGIO CARLO ALBERTO
Net EU contribution
€ 209 483,28
Address
CORSO VITTORIO EMANUELE II 75
10128 Torino
Italy
Region
Nord-Ovest Piemonte Torino
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
No data